Daniel Radcliffe’s immediate desire to learn the accordion told Al Yankovic the actor was the man to play him on ‘Weird’ – Contenders TV

“As soon as I saw Harry Potter, I thought, ‘Hey, one day… my doppelganger!’ “Weird Al” Yankovic joked he was inspired to cast Daniel Radcliffe as his on-screen alter ego in Roku’s biographical parody Strange: The Story of Al Yankovic.

But seriously, musical satirist and director Eric Appel agreed that it was the actor’s almost immediate commitment to the role that made Radcliffe her Weird Al, the pair revealed on Sunday’s Deadline’s Contenders TV panel.

“He took it very seriously,” explains Appel. “And during our first meeting with him, when he signed up for it about two years before it was made, he asked the question at the end of our Zoom call: ‘What kind of accordion should I buy? I’m going to learn to play the accordion.’”

Radcliffe eventually learned the instrument himself with the help of master Yankovic. “I gave him lessons,” revealed the five-time Grammy winner. “I even made some tutorial videos, like where to put your fingers on the keys. Like only five people know he actually does it, but he actually puts the right buttons on the accordion!

Yankovic and Appel, who co-wrote the screenplay, were drawn to Radcliffe for his adventurous work following his starring role in the wildly popular Harry Potter franchise. “It really impressed us,” says Yankovic. “He’s made some very interesting decisions in terms of the roles he’s taken on – a lot foreign roles, which made us think that he would probably be a good fit for our film.

Appel added, “He does comedy and drama so well. We wanted our actors to play it really honestly and not push the comedy too much, and Radcliffe got exactly what we wanted.

They saw in Radcliffe an actor who would do anything to play the part as honestly as possible, despite the extravagance of the fake biography. “We tried not to think, ‘Who doesn’t look like Al?'” Yankovic said. “It was anybody who could, who could pull off the comedy and the drama, because it was a very, very specific tone that we were going for, and there are very few actors in our minds who could actually pull it off. And we were so impressed with Daniel’s work that we thought he was the right man.”

Casting Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna was another hit inspired by the comedy’s counterintuitive approach, although they were unaware of the actress’ considerable musical talent. “After she was in a movie, we saw her The Tonight Show sing a Madonna song,” Yankovic said, “and we were like, ‘Why didn’t we have her sing in the film? She is wonderful! She sounds just like Madonna!’”

Check back Tuesday for the panel video.

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