This story about the costume design of “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” first appeared in the Limited series/movies issue from TheWrap Awards Magazine.
Roku’s “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” is far from a true story, but even within a crazy universe where Madonna is captured by Pablo Escobar, you still have to stay true to the era. And if it’s her subject, one of the most beloved parodists of all time, who also happens to be a writer and producer on the project, you need to nail down the details. “Al wanted it to feel really normal and natural and not too lively,” said “Weird” costume designer Wendy Benbrook. “He didn’t want him to be over the top. The actors could do that on their own.”
But with a fairly modest budget, how do you create the looks for dozens of actors, including Jack Black as Wolfman Jack, Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey, Conan O’Brien as Andy Warhol and, in an inspired casting choice, Evan Rachel Wood channeling the aforementioned Madonna as Yankovic’s fictional lover?
“I’m a master of the down, dirty and fast,” Benbrook said. “I have never investigated so much in my life. I’m really good at being over the top, but I’m also really good at toning it down. And I feel like the fashion on this was very toned down.”
Benbrook knows her way around comedy, having worked as a costume designer on both “MADtv” and FXX’s “You’re the Worst.” Director Eric Appel invited her to join “Weird” after early crossing paths on Funny or Die. But for the movie to work, they knew they didn’t have to be slaves to the figures of this era to pull it off.
“We took some liberties, like for Oprah, she would have a clothing collection. Oprah never wore what Quinta wore, but she did wear that style, like broad shoulders and little cowboy boots and stuff.” For Madonna, Benbrook studied the singer’s different looks from the ’80s, eventually settling on the mid-’80s period of “Desperately Seeking Susan.” But some of the most challenging wardrobe conversations centered around the creator of “Like a Surgeon” and “I Love Rocky Road,” especially since Radcliffe is significantly shorter than Yankovic.
“You couldn’t do (alterations) to make it seem taller,” said Benbrook, who has also worked as a real-life tour designer for musicians like KISS and Rod Stewart. “But we would try to make his legs look a little longer. And we didn’t want the pants to be baggy at the bottom, so we cut them off.”
Radcliffe was game throughout, even when Benbrook had his doubts about what he was wearing, like the skintight robe he wears as he answers the door in one scene. “That robe was, just for a minute, the bane of my existence,” he said. “My sister, one of my shoppers, was great and got all these gowns. I gave him some I found, and then Daniel makes the adjustment, and I’m like, ‘It’s too short!’ And he was like, ‘My God, I love it!’ Of course, it’s the one I didn’t want him to wear, and why did they show it to him? But he ended up loving it.”
And, of course, there was no shortage of Yankovic’s Hawaiian shirts. “There’s actually a picture on my Instagram of me digging into this giant box of Hawaiian shirts,” Benbrook said, noting that many of the costumes are recreations or re-imaginings of pre-existing looks. The one exception was the red leather jacket Yankovic wore in his “Eat It” video. “In the movie, one of my assistants was dressed as an assistant,” he said. “And there’s a scene where she hands (Daniel) the red jacket. That was the real jacket Al lent us to wear. He was fully prepared to find a good version of that jacket and fix it. That was incredible.”
This story about “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” first appeared in the Limited series/movies issue from TheWrap Awards Magazine.
