Trivia / Backbeat

• Dawson Casting: Ian Hart was 30 when he played John Lennon, who was 19-21 at the time the film is set. Gary Bakewell was 26, playing 18-20 year-old Paul McCartney.
  • However, avoided by casting 21-year-old Stephen Dorff as 20-22 Stu Sutcliffe.
• Fake Brit: Stephen Dorff, who plays Stu, is American.
• Fake Nationality: American Sheryl Lee playing German Astrid Kirchherr.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Stephen Dorff was the only actor of the group who could actually play his instrument, as he's a professional musician. Stuart Sutcliffe couldn't play his instrument, which is one of the chief reasons the real Paul McCartney later cited for wanting him out of the band.
• The Pete Best: The trope namer is present, and true to form he is forgotten about throughout the entire movie, mostly just being a background character and having almost no lines of dialogue. And then he's replaced by Ringo in the end without any mention of this occurring. Lampshaded in that Pete's only lines in the film consist of a moan that nobody ever listens to the drummer.
• Role Reprise: Ian Hart plays John Lennon and Gary Bakewell plays Paul McCartney. They each played the same roles in two other films: Hart had played Lennon three years earlier in The Hours and Times and Bakewell played McCartney in the 2000 TV movie The Linda McCartney Story, making the Beatles the only band of which two members have been played by the same two actors in a total of three different films.

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