Scot Williams interview: playing Pete Best in Backbeat, and directing Two Of Us, a play

Scot Williams is best known to Beatles fans for playing Pete Best in Backbeat, and In His Life: The John Lennon Story. Scot's been a successful actor, director and writer for 30 years, and having grown up in Liverpool the Beatles have always been a big part of his life, and have featured in lots of his projects.

Scot is about to direct a play, Two Of Us, adapting Michael Lindsay-Hogg's 2000 film about John Lennon and Paul McCartney's final meeting. We covered it in our first episode, which we were delighted to hear Scot listened to, and which informed his interpretation of the script.

As well as Two Of Us, we talk about how he came to be in Backbeat, Stephen Dorff and the dynamic of British actors alongside Hollywood stars, and his friendship with Pete Best. We also get his take on the upcoming Sam Mendes Beatles films.

Note: through our own fault we had some problems recording Scot's voice, so we've cleaned it up with an AI tool (yes, just like John's voice on Now and Then). If the odd word sounds a bit funny, that's why!

• Two Of Us runs at the Watford Palace Theatre 13–21 September 2024. Tickets: https://watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk/events/two-of-us/
• Then at HOME Manchester from 26–28 September. https://homemcr.org/production/two-of-us
• Hear our episodes on Two Of Us and Backbeat in this podcast feed.
• Watch Two Of Us: https://youtu.be/nOGgmsDbx-U
• Scot's IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0931656/
• Barry Sloane will play John in Two Of Us: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1289351/
• Richard Short will play Paul: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2095375/
• Scot's Beatles/Shakespeare musical A Bard Day's Night, cowritten with Backbeat co-star Chris O'Neill: https://abarddaysnight.com/
• The Conversations with McCartney audiobook where Scot read Paul's bits: https://open.spotify.com/show/61RgyFASIKjzbP6OrgZOlI

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.

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