The actor stars as the beloved musical comedian in the upcoming biopic, 'Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.'
Daniel Radcliffe and Evan Rachel Wood know there's no shame in being weird!
The stars of the new biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, sat down with ET, as well as the film's writer and director, Eric Appel, to extol the benefits of identifying as "weird."
"I have for a long time, I feel like," Radcliffe admitted, though he added jokingly, "It's definitely been confirmed by the last few years of everyone being like, 'You have weird taste in movies, everything you do is weird!'"
"My child tells me I'm weird all the time, but makes sure that I know they consider that a compliment," Wood agreed, giving credit to 9-year-old Jack. "And I do take it as a compliment."
Appel co-wrote the movie with "Weird" Al Yankovic himself -- describing it as "a satire of the biopic format itself" -- so what does the ultimate satirist think of his on-screen portrayal?
"He refuses to watch it," Wood joked.
In reality, Appel said, "He's over the moon about it. He loves it, he loves how it turned out."
"He was there on set every day, he was incredibly involved in the shoot," Radcliffe raved.
The Harry Potter star undertook some serious training for the part -- not just for his many shirtless scenes, but also to try and master Weird Al's favorite instrument, the accordion.
"I was very lucky to have a friend with a lot of time at that moment who was self-taught on the accordion," he said, sharing that his friend's lessons and diagrams were slightly easier to follow than the legend himself.
"Al has lost a bit of perspective on how bad it's possible to be on the accordion," he said with a laugh. "Because he's really good at it, so he just like, was doing it, and I was like, 'OK, I'm gonna pretend I can see what your fingers are doing.'"
Wood plays Madonna in the film, a role she says she's been training for for many years.
"I have been dressing up like Madonna and singing her songs since I was a kid," she shared. "I actually got caught skipping school once -- I faked sick so I could stay home, just so I could lip sync to "Like a Prayer" all day... So yes, I've been preparing for this my whole life."
"I told Eric when we started, I was like, 'I know that this is a comedy, but I am going to give you my best Madonna if I can help it,'" she added.
And apart from the Queen of Pop, there are a few real-life celeb cameos in the film that will thrill viewers -- thanks to Al himself!
"I mean, Al has a thick Rolodex," Appel shared. "Every comedy personality you love has probably a mutual admiration for Weird Al, so he made a lot of phone calls and got a lot of very quick yeses from friends of his. It was exciting getting those texts for me. Five minutes after he asked, 'Yeah they're asking when they have to show up.'"
"I still hear from people that are disappointed that they weren't in the movie," Wood added.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story premieres exclusively on the Roku Channel Nov. 4.
RELATED CONTENT:
