Daniel Radcliffe Explains Why “Weird Al” Yankovic Chose Him for Biopic

Before the saga begins, Daniel Radcliffe is revealing how he got chosen for the role. 

The Harry Potter star has dropped the wand and picked up the accordion to star as “Weird Al” Yankovic in Roku Channel’s upcoming biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. 

Yankovic chose the 32-year-old actor himself to star as the lead. “When I talked to Al for the first time,” Radcliffe recently said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, “I was like, ‘I’m immensely flattered by the idea that you would pick me to play you, but like, why me?'”

Turns out it was all thanks to a TV appearance in November 2010, when Radcliffe sang Tom Lehrer‘s “The Elements,” on The Graham Norton Show.

“I sang ‘The Elements’ next to Colin Farrell and a very bemused Rihanna,” he continued, “who I think was like, ‘Who is this kid and why is he singing all of the elements?’ And I guess Al saw that and was like, ‘This guy maybe gets it.’ And so [he] picked me.”