“Weird: The Al Yankovich Story” stars Daniel Radcliffe (Weird Al Yankovic), Evan Rachel Wood (Madonna) and writer/director Eric Appel discuss their new biopic in this interview with CinemaBlend's Mike Reyes. They talk about the film’s most absurd moments, how they scored their awesome cameos, and just how much of Madonna’s persona was truly based on the pop-star.
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00:00 - It's like Dr. Evil version of Madonna
00:03 that we have going on.
00:03 - And it's normally just like after a line
00:05 where I've said something like,
00:06 "Well, I trust you completely."
00:07 - Yeah, I love you more than anything.
00:08 (laughing)
00:10 - My whole life, all I wanted
00:13 is to make up new words to a song that already exists.
00:16 - Oh, well you should do that then.
00:19 (upbeat music)
00:22 - So Dan, I wanted to start with you.
00:24 Obviously you got to talk to Al
00:26 about how to portray his epic true life story.
00:29 But what I want to know is,
00:30 did you get any tips from him on how to handle an accordion?
00:33 'Cause those things get pretty heavy.
00:35 - Dude, literally most of the notes he gave me on set
00:39 were accordion notes.
00:41 And it was mostly the same note,
00:42 which is like, "Can you like pump it more, please?"
00:46 'Cause I think he, you know,
00:48 you can make an accordion make sound
00:49 with not very much movement there,
00:52 but he's accomplished and good at the instrument.
00:55 So he would like to look that way in his own life story.
00:58 And so he was coming in and just like gave,
01:00 honestly, that was pretty much it.
01:02 And he gave me a few, like,
01:03 we had a couple of lessons
01:04 where he was trying to teach me some stuff
01:06 and I picked up some of it, but also, you know,
01:09 he plays very fast and it's sometimes hard
01:11 to keep track of what's going on.
01:13 I literally like, having been able to play the accordion
01:16 as little as I can, I don't know how he like runs around
01:19 and plays polkas at the same time.
01:21 It is still incredible to me.
01:23 - There are a few things that ended up
01:25 on the cutting room floor.
01:28 Mostly it was, you know,
01:30 the tone that we were going for in this movie,
01:32 we're playing things really straight and really dramatic,
01:35 as absurd as the comedy gets.
01:37 Like all the actors are playing like
01:40 at the top of their emotional intelligence.
01:43 And whenever there was a gag or a joke
01:48 or a beat in one of the scenes
01:50 that was a little too pushed comedically
01:54 or like was just sort of like broke our tone a little bit.
01:59 We chopped it out.
02:02 One example, oh, here's a good example.
02:06 There in the trailer, in the first teaser that came out,
02:08 there's a shot where Dan says,
02:11 "Give me my accordion, three accordions come in, you know,
02:13 "somebody get me an accordion."
02:15 And it's like, it's really funny
02:17 and it feels like it's straight out
02:18 of a Weird Al music video, right?
02:19 It's like hilarious that there happens
02:22 to be three accordions randomly at this party
02:24 and they all come into frame.
02:25 - Anyone got an accordion?
02:27 - But like in the actual scene,
02:30 in trying to like build tension,
02:33 we're building up to him performing this song
02:35 in front of people.
02:36 A joke like that, as fun and visual as it was,
02:40 it just sort of like broke, it broke the tension.
02:43 And it like, you know, it made it so like
02:45 when he plays the song, it doesn't hit as hard.
02:48 So it was little things like that.
02:50 Thankfully we were able to put that moment in the trailer,
02:52 but there's like little moments like that
02:54 sprinkled throughout the movie
02:55 that had to come out for that reason.
02:57 I mean, maybe we'll, maybe all those things
02:59 that ended up on the floor,
03:00 we will release the Yankovic cut at some point
03:03 and put all that stuff back in.
03:06 - Now, Evan, you get to play the inimitable
03:09 and the dangerous Madonna.
03:11 Obviously there was that line between reality and fiction.
03:15 Can you give me the best example
03:16 of where that line between mimicry
03:18 and just digging into the weirdness really came into play?
03:21 - Oh, I don't want to give anything away,
03:25 but like anytime she, you know,
03:29 had these moments of like the villain twirling the mustache,
03:33 you know, whenever weird isn't looking at her
03:36 and she's just got this like twisted conniving,
03:39 like look on her face was probably,
03:42 those were the moments where it's like all day,
03:44 I'd be doing this, you know,
03:46 try to stay very true to the Madonna voice
03:48 and the Madonna vibe.
03:49 And then, you know, there would be these
03:51 just like ridiculous over the top villain moments
03:54 that like I would be asked to do.
03:56 And those always really made me laugh.
