"Weird Al" Yankovic talks about his biopic spoof, "alpha-nerd" Daniel Radcliffe, and dealing with the "Devil's squeezebox"
How the king of parody songs managed to parody himself onscreen with Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Michael Jackson stole “Eat It” from Weird Al Yankovic and reinvented it as “Beat It.” Weird Al dated Madonna and they wound up on a wacky adventure that involved Pablo Escobar. That and more happens—brilliantly, hysterically, and with just the tiniest grain of truth getting in the way—in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Yes, the high-energy, frizzy-haired guy who plays the accordion, performs a mean polka, and has entertained a couple of generations of fans with parodies of hit songs, is the subject of a biopic. Only, Weird pulls a fast one, spoofing the biopic genre.
Daniel Radcliffe stars as Yankovic, joined by Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna and Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento. Yankovic, who co-wrote and co-produced the movie, plays a supporting role, appearing as Scotti Brothers Records executive Tony Scotti. And cameos abound. Be on the lookout for Conan O’Brien, Jack Black, Thomas Lennon, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and other surprises. In advance of the film’s November 4 debut on The Roku Channel, The A.V. Club spoke with Yankovic, who discussed spoofing biopics of all kinds, marveled at the fact that the little boy from the Harry Potter films is playing him, revealed his favorite curse word, and shared what remains on his bucket list.
The A.V. Club: Weird started in 2010 as a Funny Or Die fake trailer that you then started showing at concerts. What’s it been like to watch this explode into an actual film?
Weird Al Yankovic: It’s a bit surrealistic. I always hoped this movie would get made, but it’s always a miracle when things do get greenlit. It was about my third week on the set, when I was thinking, “Okay, I think this movie might actually happen.” I’ve been around the business long enough that I trained myself not to get excited about things, because things always fall apart and go away. Even during the movie, I was thinking. “Somebody is going to get COVID and this is all going to get shut down.” We had 18 days to shoot this thing, and incredibly, we pulled it off. It turned out great, and I couldn’t be more excited.
AVC: Weird is pretty much the movie version of one of your parody songs. What aspects of the biopic genre did you think were ripe for parody?
WAY: Oh, there are quite a few. [Director] Eric [Appel] and I sat down and discussed a lot of music biopics, even some nonfiction biopics. There’s a little bit of Boogie Nights and a little bit of Forrest Gump thrown in there as well. In particular, the music biopics always hit the same beats over and over. There are all these tropes in every single one. It’s maddeningly familiar. So, we wanted to hit every one, starting with my parents. My parents in real life were super-supportive, but you never see a music biopic where the artist has a happy childhood and supportive parents, so we had to make my father vehemently opposed to his young child learning the Devil’s squeezebox. That became a whole dramatic arc for the movie.
AVC: If I told you back in 2000 that the little boy who plays Harry Potter would be playing you one day, and that you would be acting opposite him, what would you have said?
WAY: That would not have been on my bingo card at any point. That’s something I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around, that that all just happened. I will say I didn’t think I’d be casting him in a movie, but I did see Daniel on TV in 2010 on The Graham Norton Show, where he performed “The Elements” by Tom Lehrer, which is an extremely nerdy thing to do. The fact that he memorized that and then performed it on national TV in front of Rihanna? That’s alpha-nerd stuff. I thought at that moment, “Oh, we’re kindred spirits. This guy … we’ll be friends.” I had that in the back of my mind for years. When we started casting the movie, and Daniel’s name appeared on the shortlist of actors we were considering, I thought, ‘Daniel’s got to be the guy.’ He’s got the right spirit. He got the right energy. He definitely has the acting chops. I can’t imagine anybody that would be more suited to this role than him.
AVC: What impressed you about his performance?