It's rare for an artist to be in charge of telling their own story, but it's even rarer for that artist to parody their life in the process. But that's exactly what beloved parody artist Weird Al does in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which he co-wrote with director Eric Appel. The project began as a Funny or Die sketch a decade ago, with Aaron Paul playing the musician in a series of hilariously strung-together biopic tropes.
Now a full-length feature film with Daniel Radcliffe (a long way from his Harry Potter days) in the lead, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story incorporates some of the iconic singer's biggest tongue-in-cheek hits into the highs and lows of a fictional life fit for the big screen. Cameos pepper the film, both in terms of famous actors and the famous people they're portraying, which further emphasizes the humorously glamorous tone of Al's story. Not only that, but the trailer shows Radcliffe even sharing the screen with Weird Al himself, in a perfect meta twist.
Screen Rant spoke to Appel about how he reverse-engineered a film from a fake trailer, why Daniel Radcliffe was the right lead for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and what it felt like to direct Weird Al himself for a few scenes.
Filmmaker on Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Weird is a film a decade in the making, and it's wild how many beats parallel perfectly with the Funny or Die sketch. Which leads me to question, how did you decide which to throw away? I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't say which ones didn't make it in, but I was wondering where some went.
Eric Appel: Yeah. When we started writing this, we wanted to put all those moments in. I think breaking down the outline at first was taking all those trailer moments and spreading them out. It's like, "Alright, can we reverse-engineer a movie from a fake movie trailer?" And we sort of could a little bit. There's moments throughout that we hit.
But once we got deeper into crafting the story, we wanted to do something a little more original with it. That trailer feels a little more like a straight biopic parody, and we wanted to veer off from that a little bit. While we do kind of satirize the story beats of a biopic—and not just musical biopics, everything from Boogie Nights to Forrest Gump to Rocket Man and The Doors. We wanted to [show that] he's gonna hit rock bottom at some point, but what's our version of rock bottom?
Once we ended up crafting the story, moments from the trailer just had to fall away, because they didn't make story sense. We didn't want to be too beholden to it, as fun as the trailer was.
Understandable. You collaborated with Weird Al on the screenplay, so obviously he had a lot of input, but you also directed Normal Al in the film for a bit. What was that experience like?
Eric Appel: I would say that directing Al Yankovic and Dan as Weird Al in the same scene together was confusing. [Laughs] You'd walk in and you'd say, "Al," and everyone looks. But it was a blast directing him as an actor. He's so funny. I've been a fan of his my whole life, and not just the music. I made my grandpa take me to see UHF in the movie theater when I was nine years old, and he fell asleep, but I enjoyed it.
I've loved Al as a performer, as an actor, and as a personality. So, I knew what I was getting, and I knew what to look for. And we wrote it together, so he knew exactly how to play it. We had talked about the scene so much.
The parade of cameos was incredible, both in terms of the actors and the characters they are portraying. I know that way back when, you asked Weird Al, "Is it cool if I do this?" Was there anyone that you had to ask, or is it just hoping for goodwill, and that Madonna loves it?
Eric Appel: I mean, I hope that Madonna loves it. None of us have talked to her about it. There's certain things you have to get permission for, like if you're gonna use a song for instance. If we're gonna put it in the movie, we have to clear "Beat It," so we need to contact the Michael Jackson estate. But as far as someone playing someone else, we're protected by parody law. It's clearly a joke, and we're also not really punching down on anybody. Hopefully, if the real person sees it, they'll get a kick out of it because it's a fun movie version of themselves in a heightened reality.
Daniel Radcliffe obviously is amazing, and even though I have seen Miracle Workers and know that he is hilarious, I was still shocked when I first heard that he was playing Weird Al. What made him right for the role from the start?
Eric Appel: We wanted someone who was a great dramatic actor as well as a great comedic actor. And the choices he's made post-Harry Potter have just been so [perfect]. We're like, "This is a guy that's gonna get what we're going for here."
Really, the assignment was for him to play it [straight]. The comedy is all there on the page, it just has to be performed a certain way. He had to play it really grounded, and he had to play the drama. He had to play it like it was a drama, and that's what's so great about him. He's understanding that, and he's never pushing comedy. He's trusting the words; he gets the assignment. The more dramatic he plays it, the better it is.
And I get what you're saying. If I had read "Daniel Radcliffe is playing Weird Al in a weird biopic," and if it was like going to be just a straight biopic, I'm like, "Daniel Radcliffe, what? No, wrong choice." But for our bizarro version of Weird Al that we've created in this fantasy world, there is no one else that can play him. He is Daniel Radcliffe.
Speaking of playing the drama while being funny, Julianne Nicholson as his mother is amazing. She just looks down at the Hawaiian shirt, and I'm already in stitches.
Eric Appel: It was the best watching that with an audience. I wanted it to hit the way it hit, and that moment really hit. I mean, she's so fantastic. She's coming off an Emmy win for Mare of Easttown, which is just so dark and emotionally grueling, and I think she had just played Marilyn Monroe's mother in Blonde. This must have been such a breath of fresh air for her.
And she plays it so real. She brought something to those scenes that I guess I always hoped would be there, but I just didn't know it until I saw it. I was like, "Oh, wow!" I'm so used to directing comedies that are very straight comedy, so this made me think, "Wow, maybe I should just start directing actual drama." It's really nice to get these real, genuine reactions from people.
About Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
The unexaggerated true story about the greatest musician of our time. From a conventional upbringing where playing the accordion was a sin, "Weird Al" Yankovic rebels and makes 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.
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Weird: The Al Yankovic Story premieres November 4 on The Roku Channel.