Things are about to get weird. Daniel Radcliffe will play Weird Al Yankovic in an upcoming biopic about the musician and comedian.
Yankovic, 62, wrote the script for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which will be available exclusively on The Roku Channel. The film’s official description humorously notes that it will “hold nothing back” as it chronicles the Grammy winner’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.”
The UHF star also praised Radcliffe, 33, in a statement about his casting released on Tuesday, January 18. “I am absolutely thrilled that Daniel Radcliffe will be portraying me in the film,” Yankovic said. “I have no doubt whatsoever that this is the role future generations will remember him for.”
Over the years, the Harry Potter alum has previously shown off his musical prowess on late night talk shows, most notably by rapping “Alphabet Aerobics” during an October 2014 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In 2011, Radcliffe starred as J. Pierrepont Finch in the Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which required months of vocal and dance lessons in preparation.
“I was going: ‘OK, yeah, I’ll do dance lessons, fine. But you are swimming against the tide here,'” Radcliffe told The New York Times in March 2011 about embarking on his year-long dance training ahead of opening night. While he wasn’t confident at the time about his ability to master the choreography, Radcliffe told the outlet that he hoped his passion would make up for it.
“If you’re enthusiastic enough about stuff — even if you’re not good at it — your enthusiasm will get you to the point where people allow you to do it enough so that you become good at it,” Radcliffe said.
The Miracle Workers’ star has been open about his quest to find roles that differentiate him from The Boy Who Lived since wrapping up the Potter films in 2017. “[I wanted] to show people that [I’m] not just Harry Potter,” he told Esquire in March 2020. “It fit in nicely with the ambition of wanting to do a great variety of roles, which has always been something I’ve admired in other people’s careers who’ve hopped from genre to genre and done what they like.”
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story does not yet have a release date. Radcliffe can next be seen in The Lost City, which will be hit theaters on March 25.