ACTOR Barry Keoghan has revealed he has spent the past three months in a “Beatles bootcamp” ahead of playing Ringo Starr in a film series on the Fab Four.
The 32-year-old said he has been practising how the drummer walks, talks and plays to take on the role.
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He expects to be working on the four films for 15 months — with co-stars Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn and Harris Dickinson.
Barry said: “We’ve been in full camp for like 16 or 17 weeks now.
“It’s just an absolute joy. The camp is like bootcamp and it’s a place where you have time and you try things.
“For Ringo, you get to approach the walk, the accent, play around with the face.
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“It’s a place of failing, a place of learning and trying. That’s the process I’m in now. It’s a playground for me.”
Barry, speaking at the Fastnet Film Festival near Cork, Ireland, added: “The drumming is going great.
“I’ve been doing it for like six, seven months. I’ve got blisters on my hands now.”
He also met 84-year-old Ringo, saying: “He gave me so much ammunition to go forward.
“I sat opposite him and I could not look at him because I was nervous and his wife Barbara was there and she said, ‘You can look at him.’
“Every time I looked at him I saw myself in his glasses. I said to him: ‘I am not coming here to quiz you. I am coming to find out what made you and how the contrast was going back to Liverpool after Beatlemania.’
“We can all do imitation but I wanted to know where it came from. He was so on the money.
“My approach to The Beatles movie is entirely different to anything I have ever done.
“Being sober has now allowed me artistically to go down a constructive way and kind of bring back emotions and control. Rather than be erratic. There is a whole new approach to it.”
Director Sam Mendes helped pick Saltburn star Barry for the role, along with Normal People’s Mescal as Paul McCartney, Stranger Things star Joseph as George Harrison, and up-and-coming actor Harris as John Lennon.
The biopics are expected to be released in 2028.
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