Co-written by “Weird Al” Yankovic and director Eric Appel, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is the People's Choice Award-winning, appropriately parodied musical biopic of the man himself. Featuring an ensemble cast portraying a full roster of celebrity cameos, this hysterical movie chronicles Yankovic’s (played by Daniel Radcliffe) “very true,” and at times challenged, rise to satire stardom. In the film, Rainn Wilson portrays Dr. Demento, Yankovic’s mentor of sorts who aids the young man in his quest for comedy.

During his interview with Collider, Wilson touched on the brief 18 days it took for the cast and crew to film Weird, crediting this feat to his and director Appel’s stint with Funny or Die, and other sketch-comedy. On top of knowing the in’s and out’s of quick-moving comedy, Wilson ascribes the film’s positive reception to the “great talent,” Radcliffe’s dedication, and the 14 to 15-hour days.

Joining Wilson and Radcliffe on the film are Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey, Toby Huss as Yankovic’s father, Julianne Nicholson as his mother, Jack Black, Will Forte, Conan O’Brien, David Dastmalchian and plenty of other surprises. You can watch the interview with Wilson above, or read the full conversation below. For more on the film, read Ross' review.

COLLIDER: You won't remember this, but way back in 2007 when Collider was a nothing site on the internet, I did an interview with you at Sundance for The Last Mimzy, and I just wanted to say back then getting people to talk with us was more of a challenge. And I just want to say a sincere thank you for talking to us back then when the site was not much, and I will always appreciate that.

RAINN WILSON: All right. All right. Great.

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I want to start with a sincere congratulations on this. Weird is fantastic, honestly it was so much better than I expected. What was it like for you reading the script and seeing the way it was going to satire the biopic genre?

WILSON: Well, it's funny that you say it's better than you expected because I felt the same way. When they said, "Oh, they're doing a Weird Al biopic. They're interested in you for Dr. Demento," I read the script, and I was like, ‘this is like a comedy sketch, like a Saturday Night Live sketch.’ It started as a Funny or Die sketch, which I heard. Like, how is this going to sustain for 90 minutes?

But the script was so tight, and they had worked on it so carefully, the tone was just right. It takes itself very, very seriously and that's the kind of comedy I like where it's the most absurd circumstances possible, but it's taken deathly seriously, and there's not any commenting on it, it's not like, "Hey, we're doing a goofy movie."

So as soon as I read it, I wanted in. I thought it was just brilliant how it, in a kind of Airplane-like fashion, satirizes the musical biopic without getting silly, and goofball, and broad. So I was really excited to be a part of it. Plus, Weird Al is a hero of mine.

So one of the things that I couldn't believe is how short of a time frame you had to actually make the movie. I mean it was done I believe in 18 days or something crazy.

WILSON: Crazy, yeah, for a very low budget too.

Can you sort of talk about that because when you watch the movie, it looks so much better and bigger than just this small little film?

WILSON: Well, that's all on Eric Appel. So the director has done a ton of sketches and stuff for Funny Or Die. I've done a bunch of sketches for Funny or Die and college humor, those kinds of places, and you're given a very small budget. Here's $50,000, and you've got two days or a day and a half or one day, and you've got to try and make it look incredible. It's kind of a bootcamp for filmmakers.

In the same way that Ron Howard started out in the Roger Corman world, a lot of the great comedy directors start out in doing those sketches and then moving to TV, and then when they get 18 whole days and a couple of million dollars, they're like, "Okay, let me at it. We can do this." And he knew how to move the camera in ways, and cut, and just a lot of movement and life and music, and it really made it feel like a big movie.

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Image via Roku Channel

I really enjoyed the pool scene at Dr. Demento's house with all the cameos and guest stars. Can you talk a little bit about filming that sequence? Because you have so many moving parts, and it's just very funny.

WILSON: Yeah, I mean first of all, we shot that, and it was really cold. It was like 50 degrees, and we were supposed to be pretending like it was 80 and, for LA, 50 is cold. And then I had no idea who was showing up that day. And then all of a sudden, this cavalcade of stars was showing up at this house in the San Fernando Valley.

It was interesting because they had told me originally that they modeled Dr. Demento's character after Burt Reynolds' character in Boogie Nights, kind of this impresario behind-the-scenes puppet master bringing people together. So that was like a Boogie Nights scene. I mean it was like a scene from Boogie Nights. Only it just happened to have Peewee Herman, and Tiny Tim, and Divine and Gallagher, and Salvador Dalí in it. Just so much fun, such great imagination and humor. It was a hysterical part of the movie.

One of the things that people might not realize is the film won the Midnight Madness Award at the Toronto Film Festival. Did you have any idea making this? Because you never know when you make a movie how it's really going to turn out. Did you have any idea how good it was going to be? Because winning the award at Toronto, it's a really big deal.

WILSON: Listen, I knew it was a small budget. I knew it was a short shoot, but I also knew there was a lot of great talent involved. Daniel Radcliffe gave it his all, I mean, blood, sweat and tears, shooting 14-15 hours a day, learning accordion. And by the way, he was grossly overweight before we started shooting, and he worked out with some of those Marvel trainers to get ripped to play Weird Al. You saw how ripped he was. It was like you could grate cheese off those abs.

I actually heard he trained with Chris Hemsworth for the role.

WILSON: He did. Yes, he did. Chris would bench Daniel but then, in exchange, he would give him some pointers. So super fun.

I ask this of a lot of people. If someone has actually never seen anything you've done before, what is the first thing you want them watching and why?

WILSON: Listen, obviously most people know me from The Office, and they always will, and that'll be on my tombstone. My epitaph will be, "The guy who played Dwight." But I did dozens and dozens of roles before I played Dwight. I've played dozens of roles after Dwight. I would say my favorite role, or one I would love to be remembered for, is the movie Super by James Gunn. It was, again, super low budget. We shot that super quick in Shreveport, scenic Shreveport, Louisiana. But I think the combination of humor, darkness, tragedy, insane imagination, my brain gets touched by the finger of God. I think it's an extraordinary work, and I'm really proud to have been a part of it.

Vigilante the Crimson Bolt wields a shotgun while dressed in a red superhero costume in the streets at night.
Image via IFC Midnight

Yeah, that's a very cool movie and well before James was playing in the Marvel Universe. My last thing for you, you've gotten to voice a little bit on Solar Opposites, which is a show I love. Can you sort of talk about getting to be a part of that?

WILSON: Yeah. Mike, the showrunner of Solar Opposites, he wrote a Star Trek short that I starred in and directed, over in the Star Trek universe, over at Paramount Plus, where I got to play Harry Mudd. So we got to meet each other, and he's incredible. He's a comic genius and has an unlimited imagination, so loved being part of that universe as well.

Yeah, Solar Opposites is great for people that haven't seen it. On that note, amount of time, I'm just going to say, man, I really appreciate your work. I really thank you for your work and I really will always thank you for Sundance all those years ago.

WILSON: You got it, man. My pleasure. Pleasure talking to you, Steven Weintraub of Collider.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story will be streaming on The Roku Channel starting November 4th.