03:58 It's like Dr. Evil version of Madonna
04:01 that we have going on.
04:02 - And it's normally just like after a line
04:03 where I've said something like,
04:04 "Well, I trust you completely."
04:05 - Yeah, I love you more than anything.
04:07 (laughing)
04:09 - I think Madonna's a bad influence on you.
04:11 - What?
04:12 - No offense.
04:13 - If I remember reading correctly,
04:14 Aaron Paul was on tap for a cameo just,
04:17 and just before he was about to film and everything,
04:20 he was revealed to have COVID.
04:21 - Yes.
04:22 - Can you tell me what his cameo was supposed to be?
04:25 - Yeah, he was supposed to be a biker at the,
04:29 there's a scene where Al plays,
04:31 I Love Rocky Road at like a biker bar.
04:33 And Aaron was supposed to be like a heckler,
04:38 you know, just shouting Al down from the audience.
04:42 Yeah.
04:43 - This movie, I mean, this was just,
04:45 I was pleased to see how many cameos you got in here.
04:48 Was there anyone that you asked that declined
04:51 or just couldn't make it into the schedule?
04:53 - It was, no one flat out declined,
04:57 but there were, I think we went out to Mark Hamill
05:02 at one point, 'cause all of our cameos
05:06 were like our friends of Al's.
05:08 You know, we basically just, Al handed me his,
05:10 you know, Rolodex and was like,
05:11 "Go through there and let me know if you,
05:13 you know, any of these names I have
05:16 or people that you want to, you know, cast."
05:19 And then he would simply email or text the person
05:21 and ask them if they wanted to do it
05:22 and get immediate responses.
05:24 Everyone loves Al.
05:25 People are like, "Yeah, of course.
05:26 Tell me where to show up."
05:28 Mark Hamill, I can't remember what we went out to him for,
05:31 but unfortunately, yeah, I think he,
05:33 schedule wouldn't allow him to do it,
05:35 which, I mean, it would have been amazing to have him,
05:38 you know, we almost had Harry Potter
05:40 and Luke Skywalker to see together.
05:42 - See you around, kid.
05:45 - What was your favorite
05:46 or what was the most ridiculous moment to you
05:49 out of that whole collection?
05:51 - There were a couple of places I couldn't stop laughing.
05:53 One is when you're getting the phone call about "Eat It"
05:56 and you're like smashing the phone.
05:58 That was so, that was such a hilarious scene to shoot.
06:02 And like, I can't give the cameo away of the gator,
06:05 but when you knock the food out of his hand,
06:08 it just, that whole day was so epically like ridiculous.
06:12 - I mean, yeah, that's the thing.
06:16 It's so hard to pick.
06:17 I mean, the moment where I am coming out of an egg
06:22 covered in goo, naked, playing a guitar,
06:26 that was definitely like one of those where you're like,
06:27 wow, this is pretty out there.
06:30 And I, yeah, that's the thing.
06:32 You almost did get desensitized to it
06:36 'cause every day brought something and like something new.
06:39 And, but that was, yeah, that was part of the joy.
06:42 And part of the joy, like when I read the script,
06:43 you could just read that and go like,
06:45 oh, this is gonna be fun.
06:46 Like this is obviously gonna be incredible fun to make.
06:49 - Has there been any talk about bringing
06:51 Weird the Ali Yankovic Story to theaters?
06:54 - I mean, there's a lot of, we, it's,
06:58 I would love for that to happen.
07:01 I don't necessarily think that it is going to,
07:04 but you know, Roku's been kind enough
07:07 to set up all these amazing like festival screenings for us.
07:11 You know, we just played Beyond Fest in Los Angeles.
07:14 There's a handful of other, you know,
07:16 screenings coming up leading to our premiere.
07:19 And who knows, I feel like maybe someday
07:22 this feels like the kind of movie
07:24 that is going to have midnight screenings.
07:27 You know, it's like Rocky Horror,
07:29 like Wet Hot American Summer,
07:31 that people are gonna be showing up in Hawaiian shirts
07:34 and, you know, watching this movie in theaters,
07:37 you know, down the line for years.
07:39 I mean, that's the best life that I could,
07:41 you know, ever hope for it to have.
07:43 - Well, unfortunately our time is wrapped up today,
07:45 but I just want to say before I go,
07:47 you both have given the best Zucker Brothers style
07:50 make-out scene in history,
07:52 and I want to applaud you for that.
07:54 - That is huge.
07:55 There is truly no compliment higher.
07:57 - Thank you very much. - That's awesome.
07:58 Thank you.
07:59 (laughing)
08:00 (upbeat music)
08:00 - Thank you.
08:01 (upbeat music)
08:04 (upbeat music)
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