The Hobby Daniel Radcliffe Picked Up After Playing Weird Al Makes Too Much Sense
Daniel Radcliffe has by now proven himself to be a curious and versatile actor. With every new turn added to his IMDb, he becomes less the boy known for playing Harry Potter, and more the man who has played an anti-apartheid activist, Victor Frankenstein's assistant, and even a corpse with strange powers.
Casting Radcliffe in the role of "Weird Al" Yankovic in the upcoming biopic "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" was certainly an intriguing choice. Some people may have been confused, but then, confusion apparently is something Yankovic truly hopes the film creates (via The New York Times).
Radcliffe had oddly already proven himself capable of grasping the uniqueness of "Weird Al's" career and story by rattling off a parody song on "The Graham Norton Show," and it was this moment that convinced Yankovic that the former "Harry Potter" star was the correct choice. Now, with production wrapped, Radcliffe understands much more about the zany enigma that is Al Yankovic. And he plans to keep on with one facet in particular.
Daniel Radcliffe will continue to play the accordion
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Daniel Radcliffe shares that he had to learn the accordion to play "Weird Al" Yankovic. Granted, the accordion is not an easy instrument, and Radcliffe admits to this. But he isn't going to let the difficulty get in his way.
"I'm not good at the accordion, but I've come so far with it relative to the nothing that I started at that it seems dumb to just stop playing completely," said Radcliffe. "I think I'm going to very gradually keep it up over the years, and maybe one day I'll be able to play a song with both hands at the same time."
Radcliffe has no excuse to not keep practicing. After shooting wrapped for "Weird," Yankovic gave him an accordion as a gift. In fact, it was Yankovic himself who taught Radcliffe the basics while the two were on set. "He tried to valiantly to teach me the accordion and was generally very available," said Radcliffe. We'll all get a taste of Radcliffe's accordion skills when "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" premieres on The Roku Channel on November 4.