Let it never be said that Daniel Radcliffe has not picked interesting roles in his post-Harry Potter career. From a farting corpse (pictured above) to Allen Ginsberg, he has been out there living his best actorly life. And now he’s taken the next step in his creative evolution, signing on to play “Weird” Al Yankovic in a biopic that will air only on the Roku Channel.
That’s a lot of words in an unexpected order. It took me a minute to process them.
Weird Al wrote the film with director Eric Appel (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Die Hart), who is quite familiar with the territory. In 2013, Appel wrote and directed a fake trailer for a movie with the same title as this actual movie: Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
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The summary for the upcoming film explains:
The biopic holds nothing back, exploring every facet of Yankovic’s life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon” to his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story takes audiences on a truly unbelievable journey through Yankovic’s life and career, from gifted child prodigy to the greatest musical legend of all time.
Weird Al is, it must be said, a fascinating dude. If you have not read the 2020 New York Times piece on his enduring appeal, you should; it gave me a whole new appreciation for a musician who has been a background presence in my pop culture knowledge for literal decades. It also includes this lively bit of description:
Weird Al has a face designed for making faces: large nostrils, wide forehead, bendy mouth, chin like a crescent moon. His eyeballs seem somehow double-jointed, able to bulge wide or disappear into a squint. His cheekbones pop like crab apples. He uses that face to mimic music-world clichés: rock-star sneer, boy-band smolder, teen-pop grin, gangsta-rap glower.
Can Radcliffe pull this off? Absolutely he can. Like Weird Al, he at first appears unassuming and mild, but there’s a lot more going on under the surface.
In a statement, Weird Al said, “When my last movie UHF came out in 1989, I made a solemn vow to my fans that I would release a major motion picture every 33 years, like clockwork. I’m very happy to say we’re on schedule.” He also noted, “I have no doubt whatsoever that this is the role future generations will remember [Radcliffe] for.”
There’s no word yet on when this weird masterpiece will air.
Wait a minute; I thought Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) was supposed to play Weird Al? ;-)
I’m sorry what?
I love this. (I’ve been an Al fan since the 80s and am always glad to see him get more respect for his musicianship and brilliance.) And it also is a complete shock to me. Daniel Radcliffe is the last person I would have even thought of for this. This has kinda made my day.
Although I’d describe myself as a fan of Weird Al’s work, I haven’t really attempted to follow his personal life so I’m not sure if this is actually a real thing or some kind of joke? His face may be made for comedy but it’s not exactly the kind I would expect to see next to the likes of Kim Kardashian’s. But maybe I underestimate him, after all, “he makes me laugh” worked for Jessica Rabbit…
Anyway, Radcliffe has already shown that he can play more than just the one character, so why not this one? It may well be worth watching, whenever it does come out.
@3 I’m pretty sure it’s a joke. I haven’t followed him closely either but I’ve always heard he’s a very quiet, straight-laced guy.
Oh my goodness I cannot wait. I’m a big fan of both of them. This is going to be worth seeing!
@3, 4: Yup. He’s a humble, polite guy who keeps a low profile off stage. Lives quietly in LA with his wife and daughter.
Was gonna say – he’s basically a good-hearted nerd. Doesn’t drink, smoke or do drugs, lives a vegan lifestyle (although I believe he’s admitted he cheats occasionally) and as far as I know there has never been any type of controversy or allegations of shady behavior against him.
I met him once after a concert (back when it was a little easier to just hang out at the venue afterwards – he would sign autographs for people watiing around…now everything has to go through VIP tickets, etc) and he was just a super cool, chill, nice guy with very kind eyes (I specifically remember that part sticking out, haha).
And people want to kind of dismiss parody/comedy (although perhaps not so much anymore – I think it’s gotten a lot more popularity) but he really is brilliant and has a great grasp of music, music history, lyricism, satire and actually does a lot of amazing things with his voice in terms of his range and vocal abilities. There are good parodies and bad parodies (that just rely on gross out stuff or changing a few words around to some other word that rhymes with the real lyrics) and I feel like most of his work is really good at capturing the essence of something and then juxtposing it with something else in a way that can often highlight or poke fun at the absurdity of taking things too seriously, but also does it in an affectionate way, and with a ton of attention to detail in the music, lyrics, structure and videos. (He also has a catalog full of original songs/style homages that are really good.)
His band also really deserves credit as they pull off a TON of musical styles. I’ve seen them in concert half a dozen times (and we’re goign this summer) and he is a consummate entertainer as well – I have no idea how he is still doing high kicks at his age, lol!
Sorry, I’m fangirling :D But if anybody is interested, Nathan Rabin did a blog analyzing the entire catalog a few years back and it was really fun. It’s actually a book now, which I’ve still yet to purchase! https://www.nathanrabin.com/happy-place?offset=1597848079125&category=The+Weird+Accordion+To+Al (Unfortunately I can’t find a good link that is just an archive list of posts in some logical order…)