EXCLUSIVE: Evan Rachel Wood Talks Playing Madonna in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Evan Rachel Wood takes on the role of Madonna in the new movie, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Also starring Daniel Radcliffe, Wood opened about playing the pop icon, her take on Madonna, and so much more. Check out what she had to say below.
What was it like playing Madonna in the movie?
“Who hasn’t wanted to put on the early ’80s Madonna getup? I mean, it’s so iconic. I never wanted to take the wardrobe off at the end of the day. It never got old. I thought, I wonder if it’s ever going to be like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m at work, going to dress up like Madonna.’ Never, not once, always fun. I just danced around to the music all day. People called me Madonna when I came to set. It was like, ‘Madonna’s on her way. Madonna’s in her chair. Madonna needs a sandwich.’ And then I could see people getting visibly flustered. I was like, ‘Wow, this really is being able to wear the skin for a few hours out of the day.’”
However, you weren’t just playing Madonna, you were playing a heightened version of her.
“We knew it was a parody, but we still wanted to give good performances. Everybody fully committed and still wanted to give really good performances. Eric [Appeal] and I discussed what the tone was going to be, but I told him up front. I was like, ‘I am going to take this very seriously. I’m going to give you my best Madonna, the best I can do,’ with the amount of time that I had. I knew that if I could hook the audience in the beginning and really root that in reality, then it gave me room later on to just fly completely off the rails with her. That was my approach.”
You’re playing a sociopath version of Madonna in so many ways.
“It’s got this Natasha and Boris from Rocky and Bullwinkle sort of feel to it I love. I took that approach. But no, it made playing Madonna more appealing because I think it would be too pressured to be her in a straight biopic. Although I am excited to see that, I personally don’t think I could do that without having a panic attack. So, this was like, ‘Oh, wow. I get to play Madonna, but I get to be a little loose with it. I get to have a little bit fun.” So that made it very appealing.”
There are a number of parody songs in the movie, if you could pick a song that would parody your life, what song would it be?
“I think mine would have to be ‘All I Really Want’ by Alanis Morissette.”
What was it like meeting “Weird Al” for the first time?
“It’s funny. I don’t think I knew that he was going to be on set my first day. Daniel was dressed up like ‘Weird Al,’ but then I was seeing this other Al out of the corner of my eye kind of up. And I was like, ‘Is Al here?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, man. He’s here every day.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God. I had no idea that’s what’s happening.’ It was surreal because I was dressed like Madonna, and I had just gotten through watching the interview that he edited with another interview with Madonna. It was like this meta weird thing that was happening between the two of us.
But it was great because after the end of the day, he came up to me after we had finished our scenes and just said how great it was and how well everything was playing. That was just the best feeling to know that he was there, and he was loving everything that he was seeing. Its kind of also was just very reassuring that we were doing a good job. Then I actually took my child to see him in concert, and it was my kid’s first concert. I’m just keeping it going. Which seemed very appropriate.”
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story the movie will hit Roku on Friday, November 4.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity