All Of The Lonely Island Was Supposed To Cameo Alongside Daniel Radcliffe In Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" is one of the funniest movies of 2022, and I will die on this hill. The fake totally accurate biopic stars Daniel Radcliffe of "Harry Potter" fame as the accordion-playing songster who brought us such classics as "Like a Surgeon," "Amish Paradise," and "Eat It," which are parodies of "Like a Virgin," "Gangster's Paradise," and "Beat It," in case you somehow didn't know.
The film tells the not-so very real tale of Al's life, from his father's disapproval of his wild accordion-playing days to his rock star bingeing to his toxic romantic relationship with Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood in the best casting choice of the year). Of course, none all of this is true, and it makes for a fun story.
One of the best scenes in the film is a pool party where a young Al meets pretty much every niche superstar who was famous in the 1970s and 1980s, played by a whole lot of people who are famous today. Conan O'Brien plays Andy Warhol, Jack Black plays radio DJ Wolfman Jack, Nina West plays the famous drag queen Divine, Demetri Martin plays Tiny Tim, David Dastmalchian plays John Deacon, Emo Philips plays Salvador Dalí, and Paul F. Tompkins plays Gallagher. It's quite the list.
Also joining the splashy festivities are most of the musical comedy team The Lonely Island, who are responsible for a whole lot of great musical comedy themselves. (Have you seen the video for "Dick in a Box?" Go watch it again.) In "Weird," Akiva Schaffer cameos as Alice Cooper and Jorma Taccone as Pee-Wee Herman, aka Paul Reubens. Taccone recently appeared on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and spoke about playing the famous/infamous denizen of the Playhouse and why Andy Samberg wasn't in the film.
'Dare to be stupid'
Jorma Taccone joked that this was less of a casting situation and more of an appeal to be a part of this project. Having seen the film, I would have begged as well. As Taccone told Jimmy Fallon:
"I begged my way in, was how I – how I did it. We were supposed to do a cameo, the three of us, like, as The Lonely Island. Like, me, Andy, and Akiva. And it coincided with Andy having his second child [...] And so, unfortunately, like, it wasn't going to work on the shoot date. So I called – I called Weird Al, and I was like, 'Hey, I will do anything to be in this movie. Like, I'll fly myself out. Whatever.' And he called me 20 minutes later, and he was like, 'I talked to Eric [Appel - director]. Would you want to be Pee Wee Herman?' And I was like, 'Yeah, yeah. Like, absolutely.'"
Taccone said he was terrified to talk to Reubens before doing the role, even though they know each other. He said, "I didn't call him because I was told that I shouldn't. Like, because ... they were trying to have everything be a surprise." He was excited to get to do the Pee-Wee Herman laugh, and he absolutely nailed it. Seriously, watch this film right now.
It's a shame that Samberg wasn't in it, but I'd say having a baby is a pretty good reason to forgo a role. Oddly enough, Mark Hamill was one of the names that were in play for a role in the pool party scene, but once again, it didn't work out, schedule-wise. To think, we could have had Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter in the same scene!
"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" is currently streaming on The Roku Channel.