Daniel Radcliffe is set to premiere his latest film, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, later this week.
Daniel Radcliffe’s name is synonymous with the Harry Potter franchise, playing the titular character through eight films over more than a decade of his career. However, the 33-year-old actor will make another iconic performance when he plays the famous parody singer ‘Weird Al’ in Weird: The Story of Al Yankovic.
Radcliffe seems to be completely transforming himself into ‘Weird Al’ in the various trailers released over the past few months. However, Radcliffe admits that he initially thought he was not suitable for the role. The actor recently appeared on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallonwhere he says he didn’t know if he could get the part until he read the first page of the script.
“I knew Al, not personally, but I knew his work, I knew who he was, so when I got the email, it was like I thought, for the role of Al Yankovic in the Al Yankovic story, I mean “I’m very flattered. But there are certainly other people who are physically closer to Al… And you know there’s only about four feet between us. But as soon as I read – honestly as soon as I the first page of the script I was like, “Oh yeah, okay, I get the joke. Accuracy isn’t the point here, we’re doing something completely different.” And in that moment I was like, ‘Oh, I can do this version of Al’, and it was so clear reading the script what a great, fun thing this is. would be to do. There’s about six songs and two action scenes and like insane scenes you get to do. So it was a really easy yes.”
Weird: The Story of Al Yankovic Arriving later this week
Weird: The Story of Al Yankovic appears to be a film that parodies other celebrity biopics as the life of the titular character is expanded in the film. The film’s official synopsis reads: “Explores every facet of Yankovic’s life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like ‘Eat It’ and ‘Like a Surgeon’ to his scorching celebrity love affairs and his famously depraved lifestyle.”
The movie has a great cast including Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Jack Black as Wolfman Jack and Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey. Julianne Nicholson, Patton Oswalt, Rainn Wilson, Thomas Lennon and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic themselves will also appear in the film. Weird: The Story of Al Yankovic is almost ready for release, arriving exclusively on the Roku channel this Friday, November 4.