'Weird Al' on Getting Madonna's Permission for His New Biopic

"I really, really hope she can take a joke. I think she can," Weird Al says.

The crazily embellished life story of the pop-music parodist comes to the screen in the satirical musical biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Nov. 4 on the Roku Channel). Yankovic, 63, was a co-writer on the movie, which stars Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe, 33, as a young man with an accordion—and dreams of changing the world with his songs.

This isn’t a legit biopic; how would you describe it?

Well, part of me wants people to walk in and watch the movie not really knowing, not really sure of the veracity of the whole thing; thinking they might actually be seeing a real biopic, and at some point they go, “Wait a minute. This doesn’t seem quite right.”

Related: More Information on the "Weird Al" Biopic

Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t exactly “fit” you appearance-wise, but he seems to “get” you.

Yeah. Because when Daniel was cast, a bunch of people online were like, “Why didn’t you get…?” Fill in the actor’s name with somebody who has long, curly hair. And I’d be like, “You know, a wig takes care of that very easily. It’s harder to find an actor that can pull off the role.”

At the end of the movie Al says, “Live the life you want to live.” Is that the heart of the story?

It’s a comedy movie first and foremost, but that’s the subtext of it and of my whole career. I didn’t necessarily mean this when I dubbed myself “Weird Al” back in college, but I’ve heard from so many people that the fact that I own my weirdness was inspirational to [those] who felt like they didn’t belong, or they were outcasts. I’ve made them feel like it’s OK to be different.

When you look back at your career, is there one thing you’re most proud of?

The thing that still boggles my mind is that in 2014, I had the No. 1 album in the country. I never thought that was even remotely possible, because comedy albums just didn’t do that. My Mandatory Fun album was the first comedy album to hit No. 1 since 1963. The fact that it made history is something that I still smile about.

Why tell this story now?

Well, the movie is based on a Funny or Die video that Eric Appel made back in 2010. Back then, it was lampooning the biopics that had come out recently like Ray and Walk the Line, things like that. It got a great reaction online, and I used it as part of my live concert shows, because we do costume changes, and we have videos on the big screen while we’re doing those changes. We always show that video, and it always got a huge reaction.

Fans were saying, “This is amazing, you should do a real movie.” And I’d say, “Well, I’m glad you like it, but I think it’s really just a sketch. It’s meant to be a three-minute funny fake trailer.” But then nine years later I woke up one morning and said, “No, wait a minute, this should absolutely be a real movie,” because we were getting inundated again with a new crop of biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman.

[They are] great movies, except they really played fast and loose with the facts, which as a fan of both Elton John and Queen, that bothered me because I wanted to know the real story. But they were changing things around for artistic and dramatic purposes and I thought, OK, well, how about if I do a biopic but I just throw all the facts out the window? So I just thought it was the right time.

How did Harry Potter—I mean Daniel Radcliffe—come to play you?

It was a blue-sky situation. [Director] Eric Appel and I were sitting around going, “Who do we want to play me?” We thought, “Let’s start at the top, with Daniel Radcliffe.” We were amazed when he got on a Zoom with us and was, “Yeah!” Even though he’s not an exact physical doppelganger of me, I think that internally he understands the mindset.

How did you get the idea for Radcliffe?

I knew that Daniel and I were sort of kindred spirits because I’d seen him on a British TV show a decade ago where he performed a Tom Lehrer song, and Tom Lehrer's one of my all-time musical heroes. The fact that he loved Tom Lehrer as well I thought, OK, there’s some kind of kinship there. I think he maybe kind of gets me.

You cast yourself as music mogul Tony Scotti.

That was an homage to the original Funny or Die trailer because I played the record executive in the original. I’m the only person doing the same part in the trailer as well as the movie. Otherwise, we totally recast it. I just thought it would be fun and it was a nod to that. And also, it’s making fun of the trope of the cheeky cameo, the wink-wink cameo, like, “Oh, isn’t it funny that Al is turning himself down for a record deal kind of thing.”

Speaking of cameos: Conan O’Brien, Jack Black, Michael McKean, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the list goes on. Are these people all friends and fans?

Mostly, yeah. I did a lot of the casting out of my address book. Thankfully Roku allowed us to shoot this in Los Angeles. Originally, we were considering Atlanta, which would have been great, but the fact that we were shooting in L.A. meant that I could call in a lot of favors. Because I couldn’t call Conan O’Brien and say, “Hey, you want to fly to Atlanta to be in a movie for 10 seconds?” But a lot of my friends were willing to drive across town to be in that crazy party scene. So that was an amazing day to get all those people together in one place.

The Madonna character [Evan Rachel Wood] plays such a big role in this—as a cocaine-fueled singer who uses Weird Al to advance her career. Did you have to get permission from her?

Well, I left that up to the lawyers, and the lawyers said we didn’t need to. I deferred to them. We had to get permission from everybody whose music we were using. And the odd thing is, “Like a Virgin” was not actually written by Madonna, but by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, so we didn’t need to clear that through Madonna. The lawyers just said, “Madonna’s a public figure and, hopefully, she’s fine with it.” So I hope she thinks it’s funny. She’s a big part of the movie, and I really, really hope she can take a joke. I think she can.

