Daniel Radcliffe revealed that Weird Al Yankovic himself taught him to play the accordion for 'WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story'.
Since leaving the 'Harry Potter' series, Radcliffe has played a corpse, an undercover neo-Nazi and a guy with two guns bolted to his hands. It's fair to say, he's taken the path less followed in terms of his acting career. And, to be fair to him, he's gone all in.
Radcliffe now takes on the nerdiness of Weird Al Yankovic, the famous parody songwriter who shot to fame in the 80's. In what is essentially a satirical parody itself, 'WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story' explores the "true" events that lead the comedic singer to fame.
In an interview for the New York Times, Radcliffe spoke about his upcoming role as Yankovic.
"When you’re playing Al, to not give it a good, honest attempt seems a wasted opportunity." Radcliffe was talking about how he attempted to learn accordion from the man himself in order to accurately portray him on screen.
Yankovic replied, "Every time I see somebody play the accordion on TV or film, it’s always a disappointment. Dan put in the effort."
He did add, however, "I don’t know if he could do a solo performance."
Radcliffe quickly responded, "No way, I could not. But I can do the left hand on 'My Bologna' pretty effectively. I learned the bits I needed for the songs, on one hand or the other. Doing them both at the same time is a nonstarter."
'WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story' arrives on the Roku Channel on November 4.
