Better Man monkey actor gave ‘worst performance of life’ in front of Robbie Williams-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

Portraying Robbie Williams as a CGI-created monkey has made actor Jonno Davies responsible for one of the most talked-about performances of the year, even if there’s still a fair amount of confusion over what’s him, what’s Robbie and what’s computer wizardry.

Thanks to the power of motion capture and Weta’s industry-leading VFX, Davies is able to appear as a walking, singing, dancing chimpanzee version of Robbie in a movie-stealing turn that both immediately makes sense and also helps provide musical biopic Better Man with a unique creative vision.

It might be Candy and Millennium chart-topper Williams’ eyes that you’re recognising in monkey Robbie’s face, but the heart of the performance – its facial expressions, movements and speaking voice – is all provided courtesy of Davies, 32.

‘It’s a full kind of performance capture, rather than motion capture really – it’s voice, body, dancing, the whole shebang,’ he confirms to Metro at the film’s junket, zeroing in on the demands of Williams’ Stoke accent and its unusual quirks.

‘Rob has got a weird accent. If you look at old interviews with him when he was at 15, he almost sounds like a Scouser. He really kind of transcends in like the pitch of his voice, so that was one of the things I wanted to try and to try and to nail down as much as I could.’

This pitch-perfect rendition of the star’s instantly recognisable flat vowels and intonation is also folded seamlessly in with the movie’s narration, which is a combination of the man himself and Davies as Williams.

In Better Man, Jonno Davies wore a motion-capture suit to portray Robbie Williams onscreen as a chimpanzee (Picture: Paramount Pictures)

Davies with Williams and Better Man director Michael Gracey (Picture: Action Press/Shutterstock)

It’s also chock full of cheeky and often self-deprecating humour, and is no surprise when Davies reveals that parts of the Robbie narration come ‘verbatim from interviews’ he gave to director Michael Gracey when they were still searching for an idea of how the movie might look and sound.

Better Man had a lengthy gestation period as a project, with one of the toughest challenges being finding someone to play Williams once they’d eventually worked out what it was they needed. In fact, it initially appeared that the Angels and Rock DJ singer would be playing himself after they struggled to find the perfect performer.

But things moved quickly following Davies’ audition, with him flown over to Australia ‘after four or five days of pretty intense Zoom sessions with Michael and [writer] Simon Gleeson’ for a chemistry read with Raechelle Banno, the film’s Nicole Appleton and Williams’ former fiancée, as his final audition.

Raechelle Banno plays Nicole Appleton in the film, Williams’ former fiancee (Picture: Brittany Long/WireImage)

‘I turned up very jet lagged, kind of didn’t know my ups and my downs, and [Banno] was just very generous, very giving, and we literally hashed out their meet-cute over three or four hours. And then Michael and Simon left, and I thought, “Well, that’s it. They’re calling the next person to fly out to Australia”.’

Actually, however, he was offered the part that same day after being put through his paces with some dance rehearsals – and it was only then that he felt the ‘pressure’ of this lead role sink in.

‘It was a little insight straight away into what Rob’s thing is in the story, where there’s something he’s constantly building for [playing at Knebworth], and then when he finds out he gets it, it’s that dread. There’s that imposter syndrome that suddenly kicks in, and that fear, that self-doubt. So it was actually a nice early little nod to how he must have felt [and] it was really useful to channel that in the performance.’

Davies wouldn’t meet Williams until a little later, about 20 minutes after he first got into the performance capture suit, complete with a helmet-mounted camera, to start filming Better Man.

Davies first met Williams on set while filming, which left him feeling pretty nervous (Picture: Paramount Pictures/AP)

‘It’s not particularly flattering,’ he laughs of his look on set, recalling that they were about to shoot My Way, the final number in Better Man, and that he was singing live on set to ensure the facial capture was accurate and chimpanzee Robbie didn’t look like he was miming.

‘So there’s a long old intro, we’re about to start in this huge studio space that looks like the Royal Albert Hall, and then boom, the door opens. It felt like you were in a Western, except the sheriff had a mohawk. And in he comes, strides in and plonks himself down and watches me do My Way,’ Davies shares, painting a vivid picture of their first encounter. ‘And as you can imagine, it was the worst performance of my life!’

