Weird Al Yankovic recently discussed Daniel Radcliffe’s performance in the latest biopic about Yankovic’s life and parody career in a non-realistic spoofy way.
Yankovic said, “It’s a bit surrealistic. I always hoped this movie would get made, but it’s always a miracle when things do get greenlit. It was about my third week on the set when I was thinking, ‘Okay, I think this movie might actually happen.’ I’ve been around the business long enough that I trained myself not to get excited about things because things always fall apart and go away.”
He continued, “Even during the movie, I was thinking. ‘Somebody is going to get COVID, and this is all going to get shut down.’ We had 18 days to shoot this thing, and incredibly, we pulled it off. It turned out great, and I couldn’t be more excited.”
He added about Radcliffe, “I will say I didn’t think I’d be casting him in a movie, but I did see Daniel on TV in 2010 on The Graham Norton Show, where he performed “The Elements” by Tom Lehrer, which is an extremely nerdy thing to do. The fact that he memorized that and then performed it on national TV in front of Rihanna? That’s alpha-nerd stuff. I thought at that moment, ‘Oh, we’re kindred spirits.'”
Yankovic continued, “This guy…we’ll be friends. I had that in the back of my mind for years. When we started casting the movie, and Daniel’s name appeared on the shortlist of actors we were considering, I thought, ‘Daniel’s got to be the guy.’ He’s got the right spirit. He got the right energy. He definitely has the acting chops. I can’t imagine anybody that would be more suited to this role than him.”
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story will be released on The Roku Channel on November 4, 2022.