🎶 2022-09-08 11:00:31 – Paris/France.
To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.
Generally speaking, Weird Al Yankovic and Daniel Radcliffe will never be confused. Yankovic is the lanky, long-haired dude from Southern California who became an accordion ace and a master pop music parodist. Radcliffe is the most compact, London-born prodigy of the 'Harry Potter' films who has since graduated into an eclectic acting career.
However, last winter, during the filming of the new film "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story", their mutual presence on the set sometimes caused confusion. When the crew members called out "Weird Al," they wanted the actor to play him, which meant Radcliffe. Eventually, for maximum clarity, they began to refer to the genuine Yankovic as "Real Al," though further disorientation was inevitable.
As Yankovic explained in a recent conversation with Radcliffe, "Every time I walked past the 'Weird Al' sign on your trailer, I'd be like '- he stopped and played an exaggerated double take - “Oh, no, that's not me. »
That's the effect the creators of "Weird" hope it will have on audiences when Roku releases the biopic on November 4. hit songs like “My Bologna,” “Another One Rides the Bus,” and “Eat It,” embellished with tales of sex, drugs, and jungle fighting that never quite happened to him.
"I hope this confuses a lot of people," Yankovic said of "Weird," which he wrote with the film's director, Eric Appel. “We want to guide them down a path and think, is this a real biopic? Is this the real story? The film begins fairly normally. Then it gradually derails. »
Essential to fulfilling this premise is the casting of Radcliffe, an enthusiastic Yankovic fan who bears little resemblance to the musician and had no desire to impersonate him.
Despite all the attention he gives it, Radcliffe said, he enjoyed "Weird" precisely because it allowed him to follow his post-"Potter" path in more unexpected roles. Playing Yankovic, at least as he is portrayed in the film, was the exact assignment Radcliffe was looking for - even if the title placed some constraints on how he could portray the film.
Radcliffe began to say, "There was nothing weird — see, that makes the word 'weird' hard to use in other contexts — there was nothing unusual on this subject. He added that before he even read the script and was even asked to play Yankovic, "I was very, very into the idea. »
During a breakfast interview last month at a restaurant in downtown Manhattan, Yankovic, 62, and Radcliffe, 33, displayed adorable affection for each other. There were a lot of exchanges “you go ahead”, “no, you continue”. It was as if neither man knew who was the celebrity and who was the fan.
They said there was a similar energy in their first video chat in the winter of 2020, when Yankovic pitched Radcliffe the idea of starring in the film. "I have a real problem sometimes in meetings when I like something and want to do it," Radcliffe said. “I just sprang in different ways. I get very, very repetitive.
"Weird" was truly a passion project for Yankovic, who has released 14 studio albums since 1983 but starred in only one film, the cult 1989 comedy "UHF."
In 2010, Appel wrote and directed a tongue-in-cheek trailer for a non-existent movie, also called "Weird." Starring Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad”) as a hard-partying version of Yankovic, the video was released on Funny or Die and became a viral hit.
Over the years, Yankovic showed the fake trailer at his concerts, where some fans thought it was an advertisement for a real movie.
"People would say, 'You should make a whole movie,'" Yankovic said. "I was like, 'No, this is a trailer. It's what it's supposed to be – it's a gag.
But more recently, following the success of other rock biopics like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Rocketman," Yankovic has started to take the idea of an extended version of "Weird" seriously.
He was also annoyed by what he saw as unnecessary changes to the factual rock star stories depicted in these other films. He pointed to a scene in "Rocketman" when Elton John impulsively chooses his new last name after spotting a portrait of the Beatles and focuses on John Lennon.
"Every Elton John fan knows he was inspired by Long John Baldry," Yankovic said, raising his voice slightly. “I guess they thought no one knew who Long John Baldry was. »
An early effort to pitch "Weird" around Hollywood failed, and studios seemed to expect a film that more directly ridiculed existing biopics, in the same way Yankovic's songs parodied other hit singles. “People thought it was going to be more spoofier — more 'Naked Gun', more 'Scary Movie' — than it is,” Appel said.
So he and Yankovic sat together in a cafe, watching trailers for other biopics and researching common storytelling tropes. Together they wrote a script in which, Yankovic said, "the facts are arbitrarily altered, just to change them."
Whatever "Weird" may represent, Yankovic didn't compose his song "My Bologna" in a spontaneous moment of out-of-body inspiration. Moreover, he said, “I recorded it in a bathroom, but not in a bus station. Why did we change it? Just because that's what biopics do.
Their film still needed a leading man, and they thought of Radcliffe, whom they knew enjoyed comedy musicians like Tom Lehrer.