You’ve been doing this for a long time, but today we have a lot of celebrities saying, “Oh no, I’m really a nerd.” And you look at them and you think, “Come on...”

It’s only been in the last 15 years or so that it’s been cool to be a nerd. And yeah, it’s so funny to me that all these people are like, “Oh, yeah, no, I’m a total nerd, I’ve always been a nerd.” When I was in high school, nobody wanted to sit with me at the lunch table. It was not cool to be a nerd back then, so I’m glad that people are finally realizing that nerds are responsible for making all our cool toys, and nerds actually do kind of rule the world. But it was a long time coming and the nerds have had a tough go of it for a lot of years.

In real life, were your parents supportive as opposed to what happens in the film?

Absolutely. We’re about the furthest thing removed from a show-business family. Never in a million years would my parents have thought I’d make my living in show business, but they were always supportive, and my parents were always extremely proud. My dad would show my high school senior picture to the checkout lady at the grocery store and say, “Hey, there’s my kid, Weird Al, you ever heard of him?” They always got a really, really big kick out of it.

The nice thing about Weird Al in this is he does get to achieve his dream. We’re not giving anything away because people do know your career. Do you feel that way about your real life? Are you living the dream?

I absolutely do feel that way. I’m on a six-month tour, which is tough because I’m married and I’ve got a daughter in college now, and I miss them terribly. But it’s like a little family out on the road and it doesn’t get old for me. I love performing, it’s a thrill. I love the fact that I’ve been able to make a living doing specifically what I love to do. I don’t think a lot of people can truly say that, so I feel blessed. I wake up every morning still happy that I get to be Weird Al.

When you were younger, was there somebody who inspired you to combine music and comedy? Or was it just something that struck you?

Well, when I was 8 years old, I was making fun of the songs on the radio. And I certainly wasn’t the first kid in the world to do that; I think that happens to every kid at some point or another. But if you’re going to credit one person for really turning the key in my brain, it was definitely Dr. Demento, who we obviously feature in the movie. It was through listening to his radio show that I was exposed to Tom Lehrer, Allan Sherman, Spike Jones, Stan Freberg and people like that.

People that were before my time really, but Dr. Demento showcased all these amazing artists on his show. And that’s what got me thinking, Oh, I wonder if I can do that? I started sending in tapes to The Dr. Demento Show on a little cheap cassette tape. It was terrible, it was recorded in my bedroom, just me and an accordion. But he played it on the radio, which blew my mind. So if it hadn’t been for Dr. Demento, I’d probably have a real job and be nowhere near as happy as I am today.

Right, because you did go to school to study architecture.

Yes, and by the time I graduated, I knew that wasn’t my life’s calling because I wasn’t passionate about it, I didn’t love it like most of the architecture students that I was hanging out with did. So I just figured that I should at least try to do something that I was actually interested in, and thankfully things worked out.

Even though you’re having this fun time creating all these songs, you have still been taken seriously enough to win five Grammy awards and lots more nominations. When you got that first Grammy nomination, were you surprised?

The first time for anything is just mind-blowing. I think I was up against Richard Pryor and Rodney Dangerfield. It was insane, I couldn’t believe that I was even in the same category as them. And to actually win the award, it blew my mind. And it never gets old. I’m still excited whenever I get nominated for a Grammy or any kind of an award. But the first time, it just spins your head around.

Music isn’t the only thing you do. You also have directed other people’s videos. Do you like that behind-the-scenes aspect of the business as well? And is there a big dream of maybe wanting to direct a feature film?

I did direct a number of music videos other than my own. Mostly in the ’90s, so it’s been a little while. And I am a director, and I will direct things if the occasion demands it, but it’s a lot of work and I’m glad that Eric Appel took on the reins for this feature because he absolutely killed it. I’m at a point in my life where I don’t know if I want that kind of stress, because it’s a lot to juggle at once.

Having said that, I was a producer on the movie, and I enjoyed that very much. I got to be on the set every second that the cameras rolled. I got to give my input, give notes, punch up some lines, and do things on the set and make myself useful and hopefully helpful, but I wasn’t carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.

Is there something that you still hope to achieve? Is there some dream that you still have that you want to make happen?

Gosh, pretty much all my dreams have come true. I’ve trounced around the idea of maybe working on a Broadway musical at some point in my life. That may happen somewhere down the line. I’ve always been interested in feature films. I haven’t had a lot of opportunity since UHF came out 33 years ago, but maybe if this movie does well, maybe some more doors will open to me. So we’ll have to wait and see. Actor or producer or anything, I would love to. I’m not discontinuing my music career. I’m probably not doing any more traditional albums, but I still am involved in musical projects. There may or may not be a soundtrack to this movie coming out, we’re still waiting to figure that out. But I want to do more stuff with my life and do things that I haven’t done before and see where it takes me.

Related: See Quinta Brunson Transform Into Oprah Winfrey for the 'Weird Al Biopic