-Our first guests tonight
are both pop culture icons
who've teamed up for the film "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,"
which premieres Friday, November 4th,
on the Roku Channel.
Let's take a look.
[ Rock polka plays ]
[ Laughter ]
-I've heard enough.
[ Laughter ]
-And what did you think?
-Do you know why they call it the music business?
-Uh, why?
-Because it's a business!
-It's a business!
-Use your head, kid.
Nobody wants to hear a parody song,
when they can hear the real thing for the same price!
Wh-What's the point?
-Yeah, it makes no financial sense, whatsoever.
[ Laughter ] -Please welcome back to the show
our friends Daniel Radcliffe and Weird Al Yankovic.
[ Cheering and applause ]
♪♪
I...
am so happy you're both here.
[ Cheering and applause continue ]
Now, I imagine, as --
[ Laughing ] Please, please.
Legends!
I mentioned this to you backstage
and, hopefully, there's at least one other person
who made the mistake I did.
When I watched that scene,
I googled who was the music executive
and it's you. -Yes.
[ Laughter ] Like your hair is so iconic
that, when you have a wig on,
you're literally un-- -I know.
Me and the Sea Captain. -Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So, gentlemen, this is based --
This is a wonderful film.
I laughed so hard.
It's based on a short from 2010 that was on Funny or Die.
-Yes. -So explain the inspiration.
-Well, Eric Appel, who directed the movie,
also directed the original Funny or Die clip back then
and I think he'd just seen the Notorious B.I.G. biopic,
which plays fast and loose with the facts.
And he thought, "You know, it would be funny
to do a fake biopic trailer for somebody who not only
is alive, currently, but who, famously,
you know, doesn't have a lot of scandal in their life."
And he thought of me. Also because like
how meta would it be to do a parody
of a guy that's famous for parodies?
-Yes. And I should note that the biggest fear
I had about this is it's such a funny idea
and that the execution wouldn't be as funny as the idea
and yet, it's so funny and there are so many surprises in it.
And when did you first become aware of Weird Al as a person?
-I think probably my first, like hone--
the same way I became acquainted
with almost all American culture before a certain age.
I think the first time I heard of you was "The Simpsons."
[ Laughter ]
And, again, that's why I know most of the things
I know about America.
[ Laughter ]
-We're all yellow here. -Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then I knew a few songs growing up
when I was a teenager, but it was really
when I started dating my girlfriend ten years ago.
Her and her whole family are devoted Al fans
and so that was like
the beginning of my proper education.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah. You took this very serious.
Not full method, but you did grow a mustache.
[ Laughter ] -Thanks. Yeah. No, no, no.
There's method, and then there's just growing some facial hair.
-He made the sacrifice. -Yeah, yeah.
I also -- If anyone has ever --
If anyone ever offers you fake facial hair to wear,
try not to. Try and grow your own. [ Laughter ]
-Just say no. -Yes.
-I think that's a very --
I had years where I, many times,
had to wear a fake mustache. It's never believable
and it almost -- you just -- It's like talking like --
You feel like your teeth are about to fall out.
-Everyone says, "Oh, It doesn't affect how you talk,"
and then you put it on, you're like,
[ Muffled ] "I think it does
a little bit."
[ Laughter ]
-Now, did you have a wish list, going into this,
of who would play sort of the Weird Al part?
-Daniel was number one on the list.
-Alright. I mean, honestly, Eric and I,
we made a small list because, you know,
we wanted to consider all the options,
but we always went back to Daniel's name
because -- for a number of --
It's like looking into a mirror
when I look at Daniel. -Right, yeah.
[ Laughter ] Yeah, yeah.
You can do a split screen between us
and you wouldn't even know. -Yeah, yeah.
No, but, you know, Daniel's amazing
at comedic acting and dramatic acting
and it's a comedy movie, obviously,
but we didn't want to play it like a comedy movie.
It's meant to be like a, you know,
like a Oscar bait Hollywood biopic, very dramatic.
-It is played very straight and that is what makes it
so deeply funny. But there is --
You mentioned that it plays fast and loose with the truth,
which is apparent incredibly early on,
but there are some nuggets of truth,
which is you did get your accordion
because a traveling salesman came to the house?
-Yeah, that's the crazy thing about this movie.
Some of the things that you would assume,
oh, we made that up, some of the things are true.
Like, you know, yeah, I took accordion lessons
because there was, in fact, a door-to-door salesmen
that came around like selling accordion lessons.
My first single, "My Bologna,"
was recorded in a public bathroom.
[ Laughter ]
I did singlehandedly fight a Colombian death squad.
-Yes. -No.
[ Laughter ]
-Did you give Daniel any accordion lessons?
Did you have to? -Yeah.
-Yeah. Although I have recently come clean to Al
that he might've been a tiny bit fast
as he was giving me lessons and so I was maybe doing
a little bit of nodding along and being like,
"Can I film you? And I will slow this down."
