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Llet’s address the monkey in the room. Yes, in his new biopic Better ManRobbie Williams is portrayed as a walking, talking chimpanzee. And no, the human Robbie never appears. It’s all chimpanzee, all the time. Think about it Bohemian Rhapsody if set in a zoo. Or Planet of the Apes with additional Gary Barlow. But it had to be like this, he insists Better Manfrom director Michael Gracey, whose previous film was a box office phenomenon The greatest showman.
“I think you feel the suffering of an animal more than a human,” Gracey tells me, with characteristic Australian enthusiasm. “There is nothing glamorous about a monkey taking cocaine. It’s actually kind of sad and uncomfortable. You’re just like… ‘I don’t want to see him do that’.”
Just like you quickly get used to Robbie the chimpanzee Better Manyou quickly get used to having this serious talk with Gracie – in a gray hoodie and matching cap – about one of the weirdest musical biopics in history. And that is strange – an anarchic, moving, impeccably well-made blockbuster a self-destructive pop star as brilliant as he is irritating. And who is also a chimpanzee, played, over some Andy Serkis style motion captureby British actor Jonno Davies (although Williams provides the singing and a shrill, occasionally relentlessly feline voice).
Better Man depicts Williams’ healthy childhood in Stoke-on-Trent and his rise to pop stardom in Take Thatuntil his unexpectedly great solo career and personal implosion in the fog of alcohol and drugs. It all culminated in 2003 when he played in front of more than 375,000 fans at the Knebworth Stadium. (His ill-fated 2006 rap album Rudeboxthen it is sadly neglected.) Sometimes the film plays like an absurdist grand guignol; sometimes scrolling through the old number Smash Hits (“I’m Nicole…” the mysterious brunette tells Robbie at one point, “… Nicole Appleton!”). It’s great fun – and almost unbelievable. There’s a hallucinatory fight sequence involving dozens of ape-like Robbies. An actor in Liam Gallagher’s hideous Drag steals the show briefly, and there’s an absolutely sensational musical number set to “Rock DJ” set on London’s Regent Street, involving motorbikes, buses and hundreds of extras.
But wait a minute. Music biopics backed by their subjects are supposed to be terrible, right? They’re meant to crush decades of music and drama into two blistering hours! They are meant to win people who don’t deserve Oscars! This one, however, seems to have much more in mind. “I wouldn’t have done it without the monkeys,” says Gracie (in the world Better Manmonkeys and chimpanzees are interchangeable). “For me, the monkey was the only reason to do it.”
Gracey connected with Williams through his Greatest Showman star Hugh Jackman and would go to talk to him in Los Angeles, bringing his tape recorder to hear him talk about his life. There was no real project in mind – Gracie says she often does this with creative people, to see if there’s a story to tell. He was struck by the classic drama of Williams’ history, his dysfunctional relationship with his bar-singing father, his mischief, quarrels and failures. “I’ve noticed he often refers to himself as a performing monkey,” adds Gracey. “He said it enough times that I thought, oh, this is how he sees himself.”
I actually feel more Gary Barlow when I watch the movie. He puts in all this work and tries to keep the band together while Robbie passes out and shows up to shows drunk
Michael Gracey
Of course, a few were particularly eager to make this version of the Robbie Williams biopic. Gracey has faced rejections for his films before – he was attached to an early version of an Elton John biopic Rocketmanbut financiers balked at funding an occasionally trippy, sex-and-drug-filled musical from an unproven filmmaker. Better Manhowever, it was an even tougher sell. “And this was absolutely because of the monkeys,” he explains. “But I would also come out the back The greatest showmanso I had a lot more cachet – I felt like I could take more creative momentum, and luckily people eventually got on board.”
Impressively, he received no resistance from the actual people depicted in the film – despite many appearing to be various shades of scary. Take That’s rise in the early 1990s looks like misery, the group shuttled from gay club to gay club in the back of a van, being sexualized and belittled by their tyrannical manager Nigel Martin-Smith (“first class s***” in Williams’ voice, a claim from which they got away with because, legally speaking, it’s just one man’s opinion.) Gary Barlow is also – quelle surprise – portrayed as a smug bore, a finger-wagging yin to Williams’ chaotic yang. But Gracey doesn’t quite see it that way.
“I actually feel more Gary when I’m watching the movie,” he says. “These are young guys, and Gary [the group’s songwriter] putting in all this work and trying to keep the band together while Robbie passes out and shows up to shows drunk. You feel frustrated because this guy is a big jerk.”
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Barlow was involved in the production of the film, allowing Gracie to use songs he had written and review the script before shooting. “Rob was really worried,” Gracie remembers. “These guys are getting on really well at the moment – and I know people say, ‘well, aren’t they?’, but they really are. And I think it’s hard for both of them to remember the times when they were…” Gracey clenched her fists.
“You have to understand – everyone was just doing their best,” he continues. “There was no rule book. There was no guide. No one at Take That was sitting around talking about what was happening to them. They dealt with so much attention and comments and judgment, and really everyone just wanted to be loved.”
Appleton, one-fourth of the gritty 90s pop group All Saints, makes an unexpected presence in the film as well – she and Williams dated for several years, during which Appleton became pregnant. The film clearly shows that someone from All Saints management convinced her to have an abortion, in order to save her fledgling career.
“Rob is super protective of Nicole and insisted I couldn’t say anything about that part of his life unless Nicole was on board,” Gracie remembers. Appleton was sent the script and signed off on everything in it. “Obviously it’s deeply personal, and she was very involved – she came to rehearsals and I met with her at multiple stages during the production.” When she sat down to watch the scene depicting her first meeting with Williams, she cried. “She just said, ‘We were such messy kids and I wouldn’t change it for the world.'”
Since Gracey didn’t necessarily set out to make a Robbie Williams biopic, I’m curious what he thinks the man got out of the experience. “I think he’s just surprised — there was no clear expectation on his part when we started talking that this was going to be anything, let alone a real movie,” Gracie says. “But now I think he just feels incredible pride. It’s a vulnerable film, but that’s where its power comes from.”
He also thinks he gets to the heart of what fame does to a person. And, somewhat inevitably, it’s because Robbie is the chimp in him.
“When a famous person walks into a room, we can’t help but look at them,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if they talk at all or not, we’re just mesmerized by that person. And that’s why he works so well that he’s a monkey. Even in the scenes where Robbie isn’t speaking, you find yourself just staring at him – oh my god, it’s a monkey! And that? That’s what it’s like to be famous.”
“A Better Man” is in cinemas from December 26