‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’: Daniel Radcliffe & Director Eric Appel On Making a Parody of Music Biopics, Working with Al & More [The Discourse Podcast]

In today’s episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo puts on his accordion and talks about The Roku Channel’s latest release, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” with the director Eric Appel (“Son of Zorn,” “Funny or Die Presents…”) and star Daniel Radcliffe (the “Harry Potter” films, “Swiss Army Man,” “Miracle Workers”). The parody film follows Weird Al’s life from weird, polka-obsessed child to world-renowned rockstar to depraved, alcoholic, Madonna-loving Sex God.

READ MORE: ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’ Review: Novelty Acts & Cult Heroes Take The Spotlight In Daffy Anti-Biopic [TIFF]

During the chat, director Eric Appel discussed why the journey from parody trailer to parody film took nearly a decade.

“It was never designed to be a real movie,” Appel said of the original Funny or Die trailer. “There was a moment where Aaron Paul and Olivia Wilde, right after it came out, we e-mailed back and forth, and they were like, ‘We’ve got to do this! This has to be real!’ Like, they were so happy with the way the trailer came out. And Al was like, ‘Yeah, it works really well as a sketch. I feel like we just kind of leave it at that.’ He’s now been showing it at his concerts for the last ten years, and he does meet and greets after all of his shows and people come up to him after every show, and they either say, ‘Can you please make that a real move?’ or they say, ‘How can I watch that movie? I’ve looked for it, and I can’t find it anywhere,’ as if it was some real thing that got shelved or something. It was really in 2019 when this slew of new biopics was getting announced and coming out like, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘Rocketman’ and the Aretha Franklin one, and ‘Elvis’ and I got an e-mail out of the blue from Al in February of 2019. He was like, ‘I think it’s time. What do you think about trying to make this movie?”

READ MORE: ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’ Trailer: Daniel Radcliffe & Evan Rachel Wood Star In New Parody Biopic

And thus, a wildly wonderful and weird biopic was born unto the world, with Daniel Radcliffe signing on soon after. And, boy, did he commit not only getting accordion lessons on his own but from Weird Al himself. When reminded that he really didn’t have to go this far, Radcliffe vehemently rejected that notion.

“Here’s the thing, imagine me sitting on the press tour now, and somebody saying, ‘Did you play the accordion?’ And me going, ‘Oh God, no!” Radcliffe said, laughing. “F— that guy. Sorry, excuse my language, but I hate that actor. That’s just lazy. If you’re going to play Weird Al, get into it. Try a bit! You’ll fail because it’s the accordion, but try!”

Radcliffe continued to detail what he did in preparation for the wildly weird role.

“Al sent me some videos, which I still have on my computer,” Radcliffe said. “I had a couple of in-person ones, but there’s a couple of the ones on my computer where I still don’t know if he’s joking or not. Where he like plays it through at an impossibly fast speed – that it would be impossible for a learner to gather what’s going on – and then goes, ‘And it would probably be a bit faster than that,’ and I was like, ‘Wait! No! It can’t be!” 

Radcliffe has been on a roll lately with wonderfully weird and hilarious performances in films like, “Swiss Army Man,” “Guns Akimbo,” and “The Lost City,” so it should come as no surprise that a role like Al Yankovic called to him.

“There’s no through-line with any of the stuff that I do, but they all just sort of make sense together in a way that’s hard to explain.” Radcliffe shared. “If there is a common theme in some, but not all, of the things that I do, it’s about something very strange going on, but ultimately the story is about being kind to people or finding your own happiness through weirdness. There’s often a sweet message at the core. So, like f—ed up and sweet is really my ideal combination.”

“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” will be released for free on The Roku Channel on Friday, November 4. You can listen to the entire conversation with Eric Appel and Daniel Radcliffe:

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