EXCLUSIVE: ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Talks Accordion Lessons with Daniel Radcliffe & Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
“Weird Al’ Yankovic sat down to talk about his new movie, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. During his chat, the co-writer talked bringing to life his story, the movie’s TIFF premiere, teaching Daniel Radcliffe accordion lessons, and so much more.
What does it mean knowing that this story is going to be out to the fans but also more broadly just the idea that you could literally do it in the perfect way possible by making it a parody movie?
“I can’t think of any other way that I would’ve done this movie because there are some interesting things that have happened in my actual life, but not anything interesting enough that would merit a Hollywood biopic. We figured that we needed to spice it up a little bit, take a few artistic liberties and make it a little bit more interesting. So that’s what we did. We tweaked the facts just a hair here and there just to make it more palatable for audiences.”
Was there one particular moment that was recreated that really brought you back to the moment when it happened in real life?
“There are a couple. There are a couple moments of actual truths sprinkled in among the biopic. Things that people that aren’t familiar with my story may not actually know are true. There was in fact a door-to-door accordion salesman that came along in my neighborhood offering music lessons. I did in fact record ‘My Bologna’ in a public bathroom. Now, I did it by myself at the time, so I didn’t have a whole band with me. But just to be there on set trying to recreate ‘My Bologna’ in the bathroom, that was kind of an odd thing for me because, yeah, there were little moments from my life. It was odd to see Daniel Radcliffe playing me doing this bit of me in college.”
What was your guide for making it feel like a ‘Weird Al” parody?
“I’d like to think the comic sensibility is the same. I mean, the sense of humor is the same, writing a parody song as opposed to writing a movie, but they’re very different media. There’s a story. There’s an arc. There’s characters. There’s a lot of things beyond what you would normally have to flex while writing a song. So there’s a lot going on there. Thankfully Eric was the greatest writing partner in the world. We had such a blast writing the script. Writing is usually my least favorite part of my job description, but it was so fun writing with Eric. Eric remembers, as soon as we finished writing the script, I was like, ‘Let’s write another one right away.’ This might be first biopic with a sequel, I think”.
The movie has already premiered at multiple festivals this year. What do you think about your fans’ reactions, so far to the movie?
“It’s amazing to hear from the fans and to hear their reactions to the movie. The thing with this particular movie, and we knew this going in, anytime you do this kind of a parody or do something with irony, there’s always going to be a small percentage of people that believe it. No matter how ridiculous, outlandish it is, there’s going to be a small percentage of people that go, ‘Oh, I guess that’s the way it really happened. This is canon now. I’ll put that in Al’s Wikipedia entry.’ In fact, Eric and I were laughing about this. The day after the trailer came out, if you did a Google search for ‘Weird Al,’ the first thing is, ‘Did ‘Weird Al’ date Madonna’” Everybody wanted to know, so that amused us to no end.”
What was it like premiering the movie at TIFF?
“Well, I’d seen the movie maybe a hundred times on my laptop because along the way and all the editing and all the iterations. But I’d never seen it with any kind of an audience. I always thought and hoped it was funny, but to hear the peals of laughter through the entire movie, it was just so validating and so wonderful to hear. And there’s a flash mob. There’s an army of ‘Weird Als’ out in the street while we’re doing the red carpet, like doing a choreographed routine. And the whole night was just crazy and out of my dreams. It was just maybe one of the best nights of my life.”
There are a lot of parody songs used in the movie. What song would you want to parody for your life?
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to pick my own song, but I’d probably go with ‘White & Nerdy’ because that’s a very autobiographical number. I had to draw from a lifetime experience for that song.”
What was it like to teach Daniel Radcliffe the accordion?
“It was surrealistic to say the least, to walk into a building and give, ‘Oh, who’s your appointment today? Oh, you’re giving Daniel Radcliffe accordion lessons.’ And it kind of hearkens back to, that was one of my first jobs was an accordion teacher. It was a part-time job between high school and college. I would teach little kids how to play the accordion, and Dan caught on much quicker than an eight year old. Thank God.
But it was getting back into the older rhythm. No, Dan was a great, quick learner, and 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 kind of a point of pride for 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 on the accordion.”
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story will be released to Roku on November 4.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity