Anna Sawai says Sam Mendes’ Beatles films will include Yoko Ono’s ‘side of the story’
Anna Sawai attends the world premiere of Apple TV’s “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” Season 2 at TCL Chinese Theatre on February 19, 2026 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Brianna Bryson/WireImage)
Shōgun star Anna Sawai is set to play Yoko Ono in Sam Mendes’ Beatles films, The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event. She tells Variety she hopes fans will come away with a better understanding of Ono, who married John Lennon in 1969 and has often been accused of breaking up The Beatles.
“It was my dream to tell her story and I didn’t think it would come this quick,” Sawai told the magazine. “There’s a version of her I feel people still don’t understand. And in this film, I think we’re going to be able to tell that side of the story.”
The actress notes that she’s been doing a lot of research for the role, including “so much reading.”
“So many books, so many videos, so many articles,” she explained. “She has so much artwork that also shows her personality.”
Sawai also offered up some insider info on how her co-stars Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Joseph Quinn and Barry Keoghan are handling performing as The Beatles for the film.
“They’re not even looking at the sheet music anymore,” she says. “They can just play it off and sing it, and it really sounds like the Beatles to me. It feels surreal.”
The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event will consist of four films, each told from the perspective of one of the band members. It is set expected to open in theaters in April 2028.
Justin Baldoni speaks onstage at the Vital Voices 12th Annual Voices of Solidarity Awards, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. Blake Lively attends ‘Another Simple Favor’ New York Screening, April 27, 2025, in New York. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images | Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Animosity on the set of the film It Ends With Us was evident well before highly publicized lawsuits between stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni were filed, newly unsealed text messages show.
The messages, which are among the hundreds of documents the judge overseeing the civil claims ordered unsealed ahead of a hearing this week, show Lively and Baldoni venting to friends and colleagues during filming.
In a May 2023 text exchange between Lively and a journalist, Lively expresses her frustration with filming and says she “came home and cried” on one occasion. The actress also writes, “They’re just being creeps,” when referring to her co-star.
Texts between Baldoni and another actor show he was equally frustrated while making the movie. Baldoni, who also served as the film’s director, said in one message that Lively was threatening not to promote the movie if she was not allowed to take part in the edit.
In one message, he wrote, “She had the nuclear bomb. If she doesn’t promote the movie she can leak that I’m a bad person or that she felt unsafe with me and ‘all the stuff’ she has on me. Then she’s the victim.”
In a later text message, he wrote, “The risk to my family isn’t worth the creative integrity.”
Other unsealed documents include a text exchange between Lively and fellow actress Jenny Slate, who also appeared in the film.
Referring to Baldoni, Lively wrote, “I also saw something in him, was aware of a general vibe that I’m not into, and I pushed past it. Never again! Lesson learned.”
ABC News has reached out to Slate’s representative for comment.
Lively first filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends with Us and accusing both Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios of engaging in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation.
The two filed dueling lawsuits against each other in New York in the weeks that followed, with Lively reiterating the claims made in her earlier complaint and further accusing Baldoni of retaliation, suing him for nearly $500 million in damages. Baldoni’s lawyer denied the allegations, stating at the time that they had “evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie” by Lively.
Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, the couple’s publicist Leslie Sloane, and Sloane’s public relations company Vision PR alleging extortion and defamation, claiming Lively had “robbed” him of control over the film and had destroyed his reputation.
Lively’s lawyers denied the allegations and called Baldoni’s suit “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
“This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim,” they said in a statement at the time.
A federal judge in New York dismissed Baldoni’s suit in June of last year, formally ending the counterclaim in October after Baldoni did not refile an amended complaint. Attorney Byran Freedman said at the time, “Our clients chose not to amend their complaint to preserve appeal rights. In the meantime, we are focusing on Ms. Lively’s claims. We remain fully committed to pursuing the truth through every legal and factual avenue available and look forward to our day in court.”
Lively’s suit against Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios is ongoing.
This week’s documents were unsealed ahead of a hearing scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 22. The trial is set to begin May 18.
A member of Lively’s legal team responded to the newly unsealed documents in a statement to ABC News, writing, “In his TedTalk to promote his brand as an advocate for women, Justin Baldoni said we must ‘listen to the women’…even if what they are saying is against you.’ See how he actually reacts in the bombshell new evidence released for the first time, which includes sworn testimony and contemporaneous messages from numerous women who actually worked with him.”
The statement continued, “The newly unsealed evidence contains never-before seen testimony, messages, and evidence from numerous eyewitnesses backing the claims in Ms. Lively’s lawsuit. The evidence includes Ms. Lively’s own testimony describing the harassment she faced, as well as new evidence from numerous women describing their own disturbing experiences.”
ABC News has reached out to Baldoni’s representatives for comment.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw accepts the best cinematography award for ‘Sinners’ onstage during the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Autumn Durald Arkapaw made Oscars history as the first woman to win the award for best cinematography at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday.
Arkapaw was awarded the prize for best cinematography for her work on Sinners. Arkapaw is only the fourth woman to be nominated in the category, and she is also the first woman of color to be nominated. Now she is the first woman to win the award in the academy’s 98-year history.
The other nominees in the category were Adolpho Veloso for Train Dreams, Michael Bauman for One Battle After Another, Dan Laustsen for Frankenstein and Darius Khondji for Marty Supreme.
After taking the stage to accept her prize, Arkapaw asked all of the women in the room to stand up.
“I feel like I don’t get here without you guys,” Arkapaw said. “I really, really, truly mean that.”
The three other women who have been nominated in the category are Rachel Morrison for the 2018 film Mudbound, Ari Wegner for the 2021 movie The Power of the Dog and Mandy Walker for 2022’s Elvis.
Arkapaw also thanked Sinners director Ryan Coogler.
“Thank you for believing in me and thank you for trusting me, and that’s the kind of guy I get to make films with,” Arkapaw said.
Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas after performing an Argentine tango to ‘Cell Block Tango’ from ‘Chicago’ on season 34 of ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ (Disney/Eric McCandless)
Team Whark It is back together, but this time on the Broadway stage.
Dancing with the Stars professional dancer Mark Ballas is making his return to Broadway by joining his partner from season 34, Whitney Leavitt, in the Tony-winning revival of Chicago.
Ballas will take on the role of Billy Flynn in a four-week limited engagement that runs from April 6 to May 3. Leavitt will extend her time in the production once again and continue to play Roxie Hart throughout Ballas’ run in the show. The pair danced an Argentine tango to “Cell Block Tango,” one of the most popular songs in Chicago, during season 34 of Dancing with the Stars.
“This is a full-circle moment for me. One of the first shows I auditioned for after graduating musical theatre college was for the ensemble of Chicago in the West End in London,” Ballas wrote on Instagram. “I was 19 years old, new to the industry, learning how to pay my dues, accept rejection, and be told no. Twenty years later, I’m making my return to Broadway as Billy Flynn.”
Ballas previously made his Broadway debut in a production of Jersey Boys in 2016, staying with the show until it closed in January 2017. He then went on to star in Kinky Boots on Broadway in 2018.
“Hard work, persistence, dedication to the craft, and relentlessness really do pay off. Thank you to my musical theatre teachers for instilling this in me, and for the years of tough love,” Ballas wrote.
Leavitt also took to Instagram to share her excitement over Ballas’ casting.
“This secret was way too hard to keep! The incredible @markballas & I will be performing TOGETHER in @chicagomusical,” Leavitt wrote. “Can’t wait to perform on stage together again.”
