There is only one Hollywood celebrity with bizarro bona fides that could bring together the cult-loved elite such as Pee-wee Herman, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, the B-52’s and Alice Cooper. That star is Weird Al Yankovic.
In a scene from Roku Channel’s Emmy-nominated biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” a constellation of comic actors portrays that eccentric pop cultural elite in a key pool party scene just as the career of Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe) starts to launch. The party is at the home of radio legend Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson), where Yankovic is challenged to come up with a parody song
on the fly by Queen bassist John Deacon (David Dastmalchian). Yankovic belts out “Another One Rides the Bus” to enthusiastic applause from the celebs — his eventual friends and peers — including Salvador Dali (Emo Philips), Tiny Tim (Demetri Martin), Andy Warhol (Conan O’Brien) and Wolfman Jack (Jack Black).
Hot off their project’s eight Emmy nominations, director, writer and producer Eric Appel, costume designer Wendy Benbrook and the inspiration behind it all, producer and writer, Yankovic, broke down their comedian-stuffed act for Variety‘s “Making A Scene,” presented by HBO.
Inspired by the pool party scene from “Boogie Nights,” Appel set up an homage of sorts to director Paul Thomas Anderson with his own series of Steadicam shots whisking from Gallagher (played by Paul F. Tompkins) to Divine (Nina West).
“In a lot of ways, the relationship between Weird Al and Dr. Demento in this movie mirrors that relationship between [“Boogie Nights’”] Dirk Diggler and Jack Horner,” Appel explains. “Dr. Demento steps in as a father figure for Al in this movie. In ‘Boogie Nights,’ the scene is Dirk Diggler getting brought around this pool party in the Valley and introduced to all of his peers, which are porn stars in that case. In our movie, we wanted to see a young, fresh-faced Weird Al get introduced to all of his peers, which would be the weirdo comedians and rock stars of the late ’70s, early ’80s.”
This meant scheduling, dressing and sourcing wigs, makeup and costumes for dozens of actors — with only a day and a half to shoot.
“It was an $8 million budget — we’re not shooting it on our cell phones, but it’s a small budget by Hollywood standards,” Yankovic says. “Thankfully, we shot in Los Angeles because that allowed me to call in some favors.”
Appel confirms. “Al basically just shared his Christmas card mailing list with me and he said, ‘Here are people that I know well enough that I can reach out via text or email and get a yes or no really quick.’”
The original plan was to shoot in Atlanta. While that “would’ve been fine,” some people, like O’Brien, wouldn’t have been available. So Yankovic “emailed a bunch of people that I knew and asked them if they wanted to drive to Tarzana and be in this crazy movie.”
And to Tarzana they arrived, each actor more excited than the next. “Jorma Taccone came up to play Pee-wee Herman — he flew himself out from New York,” the director says. “He was like, ‘Should I get my hair cut like Pee-wee before I come out?’” Appel assured Taccone that they would handle his glam themselves.
As the pool scene cast started coming together, there was one add-on from Yankovic: Could Devo attend the party? That meant a last-minute scouring for the iconic, “energy dome” headgear the band wore.
“We were reaching out to friends [asking], ‘Who’s got a Devo hat?” costume designer Benbrook says. “But all the friends that we thought had Devo hats … did not. And oddly enough, that was the weirdest thing for me.”
Eventually, Appel sourced the missing artifact and Benbrook drove out to Saugus to collect the elusive piece. She notes, “I’ve got a picture of me with the hat on from my car sending it to Eric going, ‘We did it!’”
As for Yankovic’s staple Hawaiian shirt, Benbrook studied her subject intensely and sought inspiration from the singer’s own closet. “I got to look at all of his Vans and all of his shirts, which made me realize, they’re not all Hawaiian as we think of them as … They were iconic ’80s new wave shirts but everyone calls them all Hawaiian shirts.”
That discovery was reflected in the collection of wild-patterned button-downs Radcliffe wore. However, Yankovic did loan out his original “Eat It” jacket for the film.
Another major inspiration came from the song choice at the pool scene. After being tasked with creating a new tune for the crowd, the character Al belts out, “Another One Rides the Bus.” Despite the comedic overtones, that song selection was entirely intentional.
“We are focusing on my origin story,” Yankovich explains. “And ‘Another One Rides the Bus’ was one of my very first songs that ever got nationwide exposure. We thought the idea of having that be a big throwdown would be a fun idea at the party because we could have Jon ‘Bermuda’ Schwartz banging on my accordion case, which he actually did in the original recording. The original recording was extremely organic, and we thought, what better way to showcase that than at this freeform weirdo party?”
And even though the guest list was labeled “odd” over and over in both the movie and during these interviews, the “weird” label, like the film’s title, has always been a badge of honor for Yankovic (and the filmmakers).
“I never fit in, and I still don’t in many ways,” Yankovic says. “Looking at those people gave me hope to think that, ‘Oh, maybe I’ve got a chance to put myself out there if these people are doing it that way.’ And some of the people that we portray in that scene are personal friends of mine. I know Elvira, I know Pee-wee Herman. We didn’t tell them in advance because that was our policy for this movie.”
He notes that the lawyers assured them it was OK, since they’re public features who will view it as a tribute.
“I hope they do. I know that Paul Reubens does, but it was a little weird. [Ed note: Reubens died July 30, after this interview was conducted.] I think Jorma in particular, who played Pee-wee Herman, he felt really strange about it because he was like, ‘Are you sure Paul’s going to be OK with this?’” Yankovic says. “But he was. I knew he would be.”
Watch the full conversation above.
