Weird Dan

For some actors, an iconic role can be a prison. Then there's Daniel Radcliffe, whose newest film finds him strapping on the accordion to play "Weird Al" Yankovic.

- JEREMY GORDON

AS AN ELDER millennial, I find it a little weird to sit down with Daniel Radcliffe. How could it not be? Sure, he is no longer the actor who found stratospheric global fame as a preteen: The professional haircut, piercing eyes, surprisingly ropy musculature, and self-effacing introduction. all prove as much. "Hi, I'm Dan," he says, a tiny ritual of disarmament repeated with journalists and fans alike.

But then there's the obvious thing-what Radcliffe simply refers to as "Potter," his leading role in the eight-part adaptation of the bestselling book series of all time, the part that permanently canonized him in the hearts and minds of '90s and '00s kids. If it's strange or overwhelming to be synonymous with the cross between Luke Skywalker and Jesus Christ, Radcliffe demonstrates a studied conscientiousness. He has spent most of his life thinking about Potter he was cast as Harry at 11, and is now 33-and he is excessively familiar with what the role, and his years playing it, means to people. "You just grow up with a sense of like, Okay, people are aware of me, and I need to think about that," he says. "And, eventually, it becomes easier to adapt to."

This is a very normal way to think about an abnormal situation. It helps that Radcliffe, in his post-Potter work, has shown himself to be a perky and chameleonic talent, possessed with the charisma required to seamlessly disappear into a character without making you think of his more famous one. His post-Potter roles tend to inspire a uniform response: "Wait, that's Daniel Radcliffe?" Which is especially true in his latest surprise: his star turn in Weird, a faux biopic of comedy legend "Weird Al" Yankovic, for which he donned a fake curly wig, grew a real mustache, and learned how to play the accordion.