The actor known for the role of Harry Potter participates in a satirical narrative
Overall, Strano Al Yankovic e Daniel Radcliffe they will never be confused with each other. Yankovic is a lean, hairy boy from Southern California who has become an accordion genius and a parodist master of pop music. Radcliffe is the London prodigy of the Harry Potter films who has since built an eclectic acting career.
Yet, last winter, during the production of the new film Strange: the story of Al Yankovic, their simultaneous presence on the set created a bit of confusion. When team members called “Weird Al” [algo como Al Esquisitão], they wanted to call the actor who played him, or Radcliffe. Over time, for clarity, they began to refer to the authentic Yankovic as the “Real Al”, even if some misdirection was inevitable.
As Yankovic explained in a recent conversation with Radcliffe: “Every time I passed the ‘Weird Al’ sign in your trailer, I was like” – he stopped – “Oh no, it’s not me, no.”
This is the effect that the creators of Strange I hope to create in public when Roku releases the biopic on November 4th. It’s a satirical and highly unfounded account of Yankovic’s rise from a young nerdy accordionist to a beloved performer of hit songs such as My Bologna, another goes by bus And eat itwith stories of sex, drugs and jungle fighting that never happened to him.
“I hope it confuses a lot of people,” Yankovic said Strange, who wrote with the film’s director, Eric Appel. “We want to leave people wondering: is this a real biopic? Is this story true? The film starts off quite normally. Then, little by little, it goes off the rails.”
Crucial to fulfilling this premise is the casting of Radcliffe, an enthusiastic Yankovic fan who bears little resemblance to the musician and had no intention of imitating him.
Despite all the attention he always gets, Radcliffe said he liked it Strange precisely because the film allowed him to follow his post-Potter path in more unexpected roles. Playing Yankovic, at least as he is portrayed in the film, was exactly the task Radcliffe was looking for.
Radcliffe began to say, “There was nothing strange about this – now it’s hard to use the word ‘strange’ in other contexts – there was nothing unusual.” He added that even before reading the script and being invited to play Yankovic, “I was very, very interested in the idea.”
During a breakfast interview last month at a downtown Manhattan restaurant, Yankovic, 62, and Radcliffe, 33, showed lovely affection for each other. There have been many “go, you can talk”, “no, go” moments. It was as if neither of them knew who the celebrity was and who the admirer was.
Similar energy
They said there was a similar energy in their first video chat of winter 2020 when Yankovic was pitching Radcliffe the idea of starring in the film. “Sometimes I have a problem when I like something and I really want to do it,” Radcliffe said. “I get carried away. I get very, very repetitive.”
Strange it was a passion project for Yankovic, who has released 14 studio albums since 1983 but starred in only one film, the 1989 cult comedy UHF.
In 2010, Appel wrote and directed a trailer joke for a non-existent movie, also called Strange. With Aaron Paul (breaking Bad) as a festive version of Yankovic, the video was posted on Funny or Die and went viral.
Over the years, Yankovic presented the fake trailer at his shows, where some fans believed the video was advertising an actual movie.
“People were saying, ‘You should make a whole movie,'” Yankovic said. “And I was like, ‘Nah, it’s just a trailer. That’s just what it should be: a joke.'”
But more recently, following the success of other rock biopic films such as Bohemian Rhapsody And Rocket manYankovic began to take the idea of a film version of seriously Strange.
An initial effort to present the idea of Strange in Hollywood it was not successful. The studios seemed to be hoping for a film that would more directly satirize existing biopic films, in the same way that Yankovic’s songs parodied hit singles. “People thought it would be more fun, more Run, the police are coming!more All in a panic“, said Appello.
So he and Yankovic sat in a bar and watched trailers for other biopic films and searched for battered ideas. Together they wrote a script in which, Yankovic said, “the facts are arbitrarily altered, just for the sake of altering them.”
regardless of what Strange can portray, Yankovic did not compose his music My Bologna in a spontaneous moment of out-of-body inspiration. Also, she said, “I shot it in the bathroom, not at the bus station. Why do we change? Just because that’s what biopic movies do.”
Their film still needed a starring role and they thought of Radcliffe, who they knew loved comedic musicians like Tom Lehrer.
It turns out that Radcliffe loved Yankovic’s music too, as did his longtime girlfriend, actress Erin Darke, who was a longtime fan and played Yankovic’s albums on the go.
With Radcliffe on board, Roku agreed to make the film. But the company only accepted 18 days of filming, which led to an incredibly tight schedule, with a project where it had to perform several pieces of music (voicing Yankovic’s original vocals) as well as doing some action sequences.
“Such a scene Potter it could take sixteen days, ”Radcliffe said.
He then used his pre-production time to memorize the lines and choreography and get into physical shape. (“I realized I’m shirtless for longer in the movie than anything I’ve ever done,” she said.)
And when the cameras started rolling, everyone held out. “Covid was terrifying, especially for me and Eric,” Radcliffe said. “There is no plan B. We just have to not get sick.”
Even before filming began, comedian Patton Oswalt, who was cast in the role of Dr. Demento, the radio host who gave Yankovic some of his first on-air appearances, broke his foot. While discussing whether Oswalt could play the role of crutches, Rainn Wilson (The office) promptly assumed the role.
Madonna
The production was also boosted by a committed performance by Evan Rachel Wood (Western world), who plays Madonna – although, in this story, the Material Girl is a shrewd and selfish seductress who is clearly just using Yankovic in hopes that he parodies one of her songs.
“I’m surprised the lawyers are letting us get away with this film, frankly,” Yankovic said. “But they just say, like, oh yeah, go ahead.” (A Madonna representative did not respond to a request for comment.)
Appel said Yankovic and Radcliffe were particularly important in setting a professional tone as they all worked at breakneck speed. And during post-production, Appel continued to communicate closely with Yankovic while the musician was on tour in North America.
“When we were mixing the movie, he was on Zoom with us all day from a different city every day,” said Appel. “He would write to Me in between songs: ‘I think the choruses on this song need to improve a little.’
Strange It’s coming at an awkward time for the streaming industry, which is in a period of revaluation and retirement after years of expansion, and for Roku, whose stock took a hit after the company missed its profit targets. ‘summer.
While this might add pressure in terms of ratings, the filmmakers just shrugged and said they were grateful for making the film.
“It’s new to them,” Yankovic said of Roku. “I hope it does him good.”
Radcliffe said he found more interest in Strange compared to the Harry Potter reunion special in which he appeared on HBO Max last January. “I still can’t believe that people haven’t jumped at the opportunity to make their own film,” Radcliffe told Yankovic. “Now they will regret it.” / Tradition by Renato Prelorentzou
Source: Terra
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
