Things got Weird at New York Comic Con as the stars, director, and the subject of the Weird Al Yankovic not-so-true biopic took the stage for one of the final panels of the convention. 

Actors Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, and director Eric Appel were live from the Empire Stage, with legendary parody songwriter Yankovic appearing via videoconferencing, to talk about the process of shooting the Roku Channel original film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story in just 18 days.

"It's a comedy obviously, but it needs to be really grounded. It needs to be played like it's some big Oscar-worthy biopic, and Dan just has the right energy for it, and he got it immediately," Yankovic said about Radcliffe. "We literally couldn't think of anybody in the world who could play the part better than him."

After getting tapped for the role, Radcliffe recounted how he got ready by immediately picking up Yankovic's iconic instrument of choice, the accordion, and receiving lessons from a friend to make sure he looked comfortable with it. On top of that, he grew his own mustache for the role.

"If you can avoid fake facial hair, you should," he said. "That's advice for you all."

Meanwhile, his co-star Wood revealed her own lifelong preparation for the role of a heavily fictionalized Madonna, who inspired one of Yankovic's first hits, Like a Surgeon.  

"I used to literally fake sick from school so I could stay home and choreograph The Immaculate Collection and Like a Prayer. I got caught once," she said. "So this, I feel like I've been training for my whole life, but leading up to it I was watching nonstop Madonna interviews, Madonna performances, just taking in as much as I possibly could."

The panel also shared a sneak peek at the movie, which drops on November 4, including a scene that takes place at a Hollywood pool party filled with some of the most unusual celebrities of the 1980s. Yankovic stated that he just went to his email contact list to ask some of his famous friends to drop in for a half-day shoot to play other celebs from the past.

While Yankovic didn't know the real Madonna well enough to get her onboard, he explained how the Material Girl was actually a major inspiration for the project. 

"She's not on my current Christmas card list," Yankovic quipped. "Her arc in the movie is based on a very small nugget of truth. She actually is the person that suggested that I do Like a Surgeon.'" 

He explained that the pop icon asked a friend offhand when Weird Al might do Like a Surgeon as a parody. The friend, indeed, shared the idea with Yankovic's manager. This seeded the idea for the parody song based on Madonna's hit, Like a Virgin.

"So we took that little bit of truth and expanded it into this whole kind of psychotic arc where Madonna very calculatingly gets me to do this parody — takes up the whole rest of the movie," he revealed.