My bologna! Daniel Radcliffe dished on his role as “Weird Al” Yankovic in the upcoming faux-biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story in a new cover story on Wednesday (Oct. 26).
Sitting down with GQ, the Harry Potter star revealed he actually wasn’t a major fan of the accordion-playing parodist growing up, and was only educated about being a Yankovic fan by his girlfriend of nearly 10 years, actress Erin Darke, and her family in the early days of their relationship.
However, once he had been approached and read the script for the film, which is out Nov. 4 on Roku, the actor was all in. “When I want to do something, I’m not good at hiding it,” he told GQ. “My immediate reaction was, ‘I would be very honored to play you in this movie.’ But also: Why me?”
It turns out, part of the reason Radcliffe wanted to tackle such a zany role — even learning the accordion and growing a Yankovic-style mustache for it — was because of the decade he spent playing The Boy Who Lived. “I had this awareness that people expected we would do nothing after Potter — that we would fade away,” he said. “I really wanted that not to be the case, because I knew that I loved it, and I wanted to do whatever I have to do to have a career with longevity.”
While Radcliffe’s performance as “Weird Al” earned raves and applause at the movie’s midnight premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival back in September, Weird also stars Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Quinta Brunson as Oprah and Rainn Wilson as radio broadcaster Dr. Demento.
Get a look at Radcliffe’s wacky GQ cover below.
