With the first official look at Daniel Radcliffe as parody musician Weird Al Yankovic in the forthcoming movie Weird: The Al Yankovic Story produced for Roku, we found ourselves completely unsurprised that the former Harry Potter star has gone for yet another unusual role.
Since his stint as the boy wizard, Radcliffe has had a habit of getting involved with interesting indie films and plays; the wackier the better. Here are some of his most memorable roles that no-one could have predicted.
Alan Strang in Equus (2007)
At the tender age of 17 between the filming of the Harry Potter movies, Daniel Radcliffe starred as the horse-obsessed religious fanatic Alan Strang in West End and Broadway productions of Peter Shaffer’s play Equus. The role required Radcliffe’s total nudity - quite a feat for a teenager - and is certainly one of his most bizarre roles to date.
Ig Perrish in Horns (2013)
Based on Joe Hill's 2010 novel of the same name, Horns is a horror flick about a man who’s accused of murdering his girlfriend, and wakes up one day to find that he has grown horns on his head. Not only that, but the horns lend him special powers that force those around him to reveal their darkest secrets, and even act upon their most hidden desires. Eventually the horns lead him to his girlfriend’s real killer, but the horns never are really explained.
The Dogwalker in Trainwreck (2015)
Radcliffe had a minor role in Trainwreck in a movie within the movie. It’s a black and white flick in which he plays a dog walker (his own idea) and improvised a hysterical scenario where he attempts to woo dog owners. Amy Schumer’s character watches the movie in a theatre with her boyfriend Steven (John Cena). It was a very brief bit of work for Radcliffe, but he loved every minute of it.
Manny in Swiss Army Man (2016)
If you can think of a weirder movie than this one, we want to hear about it. Swiss Army Man sees Radcliffe play an amazing farting corpse named Manny who appears to slowly reanimate to help the marooned Hank Thompson (played by Paul Dano) on his journey home. It’s a surreal story, but endlessly amusing.
Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2017)
In another incredible stage play, Radcliffe portrayed one of the titular characters in Tom Stoppard’s intelligent tragicomedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which follows two minor characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet and takes place in the wings of the original play, with the characters acting out an absurd background scenario of the famous story. It’s one of the strangest plays ever if you’re familiar with Hamlet.
Miles in Guns Akimbo (2019)
In this violent action comedy, Radcliffe plays Miles; a computer programmer and troller of trolls who is attacked in his home by the leader of a criminal organisation who streams real life fights to the death online. He wakes up alone in his apartment after being beaten and drugged, and discovers that two guns have been surgically attached to both of his hands. Not only that, but he’s now being hunted down by a crazy killer that he’s been unwittingly pitted against. It’s a gruesome movie, but Daniel Radcliffe is endlessly funny in spite of it.
MORE: Daniel Radcliffe says portraying ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic is 'a huge responsibility'
Ezekiel Brown in Miracle Workers (2021)
Of all his characters in Miracle Workers, his role as Reverend Ezekiel Brown in season three is by far the funniest. His drag performance of She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain is the most jaw-dropping thing we’ve seen out of everything from this list. And yes, we’re going to go and watch it once more.
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