'Harry Potter' star Daniel Radcliffe goes weird in trailer of Weird Al Yankovic biopic
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is trading his renowned good boy hairdo, wizard robes, and magic wand for curly locks and mustache, Hawaiian shirts, and accordion in the upcoming biopic of Grammy-winning musician "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, whose trailer was published Aug. 29, will explore the life of Yankovic, from his humble beginnings to his rise to fame by parodying hits.
As the synopsis goes, "The biopic holds nothing back, exploring 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."
"My whole life all I wanted was to make up new words to a song that already exists," Radcliffe says as Weird Al.
Though as a biopic, it's set to take liberties in depicting aspects of Yankovic's life. At least in the trailer, Radcliffe's Weird Al is seen smoking cigarette and drinking liquor, though the artist is known to be wholesome because of his Christian upbringing. The real-life Weird Al has also been a vegetarian for decades and has since abstained from vices, aside from not uttering profanities.
The trailer also showed him having a steamy affair with pop star Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood), who visits him in his Beverly Hills mansion to ask if he'll parody her hit Like a Virgin, before they passionately make out against the wall.
Weird also features Quinta Brunson as the iconic talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, the radio broadcaster who's credited for helping Weird Al get national attention.
It will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada on Sept. 8 and will stream worldwide on The Roku Channel starting Nov. 4.
Yankovic has five Grammy awards under his belt and is considered the biggest-selling comedy recording artist of all time. His 2014 studio album Mandatory Fun was the first-ever comedy album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200.