Daniel Radcliffe explains what Weird Al taught him during the Weird: The Al Yankovic Story press conference.
Weird Al Taught Daniel Radcliffe To WHAT?!
Daniel Radcliffe plays the iconic Weird Al Yankovic in the parody biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. He truly becomes this massively exaggerated version of Al. When asked how it all came about during an interview, he tells a wonderful story about something Weird Al taught him to do.
Radcliffe says the first conversation about joining the film happened with Al and Eric Appel (co-writer and director) on Zoom, quite a while back. As it got closer to filming, he started to send videos of himself trying to learn the accordion so that they could see where he was at with that. But then, when they met in person, Weird Al actually gave him accordion lessons.
“We had two or three before we started just to let me watch how he played certain parts that I definitely couldn’t. I was a very blank canvas as a student, it’s fair to say, but he was very, very kind and very patient. And you know, I will take that to my grave with me that I had accordion lessons with Al Yankovic. So that was very, very cool. Everything everybody says, is true. He’s lovely and supportive and kind and very funny, but without the energy of comedians that are like, I must be the loudest and funniest person in the room at all times.”
Al Yankovic jumped in on the conversation, talking about what it was like for him to be the teacher in this scenario. “It was surrealistic to say the least to walk into a building and Oh, who’s your appointment today? Giving Daniel Radcliffe accordion lessons.”
He goes on to explain that one of his first jobs was an accordion teacher. It was a part time job between High School and College where he would teach little kids how to play. He adds that Daniel was a great quick, learner, and much better than the kids — to which Daniel Radcliffe cheers.
“I still can’t believe how well he pulled it off. Because he didn’t need to do that. Eric and I told him ‘we can cut around you, you don’t really need to learn how to play the accordion.’ But it was a point of pride to him. He really wanted to make it look like he was playing because I told him I’ve seen a lot of people in movies and TV playing the accordion, and I can tell it’s fake. He wanted to really make it look real. And for the three or four people that know, he’s actually playing the right buttons.”
Daniel Radcliffe is sure to add in just how many people love Al, and with good reason. He explains that when this film was announced, it was announced just after the announcement for the Harry Potter reunion on HBO Max. “When I say that I got more texts about this than that it’s not close. It was a wide gap of interest between those two things.”
See Daniel Radcliffe transform into the king of parody, Weird Al, when Weird: The Al Yankovic Story comes to The Roku Channel on November 4th.
Full Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Interview
Be sure to check out the full interview with Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Eric Appel, & Al Yankovic to learn about how this film came about, behind the scenes antics, and more.
NEXT: Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Review (2022 Movie)
About Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Daniel Radcliffe is “Weird” Al Yankovic in the unexaggerated true story about the greatest musician of our time. From a conventional upbringing where playing the accordion was a sin, Al rebelled and made his dream of changing the words to world-renowned songs come true.
An instant success and sex symbol, Al lives an excessive lifestyle and pursues an infamous romance that nearly destroys him.
