In a packed theater with attendees wearing Weird Al’s iconic Hawaiian shirts, the biographical spoof of the iconic musician’s life had the first crowd completely hooked and eating up every second, from Radcliffe’s impressive accordion-playing impression of Weird Al to the comic. “origin stories” of hit songs like “Eat It,” “My Bologna” and “Amish Paradise.” Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Courtesy of TIFF) In the Q&A following the screening, Radcliffe stressed that there was “very little convincing” to get him to play Yankovic in this film, but admitted that learning how to play the accordion is quite difficult, as his preparation also includes sending video back. -and beyond with Jankovic. “I did my best, it’s a very tough instrument, it makes it look very easy,” the actor said. “It was probably about a month before I learned the lyrics to ‘My Bologna’ and the chorus.” Wood joked that she was “luckily” in the trailer next to Radcliffe as he practiced. For Wood to play Madonna, she said she loved the singer since she was a child and revealed that there are home movies of her dressed as the “material girl”, but when Wood got the role she spent hours watching videos of Madonna. especially interviews from the 80s. TORONO, ONTARIO – SEPTEMBER 08: (LR) Eric Appel, Daniel Radcliffe, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic and Evan Rachel Wood attend the ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’ premiere during the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival at the Royal Alexandra Theater on September 08, 2022 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images) Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is one of the most engaging films you’ll see, and the idea of a biographical spoof is masterfully executed under the guidance of Yankovic himself. He also co-wrote and directed Appel, who created a 2010 parody biopic of the musical artist. The highlight is a particularly hysterical scene with a bunch of unmissable celebrity cameos. We won’t completely spoil the surprise but we will say that Jack Black is involved and Conan O’Brien transforms into Andy Warhol. Appel revealed that there were some moments left on the cutting room floor, starting the #ReleaseTheYankovicCut trend, with Yankovic adding that a second film to follow seems like a good transition. Honestly, we agree.
