Fans who are impatiently waiting for the Weird Al biopic, WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story, will know that the film started off as a parody trailer on Funny or Die years ago. The star of the show back then was not Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, but instead, Emmy-winning Aaron Paul starred as the titular accordion-playing parody artist.
In an interview with CinemaBlend, Paul revealed he had a special cameo in the movie but was thwarted at the last second and was forced to pull out after a positive COVID test.
“Funny story: Al asked me to do a little cameo in it,” Paul revealed to CinemaBlend. “And I went to do it, and as I was waiting for my COVID test, they look up at me, and they’re like, ‘You have COVID.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah. You tested positive for COVID.’ I go, ‘Oh, no!’ So I couldn’t do it, and then I was just out for like 10 solid days. I have never felt more sick in my life. And so we couldn’t do the cameo, which I just absolutely was crushed about.”
Paul also added: “I read that script years ago, and it was just so over the top beautiful. It was just when they were kind of poking around, seeing if they could get this thing made, and I was really excited to see it finally kind of come together, and obviously, Daniel [Radcliffe] is amazing. And so I think he’s absolutely going to crush it.”
Daniel Radcliffe will star as the title role, with Evan Rachel Wood playing Madonna, Toby Huss and Julianne Nicholson as Yankovic’s parents, and Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento.
Radcliffe previously said, “I’m rarely excited to see the stuff that I’m in; I’m very, very excited to see that.”
Eric Appel, who directed the Funny or Die parody video of the same name over a decade ago, directed the film and co-wrote it with Yankovic.
Check out the parody trailer that started it all below:
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