Turns out, Radcliffe also loved Yankovic's music — as did his longtime girlfriend, actress Erin Darke, who had been a fan for years and often played Yankovic's albums on road trips.
(Throughout their first video call on “Weird,” Radcliffe said in an excited whisper, “I was going, if that happens, my girlfriend is going to be so thrilled.”)
More importantly, Radcliffe said he felt "Weird" offered the artistic freedom he sought in films like the biographical drama "Kill Your Darlings," which cast him as poet Allen Ginsberg, or "Swiss Army Man », a black comedy in which he played a very versatile corpse.
"Every time I get the chance to get into something, I will," Radcliffe said.
Compared to a scene in 'Weird' where the fictional Yankovic is on a psychedelic drug trip and hatches from a giant egg, Radcliffe said, 'Maybe only Paul Dano riding me like a Jet Ski in 'Swiss Army Man' comes close to the weirdest thing I've ever done.
He added, “There was definitely a freedom in the version of Al that is in the script. And it's so crazy. Turning to Yankovic, he said, "You didn't kill many, many people. »
"Not a lot," Yankovic replied. " Very little. »
With Radcliffe on board, Roku picked up the film. But the company only agreed to 18 days of filming, which imposed an incredibly tight schedule for a project in which he had to perform several musical numbers (lip-sync to Yankovic's original voice), as well as some action sequences. .
"On 'Potter,' one of those scenes could take 16 days," Radcliffe said.
So he used his pre-production time to learn his lines and choreography and get in top physical shape. ("I came to realize that I'm shirtless in the movie Weird Al more than anything I've done," he said. "Most of it was scripted, but I didn't have it." really understood.")
And once the cameras started rolling, everyone hooked up. "The Covid of it all was terrifying, especially for me and Eric," Radcliffe said. “There is no plan B. We just have to not get sick. »
Before filming even began, comedian Patton Oswalt, who had played the key role of Dr. Demento, the radio host who gave Yankovic some of his early airtime, broke his foot. Although there was talk about whether Oswalt could play the role on crutches, Rainn Wilson ("The Office") took over on short notice.
The production was also bolstered by a committed performance from Evan Rachel Wood (“Westworld”), who plays Madonna – though in this story, the Material Girl is a sly, selfish seductress who clearly only uses Yankovic in the hope he will parody one. of his songs.
"I'm amazed the lawyers let us go with this movie, frankly," Yankovic said. "But they're like, Oh, yeah, all the public figures — go ahead. (A Madonna representative did not respond to a request for comment.)
Appel said Yankovic and Radcliffe were especially important in setting a professional tone as everyone worked at breakneck speed. And during post-production, Appel continued to communicate closely with Yankovic as the musician toured concerts in North America.
"When we were mixing the movie, he was on Zoom with us, all day, from a different city every day," Appel said. "He would text me between songs, 'I think the backing vocals on this song need to be turned up a little.' Then I started to respond and he was like, 'Oops, I have to get on stage.' "
"Bizarre" comes at a delicate time for the music industry. Streaming, which is in a period of revaluation and pullback after years of expansion, and for Roku, whose shares took a beating after the company missed its profit targets this summer.
While that might seem to put more pressure on the film to deliver an audience, the filmmakers could only shrug their shoulders and say they're just grateful they pulled it off.
"It's a new thing for them," Yankovic said of Roku. “I hope it will do them good. Radcliffe said he encountered more curiosity for "Weird" than for the Harry Potter reunion special he appeared in for HBO Max last January. "I still can't believe people didn't jump at the chance to make your movie," Radcliffe told Yankovic. “They are going to regret it now. »
The Weird Al of “Weird” and Real Al would now go their separate ways: Radcliffe was preparing for a revival of “Merrily We Roll Along” at the New York Theater Workshop, and Yankovic was to travel to Toronto that evening to continue his concert tour . (“We are in the home stretch now – another three months,” he said wryly.)
But they would always be united by their time together on "Weird" and the unique opportunity Radcliffe had to learn the accordion from Yankovic — at least enough to make him look like a competent musician in a movie.
"When you're playing against Al, not giving him a good, honest try feels like a wasted opportunity," Radcliffe said.
Yankovic replied, “Whenever I see someone playing the accordion on TV or in the movies, it's always a disappointment. (As a one-off, he picked Mary Steenburgen, who he says "can actually play.") "Dan made the effort," he said. “I don't know if he could do a solo performance. »
Radcliffe quickly replied, “No way, I couldn't. But I can do the left hand on 'My Bologna' quite effectively. I learned the bits I needed for the songs, one way or the other. He laughed and added, “Doing both at the same time is a no-start. »
Audio produced by Tally Abecassis.
SOURCE: Reviews News
Do not hesitate to share our article on social networks to give us a solid boost. 🤗