How Evan Rachel Wood Reacted To The Offer Of Playing Madonna In Weird: The Al Yankovic Story - Exclusive
It's daunting enough for an actor to play a real-life high-profile person, but for Evan Rachel Wood, not only did she have to channel Madonna in "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story," she had to ratchet up the stakes by doing a parody performance of the pop music icon.
Wood — whose impressive slate of credits dates back to childhood and includes such stellar films as "Thirteen," "Across the Universe," and "Frozen II," as well as the smash sci-fi series "Westworld" — plays Madonna circa her 1980s era in "Weird." Madonna's rise to prominence came at about the same time as "Weird Al" Yankovic, and in the film, she conspires with Weird Al (Daniel Radcliffe) to parody her signature song "Like a Virgin" — which becomes "Like a Surgeon" — because she's quite well aware that artists whose songs are successfully spoofed by "The Weird One" generally see a huge bump in their own music sales.
"Weird," which targets formulaic music biopics, is loaded with cameos of stars lampooning the biggest recording artists during the 1980s as Weird Al burst onto the scene. Wood's turn as Madonna is a major role, though, so it was much than a matter for the actor to dress up like the Material Girl and show up on set for a day or two of work.
In an exclusive interview, Wood and Radcliffe recalled for Looper their work on "Weird," which began for Wood with an offer for the role of Madonna that was simply too unique to pass up.
Even though she was playing a parody of Madonna, Wood took the role seriously
Evan Rachel Wood recalled for Looper that she received the offer to play Madonna opposite Daniel Radcliffe's Weird Al in an email, and her first reaction to it was of disbelief.
"The first line of the email said, 'You've been offered the role of Madonna,' and I immediately burst out laughing because you don't expect that," Wood said. "I was certainly not expecting it, but then when I realized what it was and what the context was, it did start to make more sense. Then, I got excited and slightly nervous because I thought, 'I know this is a parody, but I still want it to be good.' You still have a lot of pressure on your shoulders when you're playing Madonna — maybe not as much [as] if you're in a biopic, but I still took it very seriously."
Now that the film is out and ready for the audiences around the world to see, Wood is cognizant of the fact that she may one day get a call from Madonna with a critique of her performance. Wood's not too worried about any receiving any blowback, though. "I think she has a good sense of humor because I found out that she did actually seek out Al to do a parody of her song," Wood revealed. "So clearly, she gets the humor, so I think she'll get this, too."
Radcliffe's prediction is that Madonna will get the humor — and more.
"I think she's going to love it! I'm going to stake my name on that now," Radcliffe said, laughing.
Produced and co-written by the film's namesake, "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" is streaming exclusively on The Roku Channel.