[ Laughter ]
But, yeah, but Al was gracious enough to --
The first time we met in person, we were sort of
doing recording lessons and me sort of showing
what I had learned up to that point.
Again, no one asked me to play accordion and, in fact,
several times, people were like, "It's not necessary.
Please stop..." [ Laughter ]
But I did. I just felt like,
if I was playing Al in a movie, it just feels lazy
to not at least like try to get a bit better at that.
-But you haven't continued on with your learning?
-I've continued on in that I still play
the four things I learned to play on our film. [ Laughter ]
And one day, you know, maybe I'll have another lesson.
-We've got an accordion for you right here.
[ Laughter ]
-Just like that is my nightmare.
[ Laughter ]
There's a wonderful scene at a pool
where there are just a million cameos.
And we were talking backstage.
Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone,
who are two-thirds of The Lonely Island,
they are in it as Alice Cooper and Pee-Wee Herman.
[ Cheering ] I know --
There you go. -Can I just
very quickly interrupt? -Yeah.
Jorma's Pee-Wee Herman is one of my favorite things
about the film and about filming it.
Like he is so funny and had that impression
locked and loaded, ready to go...
-Yeah. -...it feels like, yeah.
-Like he's been waiting his whole life
for someone to say, "Hey,
are you free on a Saturday to play Pee-Wee Herman?"
-One other thing about Jorma -- I mean, it's a low-budget movie
and Jorma wanted to be in it
and he flew himself out on his own dime from New York
to be in the movie. -Bless him.
-I'm sure whatever he paid him didn't cover the plane flight.
[ Laughter ] -Right.
Well, you can't see it onscreen.
It looks fantastic.
And I should note there are so many wonderful --
It seems like everybody who's in it is having so much fun.
And because, again,
people are doing impressions of beloved characters
and they're getting to play it straight,
it is such a delightful way to approach this whole thing.
Also, it was just Halloween and I have to ask
because you, I think, are one of --
you're a costume every year.
You post, every year, how many people.
And there really is all walks of life.
[ Laughter ]
All ages, all sexes,
everybody is getting onboard.
And then, of course, I feel like you have played --
I feel like all the characters you've played in your life
are equally represented on Halloween.
-Yes. There is a ton of Allen Ginsbergs
out there every year.
[ Laughter ]
Yes. No. It's lovely. I don't know
how you feel about it because it's actually you...
-No, it's lovely. It's great. -...if that's any stranger.
-It's lovely, yeah. I really enjoy it.
-You know, I imagine you, like everybody else,
have children come to your home for Halloween.
Do people ever -- Do kids ever see you and are taken aback?
-I think it's happened like once
that somebody dressed in Potter gear
has like come to our door.
It hasn't happened like a ton, you know, other than that.
But we've just moved to a new building,
so there's a whole new chance for it to happen.
But, yeah, it's mostly like out on the street,
you know, in the parade and stuff,
you see people around and you can just be like,
"Oh, yes, well done."
[ Laughter ]
-I imagine you tried pretty hard
on those nights to like dress away from the character.
-Yes. If I'm leaving the house,
I'm not dressing as Harry Potter.
[ Laughter ]
-You know, one of the nice things is,
you know, it's referenced in the film
that artists did, ultimately, come to appreciate most
of your songs as homage. I imagine not everyone.
But is it true, because it's a detail of the movie,
that it did sort of boost the sales of the original songs?
-That is actually true.
They call it the "Yankovic bump" in the movie.
[ Laughter ] But that is based on reality
because I heard from Nirvana's record label
that, when my parody "Smells Like Nirvana" was released,
they sold like an extra million units of "Nevermind."
So, you know, artists' record sales spike
when the parody comes out. So we kind of took
that little nugget and extrapolated it
into this whole subplot about Madonna
wanting that Yankovic bump! You know.
[ Laughter ]
-Do you have a favorite Weird Al song?
As we send people off.
-I mean, it changes a lot, but at the moment,
the song "Bob," speaks to the wordy, nerdy part of my brain
that is like entirely made of palindromes.
It is an amazing Bob Dylan impression.
And I also got to watch Al perform that the other night
at Carnegie Hall. -Well, there you go.
-Very, very special. -I will say, before we go,
I do remember the first time I heard "Eat It" on the radio
[ Laughter ] and, as a kid --
as a kid, I remember thinking,
"This [bleep] changes everything."
[ Laughter and applause ]
And in the movie, there's the same reaction in the movie,
as a joke and, as I'm watching, I'm like,
"No, that's how I felt."
[ Laughter ]
It's so great. It is lovely to see you both.
Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
[ Cheering and applause ] Daniel Radcliffe, Weird Al Yankovic.
"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story"
premieres Friday on the Roku Channel.
We'll be right back with Kerry Condon.