RuPaul's Drag Race queen Nina West plays drag icon Divine in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
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Miss Congeniality is getting down, dirty, and weird as the drag legend once proudly named "the filthiest person alive."
EW can exclusively reveal that RuPaul's Drag Race season 11 alum and Hairspray stage star Nina West will play Divine — the drag performer and John Waters muse who made waves in 1972 cult classic Pink Flamingos — opposite Daniel Radcliffe's titular character in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
Weird, a satirical biopic directed by Eric Appel, is slated to premiere midnight ET on Friday as part of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival lineup.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images; Everett Collection; Roku 'RuPaul's Drag Race' queen Nina West joins 'Weird: The Al Yankovic Story' as drag legend Divine.
Weird follows Radcliffe as Yankovic, from his upbringing through to his excessive career entanglements with professional woes and romantic disasters.
Nina, an LGBTQ activist and voice actor, joins the production among a cast of other stars playing real-life figures in a heightened re-telling of Yankovic's career. Evan Rachel Wood appears as Madonna, while Quinta Brunson plays Oprah Winfrey. Other supporting performances include Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, and Toby Huss and Julianne Nicholson as Yankovic's parents.
This is not the first time Nina has taken on a role tied to Divine. The entertainer joined Hairspray's ongoing national tour in the role of Edna Turnblad, which was previously played by Divine in Waters' 1988 film of the same name.
"I've felt they were my queer parents in a way," Nina previously told EW of following in the high-heeled footsteps of both Divine and Harvey Fierstein, who also played Edna on stage. "These men are titans of our community. I feel the weight of it. I feel the enormity of it. But I also feel incredibly at ease about the whole thing, as I know I'm supposed to bring my own version and self to Edna. That's what each of these men did, and I'm lucky enough that I get to do my own version of Edna now."
The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival runs through Sept. 18.
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