Mary McCartney is the daughter of Sir Paul McCartney and the late food entrepreneur Linda McCartney. In her own right, she has achieved great success in business.
In addition to publishing a cookbook and hosting a cooking show, the 53-year-old portrait and fashion photographer.
Mary has now ventured into the world of documentaries, and her debut effort, If These Walls Could Sing, has already impressed critics and the music business.
It honors the 90th birthday of the renowned London recording studio Abbey Road, where Mary spent a large portion of her childhood watching her parents cut music with Wings. After The Beatles disbanded in 1970, Paul formed his own band.
As we sit down to discuss the movie with Mary, she says, “I was wondering if it was a little too close to home.”. But I really enjoy documentaries. I adore them, and I’m convinced that the director has a soft spot for the ones that succeed. That is certainly the case here. ”.
Her favorite memory of that time is of her parents unwinding while they took a break from recording. Mary spent years playing in the studio’s hallways with her siblings James, 45, Heather, 59, and Stella.
“Seeing Mum and Dad having a lunch break and they’d invite us kids along to say hello,” she explains, adding, “it’s always a little emotional stepping in there and thinking about old times.”. “.
In the feature-length documentary, a black-and-white photo of Paul and Linda crossing the famous zebra crossing outside the building with their pony Jet is shown to viewers. In the trailer, Mary admits that the photograph inspired her to create the documentary.
She claims it made her think of her mother, Linda, who was an animal rights activist and co-founder with Paul of a vegetarian food company before passing away from breast cancer at the age of 56 in 1998.
“I wished to have a picture in the documentary of my mother leading the pony across the zebra. Sadly, she is no longer here, but those things serve as a reminder of her individuality and her deep love for animals. She broke rules just the right way. “.
Many of the people who are still employed there worked with my parents, and they came up to me and told me, ‘We remember your mother and how welcoming and wonderful she was.'” Mary continues. ‘.
That occasionally caused me to cry a little bit. Although it made me sad, I enjoyed hearing people say, “Oh God, we liked her; she’d come into the canteen and have a cup of tea with us and talk.”. ”.
Interviews in Mary’s documentary feature her father Paul, 80, Ringo Starr, Sir Elton John, Nile Rodgers of Chic, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Noel and Liam Gallagher, and other key figures in Abbey Road’s long history.
Giving the movie to my father caused me a lot of anxiety, Mary admits. “Oh my gosh, I hope he enjoys it,’ I thought as I drove him to the theater to watch it. ‘”.
“I met your dad at an event the following day, and he spent a long time talking about the documentary,’ someone said to me. He has a great deal of passion for it, so when he found out I was making a documentary about it, he was ecstatic and said it reminded him of Abbey Road and many of the stories. “.
Mary reveals that her father spent a lot of time at the studio and that The Beatles broke the recording mold by starting their sessions later in the day and frequently lasting all night. Mary has four sons: two with her ex-husband Alistair Donald and two with her current husband Simon Aboud.
“That took a while [in the studio]. There are rooms that are closed off and have no windows where people come to record; this can happen at any time of day. Because they could make the decisions and arrive later and record later as they rose to fame, The Beatles contributed to altering how history was recorded. I had no idea this.
Some engineers complained that working on a Beatles album wasn’t for them because the sessions were so unpredictable and experimental that you could stay there until the wee hours of the morning without knowing whether anything would come of it. They had unlimited access to the studio, so neither they nor anyone else knew when their sessions would end or when they would leave. “.
When asked if she remembers her parents showing up late at her house while Wings was recording, Mary replies, “To some extent, yes. They were always there when we woke up, even when I arrived late. Our family life was largely unaffected by that. You are somewhat accustomed to it because you grew up with it, so it is what it is. ”.
One of Mary’s favorite segments of the film is a contemporary cut of her father Paul, 80, making an unsuccessful attempt to cross the zebra.
“The part where the car almost ran him over on the zebra crossing was hilarious. As we were leaving [the studio], I said, ‘I’ll video you [at the crossing],’ and he went across, and this automobile completely ignored him!”.
Mary, who from Paul’s second marriage to Heather Mills has a younger half-sister named Beatrice, 19, can’t wait to start working on new projects now that she’s had what is undoubtedly going to be a successful acting career.
She says, “I wish I could direct more.”. “I don’t know what it will be, but it has to be something that excites me, like Abbey Road. ”.
