Daniel Radcliffe Transforms Into 'Weird Al' Yankovic In First Look At New Biopic

The "Harry Potter" star said that stepping into the role of the legendary parody musician is "a huge responsibility that I don’t take lightly."
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Audiences got their first look at Daniel Radcliffe in “Weird Al” Yankovic mode this week, with the release of a photo showing the “Harry Potter” actor at work on a forthcoming Roku Channel biopic.

The image, unveiled Tuesday, shows Radcliffe on the set of “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” dressed in one of Yankovic’s signature tropical-print shirts and playing an accordion. (The hair and mustache suggest we’re looking at a Yankovic pretty early on in his career, maybe around his “Another One Rides the Bus” era.)

“Wearing the Hawaiian shirt is a huge responsibility that I don’t take lightly,” Radcliffe said in a statement, “and I’m honored to finally share with the world the absolutely 100% unassailably true story of Weird Al’s depraved and scandalous life.”

Daniel Radcliffe in the Roku Channel's "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story."
Daniel Radcliffe in the Roku Channel's "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story."
Roku Channel

Yankovic, a California native, is a five-time Grammy winner and the biggest-selling comedy recording artist of all time. He rose to fame in the early 1980s when his Michael Jackson and Madonna parodies made him a fixture on MTV.

In more recent years, he’s expanded his catalog to include versions of Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga hits, and pastiches of any number of artists and musical styles. His 2014 album “Mandatory Fun” is the first comedy album in history to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard’s Top 200 chart.

According to press notes, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” will explore “every facet of Yankovic’s life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like ‘Eat It’ and ‘Like a Surgeon’ to his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle.” (These are jokes, one assumes; Vulture noted last month that the real Yankovic is “a vegetarian, teetotaling churchgoer.”) Yankovic himself co-wrote the film’s screenplay with director Eric Appel.

Yankovic said he was “absolutely thrilled” to learn that Radcliffe had signed on for the project. “I have no doubt whatsoever that this is the role future generations will remember him for,” he quipped last month.

Radcliffe, meanwhile, is gearing up to return to the big screen alongside Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum in “The Lost City,” due to open in theaters in March.

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