Anna Sawai is on the cusp of playing a role she's dreamed about for years: Yoko Ono, legendary artist and widow of John Lennon.
In a new cover story for Marie Claire, the Shōgun actress explains what it's like preparing for this role—including the insider she's recruited to help her feel ready: Ono and Lennon's son Sean.
Speaking to writer Anna Peele, Sawai shares that she has connected with Sean since being cast, explaining that, per Peele, she regularly texts the 50-year-old musician "fact-checking questions about Ono’s real feelings about things."
The role is for Sam Mendes' upcoming quartet of biopics about each member of The Beatles. Sawai will portray Ono opposite Harris Dickinson's John Lennon (Paul Mescal is Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn is George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan is Ringo Starr). Interestingly, all four movies will be released at the same time, in April 2028, as reported by Variety.
The actress' desire to portray Ono began when she was in high school and had to undergo a mock interview. She was asked about a real person she'd love to play. Sawai told her mother, "I don’t know who to mention. Every story that I know in Hollywood is so white." It was her mom's idea that her daughter answer Yoko Ono, which prompted those around Sawai to ask why she wanted to play a woman people "hate."
Before she was even cast in the role, the up-and-coming star had been looking into optioning a book about the icon. Then Mendes reached out and asked her to read the script for the films before she accepted the role, specifically because "he knew how particular I was about her story." Per Peele, it's like Sawai "manifested" the role of Ono.
