Daniel Radcliffe is worried about how people will react to the Weird: The Al Yankovic Story movie. Over a decade ago, Funny or Die released a fake trailer for a satirical biographical film titled Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which was directed by Eric Appel and starred Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul. After the success of musical biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, Yankovic and Appel got the idea to expand the same premise into a feature film, which eventually landed at Roku.
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Now, the Harry Potter actor stars in the Weird: The Al Yankovic Story movie in the title role alongside a stellar supporting cast also playing celebrities, such as Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Rain Wilson as Dr. Demento, Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey, James Preston Rogers as Hulk Hogan, Conan O'Brien as Andy Warhol, and Jack Black as Wolfman Jack. The feature-length Roku original film is only loosed based on Yankovic's career and instead, fabricates moments from the musician's life for comedic effect, including his encounters with the aforementioned celebrities. By all accounts, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story movie looks to be pretty weird, with Radcliffe saying the biopic is even weirder than Swiss Army Man, one of the actor's most off-the-wall performances in which he famously played a farting corpse.
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Radcliffe revealed he is worried about how people will react to Weird: The Al Yankovic Story because of how off-the-rails it is. Radcliffe's girlfriend, actor Erin Darke, is a huge Weird Al fan, though the Harry Potter actor is more concerned about his in-laws might react to the movie. Read what Radcliffe shared below:
Actually, after [director] Eric [Appel] and Al [Yankovic], the people I'm most concerned about their reaction is probably my in-laws, Erin's dad and brother, because they're massive fans as well. Erin's seen the movie but I'll be interested in what Ian thinks. I really hope he likes it.
How Will Audiences React To The Weird Al Movie?
Considering everything that has been revealed about the bizarre parody biopic, it's understandable that Radcliffe is apprehensive about how audiences react to it. His co-star, Wood, is similarly worried about her performance as Maddona in the Weird Al movie and how the Queen of Pop herself will react to it. Radcliffe also has his real-life counterpart to please, Weird Al, who is a writer and producer on the project.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and critics were in complete agreement about the project being appropriately weird, and surprisingly, submitted glowing reviews. While critics are loving it, predicting how audiences will react is a different story. The movie's main premise is that it's a musical biopic that parodies popular musical biopics, a creative conceit that may land with audiences, or one they might find just a little too weird. Only time will tell when Weird: The Al Yankovic Story premieres November 4 on The Roku Channel.