‘Weird Al’ Yankovic on his struggle to make ‘Weird’ Oscar-worthy and the ‘awkward’ timing of the film’s Coolio spoof: ‘I was hoping he would have got a kick out of it’

Movie theaters, streaming services, and film studio production schedules are teeming with rock ‘n’ roll biopics, but music geeks — including “Weird Al” Yankovic — are often frustrated by how many directors and screenwriters take so many massive liberties with truth.

“As with the troubadour, we know that [Elton John] didn’t float, but some people did will probably that he really played “Crocodile Rock” in The Troubadour, even though he only wrote it four years later. It’s just the little things they changed that drove me crazy,” says Yankovic, referring to one of the most successful major music biopics of recent years. rocket Man. “You have to realize that it’s not a documentary – it’s a Hollywood biopic, it’s entertainment – but as a fan, it drove me crazy! … So I figured if I do my biopic, we’re just going to throw facts out the window. Like, who cares?”

Yankovic talks about Rokus Strange: The Al Yankovic Storyhis new semi-semi-semi-autograph film that manages to surpass Spinal Tap This is spinal tap and out—Dewey Cox Go Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Inspired by a fake Funny or Die movie trailer that went viral in 2010, Strange bears precious little resemblance to Yankovic’s more PG-rated actual life. For example: No, Al Not having a torrid affair with Madonna, and no, him Not Flatline and comes to life on an operating table in the ER after drinking a bottle of liquor and crashing his car. But there are some truths, or at least half-truths, that serve as a key Strange Plot points… and one of them is the famous “Yankovic Bump”.

in the StrangeHis girlfriend of two, Madonna (portrayed so eerily by Evan Rachel Wood that Wood should be cast in Madonna’s future biopic) seduces Al (an unrecognizable and equally apt Daniel Radcliffe) to convince him to record her hit “Like a Virgin.” fake .” The career-focused pop starlet wants to experience the “Yankovic Bump,” a phenomenon that will skyrocket an artist’s record sales after receiving Al’s parody treatment. And apparently the Yankovic bump is a real thing.

The story goes on

“You know, there are a few truths scattered throughout the film, most of which sound as fake as anything, but they’re absolutely true. And this ‘Yankovic Bump’ thing is actually one of those reality-based things,” Yankovic told Yahoo Entertainment. “I’ve heard from a number of artists that their sales went up when my parody came out. We heard from Nirvana’s label, who thanked me profusely – they said, ‘Oh, we’ve sold about another million units of this doesn’t matter after Smells Like Nirvana came out.’ I don’t have all the dates in front of me, but it certainly happened more than once.”

Other Strange Based on real life, Moment is a brief appearance of a vengeful Coolio, played by LeChristopher Williams. In 1996, the real Coolio became – different Strange‘s fictional Madonna after ‘Like a Surgeon’ – was furious with Yankovic’s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ parody ‘Amish Paradise’. Thankfully, the two eventually resolved their unlikely feud. (“In hindsight, that wasn’t one of my most cerebral moments. …It wasn’t Cold. And I’m supposed to be ‘Coolio,'” the rapper admitted to Yahoo Entertainment in 2020.)

When Coolio died on September 28th of that year, just like them Strange With the publicity machine running at full steam, Yankovic paid tribute by posting a photo on Instagram of him and Coolio hugging. Yankovic acknowledges that the Coolio reference in Strange is now at a bad time — as is another fake celebrity cameo from Queen Elizabeth II. Actually, when Strange was screened at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles on October 6th, during the audience Q&A, one fan even gasped: “queen elizabeth? Coolio? Is that a cursed movie?”

“Everyone in this movie is going to die eventually!” Yankovic jokes. But seriously, if he ever considered removing the Coolio scene, he says, “The picture was locked; If Coolio would have stopped by while we were cutting it would have been a discussion, but it was like the train had left the building. It was a bit awkward, or at least awkward: the day the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival was the day Queen Elizabeth died, and there’s a bit of Queen Elizabeth during the credits. And people said: ‘ohhh!’ It just felt weird. It’s the same with Coolio. I mean obviously this cameo doesn’t hit the spot I intended. But obviously Coolio and I had made things right and we were on good terms, and that’s a joke. I was hoping he would be around to see it on film. I would have hoped he would enjoy it.”

Speaking of damn movies, one has to wonder if all the early positive buzz for Strange: The Al Yankovic Story is the ultimate revenge for the 1989s UHF, Yankovic’s underrated comedy film that was a critical and commercial bombshell upon its release. “I don’t see it in the sense of Revengebut it’s a rebirth,” says Yankovic, who admits it UHF‘s failure really hurt at the time.

“People kind of got into it [UHF] and they’re looking at it very nostalgically now and it’s a ‘cult classic’, but it didn’t get good reviews,” recalls Yankovic. “And not only did I put a lot into it, there was so much built. Orion Pictures had tested it with audiences and the test results had gone through the roof; it was like one of her greatest and most vetted films of all time. And they were like, ‘Oh, we’re releasing this in the middle of this blockbuster summer and it’s going to be a cash cow and this is going to be the start of a long film career for you!’ I was set up like that, and then I was literally a ghost at Orion Pictures after the first weekend when it underperformed at the box office. Nobody wanted to make eye contact. It was really weird and kind of weird that I had to be knocked out from under my feet like that because I was so upset and then within a few days, Nothing. So, that was kind of devastating, and it took a while…I don’t know if I would say it was me depressed, because I’ve always been a pretty happy, bright guy, but it wasn’t pleasant. I probably had to lick my wounds for a few years before I could somehow come back and be creative again.”

And it was 33 years before Yankovic came back with another feature film. In his original credits song for Strange“Now You Know,” he sings about his hopes for a well-deserved Oscar nomination for best song, but sadly, that’s not going to happen — and that’s the bittersweet aspect of it Strange‘s publication.

“I must say [that line in “Now You Know”] is another lie, because as it turns out, the movie will Not be eligible for an Oscar,” Yankovic regrets. “I begged beg Roku Channel for months to make it eligible, which would all involve letting it play at an LA theater for a week. They don’t want that because – here’s the logic; I don’t entirely agree – they said they’d rather have a Creative Arts Emmy than an Oscar because they’re in the television business, not the musical film business. Believe me, I tried but they didn’t pull it off, so it won’t really be Oscar-worthy. But… maybe an Emmy! We will see.”

Whether or not there are more accolades in the five-time Grammy winner’s near future, Yankovic has already won in life, bringing his life story to the big screen in his own twisted way — and collecting the raves that precede him three decades have escaped. “It’s great. I’m so excited. It’s amazing and gratifying for me that in addition to the reaction from the fans, [Weird] actually gets great critical reviews,” he says. “I think it’s 93% on Rotten Tomatoes right now — which isn’t shabby.”

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— Video produced by Kyle Moss, edited by Jason Fitzpatrick