Daniel Radcliffe says he landed the role of ‘Weird Al’ thanks to a novel song – The Hollywood Reporter

Daniel Radcliffe recently learned that “Weird Al” Yankovic was struck by a novel song he performed over a decade ago, though it’s unclear how Rihanna feels about it.

The Harry Potter the star visited Tonight’s show on Friday, where host Jimmy Fallon asked about Freakbiopic about the Roku Channel, in which The Lost City The actor will play the song parody expert. Curious about how casting went, Fallon asked if Radcliffe had met Yankovic before, to which the guest replied no.

“When I spoke to Al for the first time, I said, ‘I’m so proud of the idea that you would choose me to play you, but why me? I was bewildered but very excited,” Radcliffe recalls.

He went on to explain that in November 2010 he was Graham Norton show and, by heart, recite every word of Tom Lehrer’s novelty song “The Elements”. For the uninitiated, the song lists all the elements of the periodic table in rhyming order and is sung to the tune of the song “Major General’s Song” from the opera. Pirates of Penzance. At that time, Radcliffe’s colleague Graham Norton The guests, Colin Farrell and Rihanna, don’t seem to know what makes this feat possible.

Radcliffe said: “I sang ‘The Elements’ alongside Colin Farrell and Rihanna enjoyed it. The actor added that he felt Rihanna was “like, who is this kid, and why is he singing the whole ‘The Elements’?”

He continued, “I guess Al saw that and said, ‘This guy can get it.’ And so he chose me. So I was very, very lucky, and now I’ve been learning the accordion with Al. “