Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Behind-The-Scenes FactsSkip To ContentHomepageSign InSearch BuzzFeedSearch BuzzFeedlol Badge Feedwin Badge Feedtrending Badge FeedCalifornia residents can opt out of "sales" of personal data.Do Not Sell My Personal Information 2022 BuzzFeed, Inc PressRSSPrivacyConsent PreferencesUser TermsAccessibility StatementAd ChoicesHelpContactSitemap Posted 3 hours ago 14 Weird The Al Yankovic Story Behind-The-Scenes Facts Straight From Daniel Radcliffe Evan Rachel Wood And Weird Al HimselfMadonna did give Weird Al the idea to parody "Like a Virgin," they just didn't have a whirlwind romance afterward.by by Lauren GarafanoBuzzFeed Staff, by Natasha JokicBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestTwitterMailLink Weird The Al Yankovic Story is about to hit streaming very soon and people are already buzzing about the movie s chaotic delightfulness Roku Channel / Everett It stars Daniel Radcliffe and follows the definitely 100% not-exaggerated origin story of Weird Al Yankovic. Evan Rachel Wood stars as Madonna and Rainn Wilson play's Al's manager, Dr. Demento. Weird Al even appears in the movie too! This year at New York Comic-Con we got a little taste of what s in store from the cast and creators themselves Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images for ReedPop So without further ado here s what Daniel Radcliffe Evan Rachel Wood Weird Al Yankovic and Eric Appel shared about the movie 1 The concept of Weird came about after a 2013 Funny or Die sketch Funny or Die / Via youtube.com Director and cowriter Eric Appel said, "Al and I agreed: It's a three-minute internet video, and that's how it should remain. For about a decade, Al was playing it at his concerts during a costume change in the middle of his show. After the show, at meet and greets, people would always say, 'Is this really real? I've been looking for this movie, but I can't find it anywhere!'" 2 But it was the success of biopics like Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody that convinced Weird Al to go ahead with the actual movie Leon Bennett / Getty Images "Finally, in February 2019, I got a random email from Al one morning that was like, ‘I think it’s time!’” Eric said. 3 In perfect Weird Al fashion the movie parodies and exaggerates some of his real-life experiences — some of the movie s events are just totally made up from scratch The Roku Channel / Everett "[Biopics] are not documentaries, they're meant to be for entertainment purposes. But as a fan, I'm always upset when I watch a biopic of Queen or Elton John and I see that [things] didn't happen that way. Or the chronology is all twisted around. I thought, well, if I ever do a biopic I'm just going to have to throw facts out the window! I'm just gonna have to make it up from scratch," Weird Al said. 4 And Al even shared that the movie s subplot with Madonna stemmed from a small nugget of truth where she once told him to parody Like a Virgin Roku Channel / Everett However, they did not actually experience a whirlwind romance after. Al explained, "Her part in the movie is based on a very small nugget of truth. She actually is the person that suggested that I do 'Like a Surgeon.' She was talking to a friend of hers in New York one day and just offhandedly said, 'I wonder if Weird Al's gonna do "Like a Surgeon"?' Her friend knew my managers and word got back to me. And I thought, 'Hey! Not a bad idea, maybe I will.' So, we took that little bit of truth and expanded it into this whole kind of psychotic arc where Madonna very calculatedly gets me to do this parody. It takes up the whole rest of the movie." 5 Daniel Radcliffe initially thought that he wasn t the best physical fit to star in the movie but Weird Al literally couldn t think of anyone better to cast as himself The Roku Channel "I got this offer to play Weird Al in the Weird Al biopic, and I was like, 'That's really cool, but there's people who are probably physically closer to him,'" Dan said. "And as soon as I read the script, I was like, 'Oh, that doesn't matter. That's not what we're doing. Accuracy and realism is not really the full name of the game here.'" Ultimately, Weird Al and director Eric Appel felt that Daniel was the best actor to pull off the dramatic and comedic moments. "Eric and I made a shortlist of actors that we thought would be able to pull off the role. And we studied the list and we always kept focusing on Dan's name because we were both fans of all of Dan's work, but we knew that he could pull off the dramatic moments and also the comedic moments," Weird Al said. "Both are very important for this movie because it's a very specific tone you're going for. It's a comedy, obviously, but it needs to be really grounded and needs to be played like some big Oscar-worthy biopic. We literally couldn't think of anybody in the world that could play the part better than him." 6 The movie was filmed in just 18 days The Roku Channel "That's a testament to [Daniel], the cast, and the crew. Everybody always stuck the landing. It was like lightning in a bottle," Evan Rachel Wood said. 7 Daniel actually learned to play the accordion for the movie and learned from a self-taught friend His friend even gave him detailed animations on how to play it The Roku Channel "Because it was such a tight shoot, my [prep for this movie was] making sure that I had everything ready and prepared," Daniel said. "It was really just a matter of not wanting to be the thing that slowed anything down." 8 And while he IS actually playing the accordion Daniel doesn t actually sing in the movie — he lip-synchs to recordings of Weird Al s voice Roku Channel Daniel said, "We wanted that trope of the original person's voice clearly coming out of the wrong head. I think it's very obvious that it is Al singing, but I have still had a few people be like, 'Your singing in this film was incredible!'" 9 Weird Al even went into the studio and re-recorded new versions of his songs for the film Roku Channel / Everett Eric said, "Well, so [Dan's] singing along to newly recorded versions of these tracks, which was exciting for me to go into the studio with Al and his band and see them do these new versions of the songs. The arrangements for the movie were pretty incredible." 10 Daniel did in fact grow a mustache to play Weird Al The Roku Channel Daniel added, "If you can avoid fake facial hair, you should. There's advice for you all." 11 The first scene that Evan and Daniel shot together was them making out furiously The Roku Channel "We would watch playback — and we're dressed like Madonna [and Weird Al] — going, 'That's what that would look like!'" 12 Because they only had 18 days to complete filming a lot ended up having to be cut from the script including a dating montage with Weird Al and Madonna riding a tandem bike The Roku Channel / Everett 13 Weird Al was there every day on set to make sure the movie came out exactly the way he wanted Araya Doheny / Getty Images "As cowriter of the movie and as a producer, I thought it was important for me to be there because if you have notes six months later while you're editing, it doesn't do a whole lot of good," Weird Al said. "We stay very close to the actual script that Eric and I wrote, but every now and again there would be a quick rewrite." 14 Finally one of the scenes takes place at a pool party with iconic comedians playing guests like Andy Warhol Elvira Pee-Wee Herman and Devo Weird Al said casting this scene was as simple as going through his address book and calling up his friends Roku Channel / Everett "I said, 'Hey, we're shooting this crazy pool party scene in the Valley. You want to come out and spend half a day doing it?' Thankfully, a bunch of people showed up," he said. Jack Black, Conan O'Brien, and Jorma Taccone are some of the actors featured in this scene. Weird The Al Yankovic Story hits The Roku Channel for free on Nov 4 View this video on YouTube Roku Channel Share This ArticleFacebook PinterestTwitterMailLink TV and MoviesGet all the best moments in pop culture & entertainment delivered to your inbox.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.