14 "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" Behind-The-Scenes Facts, Straight From Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, And Weird Al Himself
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is about to hit streaming very soon, and people are already buzzing about the movie's chaotic delightfulness.
It stars Daniel Radcliffe and follows the definitely 100% not-exaggerated origin story of Weird Al Yankovic. Evan Rachel Wood stars as Madonna and Rainn Wilson play's Al's manager, Dr. Demento. Weird Al even appears in the movie too!
This year at New York Comic-Con, we got a little taste of what's in store from the cast and creators themselves.
So, without further ado, here's what Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Weird Al Yankovic, and Eric Appel shared about the movie:
1.The concept of Weird came about after a 2013 Funny or Die sketch.
Director and cowriter Eric Appel said, "Al and I agreed: It's a three-minute internet video, and that's how it should remain. For about a decade, Al was playing it at his concerts during a costume change in the middle of his show. After the show, at meet and greets, people would always say, 'Is this really real? I've been looking for this movie, but I can't find it anywhere!'"
2.But it was the success of biopics like Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody that convinced Weird Al to go ahead with the actual movie.
"Finally, in February 2019, I got a random email from Al one morning that was like, ‘I think it’s time!’” Eric said.
3.In perfect Weird Al fashion, the movie parodies and exaggerates some of his real-life experiences — some of the movie's events are just totally made up "from scratch."
"[Biopics] are not documentaries, they're meant to be for entertainment purposes. But as a fan, I'm always upset when I watch a biopic of Queen or Elton John and I see that [things] didn't happen that way. Or the chronology is all twisted around. I thought, well, if I ever do a biopic I'm just going to have to throw facts out the window! I'm just gonna have to make it up from scratch," Weird Al said.
4.And Al even shared that the movie's subplot with Madonna stemmed from "a small nugget of truth" where she once told him to parody "Like a Virgin."
However, they did not actually experience a whirlwind romance after.
Al explained, "Her part in the movie is based on a very small nugget of truth. She actually is the person that suggested that I do 'Like a Surgeon.' She was talking to a friend of hers in New York one day and just offhandedly said, 'I wonder if Weird Al's gonna do "Like a Surgeon"?' Her friend knew my managers and word got back to me. And I thought, 'Hey! Not a bad idea, maybe I will.' So, we took that little bit of truth and expanded it into this whole kind of psychotic arc where Madonna very calculatedly gets me to do this parody. It takes up the whole rest of the movie."
5.Daniel Radcliffe initially thought that he wasn't the best physical fit to star in the movie, but Weird Al literally couldn't think of anyone better to cast as himself.
"I got this offer to play Weird Al in the Weird Al biopic, and I was like, 'That's really cool, but there's people who are probably physically closer to him,'" Dan said. "And as soon as I read the script, I was like, 'Oh, that doesn't matter. That's not what we're doing. Accuracy and realism is not really the full name of the game here.'"
Ultimately, Weird Al and director Eric Appel felt that Daniel was the best actor to pull off the dramatic and comedic moments. "Eric and I made a shortlist of actors that we thought would be able to pull off the role. And we studied the list and we always kept focusing on Dan's name because we were both fans of all of Dan's work, but we knew that he could pull off the dramatic moments and also the comedic moments," Weird Al said. "Both are very important for this movie because it's a very specific tone you're going for. It's a comedy, obviously, but it needs to be really grounded and needs to be played like some big Oscar-worthy biopic. We literally couldn't think of anybody in the world that could play the part better than him."
6.The movie was filmed in just 18 days.
"That's a testament to [Daniel], the cast, and the crew. Everybody always stuck the landing. It was like lightning in a bottle," Evan Rachel Wood said.
7.Daniel actually learned to play the accordion for the movie and learned from a self-taught friend. His friend even gave him detailed animations on how to play it.
"Because it was such a tight shoot, my [prep for this movie was] making sure that I had everything ready and prepared," Daniel said. "It was really just a matter of not wanting to be the thing that slowed anything down."
8.And while he IS actually playing the accordion, Daniel doesn't actually sing in the movie — he lip-synchs to recordings of Weird Al's voice.
Daniel said, "We wanted that trope of the original person's voice clearly coming out of the wrong head. I think it's very obvious that it is Al singing, but I have still had a few people be like, 'Your singing in this film was incredible!'"
9.Weird Al even went into the studio and re-recorded new versions of his songs for the film.
Eric said, "Well, so [Dan's] singing along to newly recorded versions of these tracks, which was exciting for me to go into the studio with Al and his band and see them do these new versions of the songs. The arrangements for the movie were pretty incredible."
10.Daniel did, in fact, grow a mustache to play Weird Al.
Daniel added, "If you can avoid fake facial hair, you should. There's advice for you all."
11.The first scene that Evan and Daniel shot together was them "making out furiously."
![<div><p>"We would watch playback — and we're dressed like Madonna [and Weird Al] — going, 'That's what that would look like!'"</p></div><span> The Roku Channel</span>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/.3Up9PDPzK8BLp51QtdFsg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTQ0Nw--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/buzzfeed_articles_778/b5a65e587b5d223e1fd11891f396e591)
"We would watch playback — and we're dressed like Madonna [and Weird Al] — going, 'That's what that would look like!'"
12.Because they only had 18 days to complete filming, a lot ended up having to be cut from the script, including a dating montage with Weird Al and Madonna riding a tandem bike.
13.Weird Al was there every day on set to make sure the movie came out exactly the way he wanted.
"As cowriter of the movie and as a producer, I thought it was important for me to be there because if you have notes six months later while you're editing, it doesn't do a whole lot of good," Weird Al said. "We stay very close to the actual script that Eric and I wrote, but every now and again there would be a quick rewrite."
14.Finally, one of the scenes takes place at a pool party with iconic comedians playing guests like Andy Warhol, Elvira, Pee-Wee Herman, and Devo. Weird Al said casting this scene was as simple as going through his address book and calling up his friends.
"I said, 'Hey, we're shooting this crazy pool party scene in the Valley. You want to come out and spend half a day doing it?' Thankfully, a bunch of people showed up," he said. Jack Black, Conan O'Brien, and Jorma Taccone are some of the actors featured in this scene.