It’s one of the more interesting movie idea/casting choices of the last year: Daniel Radcliffe portraying Weird Al Yankovic in a biopic of the latter.
The film, helmed by the Roku Channel, doesn’t have a premiere date yet, though Radcliffe has been getting into the promo game for it. Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the actor detailed how the process has treated him so far and admitted that even he was baffled when the project was brought to him.
During the interview, Radcliffe opened up about how a prior television experience that featured Rihanna and also The Batman‘s Colin Farrell may have indirectly set him on the path to becoming the iconic parody musician.
“I sang ‘The Elements’ next to Colin Farrell and a very bemused Rihanna,” Radcliffe remembers of the experience, which took place on The Graham Norton Show.
“I think she was like, ‘Who is this kid, and why is he singing all of ‘The Elements’? …I guess Al saw that and was like, ‘This guy maybe gets it’, and so he picked me. I’m very, very lucky, and now I’ve gotten to have accordion lessons with Al. I can go to my grave with that.”
Watch Daniel Radcliffe’s interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon below.
Back in January, Weird Al tweeted Radcliffe’s Graham Norton performance, saying “There are MANY reasons why I wanted to cast Daniel Radcliffe in my movie, but this is what really clinched the deal for me. (He’s going to absolutely kill this.)”
Watch the clip below.
There are MANY reasons why I wanted to cast Daniel Radcliffe in my movie, but this is what really clinched the deal for me. (He’s going to absolutely kill this.) pic.twitter.com/TiDNXwQdtR
— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) January 26, 2022
In a feature with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year, Radcliffe described the significance of the role.
“Wearing the Hawaiian shirt is a huge responsibility that I don’t take lightly, and I’m honored to finally share with the world the absolutely 100 percent unassailably true story of Weird Al’s depraved and scandalous life.”