He then, however, had the opportunity for a one-on-one chat with the British musical legend so he could ‘fill in the gaps’.

‘It’s so well documented in one avenue of his life, [but] you don’t actually get to see the person so much the way that the press has pictured him,’ Davies points out. ‘I had so many questions, and he was very giving and gave me lots of answers, and that helped create a much more rounded performance.’

Australian star Banno actually managed to go through the entire making of Better Man without meeting its subject ahead of the UK premiere, laughing that she knew he was ‘in the building’ during our interview. She did finally meet Appleton the day before.

Banno didn’t realise the significance of her role as Nicole when she first auditioned (Picture: Paramount Pictures)

While Better Man is from Williams’ perspective, the team involved Appleton to ensure she was happy with the portrayal of their relationship in the 1990s (Picture: Steven Sweet/Rex/Shutterstock)

The 31-year-old actress ‘was aware’ of All Saints as well as Williams as a singer when she was auditioning for the movie, but didn’t realise how big her role actually was as – essentially – the film’s female lead.

‘I was happy to sign up to be a blur in the background, to be honest. And when I realised that Nicole was the girl, I was pretty blown away,’ she reveals.

While of course, Better Man had Williams’ full involvement and permission to tell his personal story in such unflinching fashion, that story involves some deeply painful and private moments for Appleton too, including an abortion during their relationship. Director Gracey and the production team, therefore, ensured that she was consulted.

‘They were very, very generous with wanting to bring her into making sure she had autonomy over how her story was told. Obviously, the whole film is from Robbie’s perspective, but she’s a big part of that,’ Banno confirms. ‘And I think that there’s enough going on in the world where women don’t get a say on what goes on in their story – and they really didn’t want that to be the case for this.

‘They wanted to make sure that she was comfortable with how far they went, versus what they left out. It was very much a collaboration, and I knew that – we all knew that – going in, which was nice. And she, as far as I know, was really appreciative of how they treated her through that.’

Appleton supported her former partner at the premiere of his film in London (Picture: David Fisher/Shutterstock)

That Appleton attended the film’s UK premiere to support it suggests that this was indeed the case.

She and Williams first met during a Top of the Pops recording in December 1997, becoming engaged in 1998 before it was called off the following year. But in Better Man, their initial meeting is dramatised into a swanky New Year’s Eve party on a boat.

As Robbie pours his heart out to Nicole over his ambitions for his solo career after leaving Take That and the pressures of fame, they connect, resulting in a gorgeous, dance-heavy duet to She’s the One that’s a real highlight of the film.

Banno’s movement is exquisite in it, with Davies eagerly praising her for doing ‘every single step of that dance routine’ and her ‘astonishing’ quality as it’s brought up in the interview.

‘I can’t say the same for me. I did have someone come and do some of the more technical stuff on that piece, so shout out to Ned Zaina, he did an amazing job,’ adds Davies, who also reveals his personal love for how the couple’s relationship timeline is utilised in the piece.

‘How the audience are seeing their future before they get to live it, they’re seeing the sadness that’s coming their way – I think it’s a really beautiful way of telling that story.’

A highlight of Better Man is She’s the One, interpreted as a lavish and romantic dance duet between Robbie and Nicole (Picture: Paramount Pictures)

Banno describes it as ‘heartbreaking’ too, as the duo praise choreographer Ashley Wallen – who trained as a camera grip to choreograph the camera as well in its sweeping shots – and assistant Jenny Griffin for the imagination.

‘To do it all in heels and a metal dress was pretty challenging, but it was so exciting. I’ve definitely danced before, but not in that way, so to be able to do that was a real dream come true,’ adds Banno, who describes the dance team as ‘masters of their craft’.

‘All the departments worked together to make sure that sequence was just what it needed to be. And I think you can see it in the outcome, it’s pretty amazing.’

Better Man hits UK cinemas on December 26. In the US, it has a limited release on December 25 before releasing widely on January 17, 2025.

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