Robbie Williams looks ‘unfavourable’ in Better Man but didn’t cut a single shot-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

Better Man is the year’s most unexpected musical biopic, given its subject Robbie Williams is portrayed as a GCI monkey in an otherwise totally normal world – and yet director Michael Gracey believes it’s still something with which audiences will absolutely be able to connect.

‘I think that unlike a lot of musical genius type narratives, this is a very relatable one. It’s a kid from Stoke-on-Trent,’ the Australian filmmaker points out to Metro ahead of the movie’s European premiere held in London in November.

‘His relationship with his father, with his nan, with himself, all these are things that people can watch and go, “I know what that feels like. I know what it’s like to have those doubts or that pain or that love from a grandparent.” There’s something really special about being able to tell a story that is kind of grand and spectacular but is still relatable.’

In Better Man, it seems like no stone is left unturned in the British chart-topper’s tumultuous life, from his difficult relationship with his father Pete (Steve Pemberton) to tensions with his Take That bandmates and manager and his previously documented struggles with addiction and his mental health.

Onscreen, he is played by Jonno Davies in a motion capture suit, whose physicality, energy and uncanny ability to ape the star’s voice in large part sell the wacky creative decision.

Nonetheless, it’s a very exposing film for Williams, 50, who opened up to Gracey in an extraordinary way in a series of interviews when they first embarked on the project together – even perhaps for someone who is a self-confessed over-sharer (let’s not forget, this is the man who live-tweeted the birth of his son in 2014).

Better Man is a very exposing film for Robbie Williams, despite the fact he’s portrayed as a CGI chimpanzee (Picture: Paramount)

Director Michael Gracey thinks the film is ‘relatable’ for audiences (pictured with Robbie Williams) (Picture: Mike Marsland/WireImage)

While Gracey was conscious of treating his confessions – and Williams – carefully, he shares that it really helped the film and its impact.

‘I’m a big believer in when you go to those darker moments, you feel the light so much more. So from a narrative point of view, I thought it was amazing to have Rob be that willing to go to those places where he does not come off looking good or favourable in quite a lot of scenes.’

These include his behaviour towards former fiancée Nicole Appleton among others, who gave permission for Better Man to include scenes surrounding an abortion she reluctantly had during their relationship, as well as many instances of ‘cheeky’ antics playing up to his reputation and a rather upsetting depiction of him using a fat compression suit.

 Gracey knows this makes it ‘a much more honest film’ and ultimately, of course, better.

‘Audiences are really very aware of when they’re watching the sanitised version, and I just think this is the opposite – you really are getting shown warts and all.’

‘I’ve had moments when I’ve done things that I’m embarrassed about or ashamed of, and so when you see that through the eyes of Rob’s story, you’re treating the audience with a greater deal of respect, but also makes it much more relatable. It allows them to go, I know what that’s like,’ he explains.

However, even considering this, Gracey – who made his feature film directorial debut with the smash-hit musical The Greatest Showman in 2017 – discloses that there were moments where he was taken aback by what Williams told him.

‘There were stories he told me where I was like, “Oh, really?” – and some of them are in the film,’ he reveals – which could easily have led to quite a big problem.

‘That’s going to be really confronting, because it’s one thing to read it as text on a page, it’s another thing to watch it at a huge scale. I was worried that even though Rob was on board with the script, that by the time he saw it as a film, he might want to just tone it back a bit,’ Gracey confesses.

Gracey was surprised by some of the stories Williams told him, a few of which ended up in Better Man (Picture: Paramount Pictures)

The film spans Williams’ storied career up until the early 2000s (Picture: Paramount/Everett/Rex/Shutterstock)

‘And to his credit, he did not take a single shot out of the film – and I’d tell you if he did,’ the director adds, earnestly.

Better Man spans Williams’ childhood and builds up to his record-breaking live shows at Knebworth in 2003, so of course we’re treated to plenty of questionable hairstyles and entertaining outfits from the ‘80s and ‘90s as the film revels in its Britishness. Although Gracey is Australian, he’s been coming over to the UK for 25-odd years ‘with great love and observation’, so was very comfortable in translating that – successfully – to the big screen.

It went further than just details of famous costumes and British parlance (there’s a C-bomb sprinkled in among the generous F-bombs) though. Gracey explains that their quest for accuracy even went ‘down to things like the film stock – we shot digitally, but we printed back to 35mm, and the earliest stocks are grainier’ – as they would have been.

‘So again, it has a feel of nostalgia to it.’

Despite the massive popular success Gracey enjoyed both on his first outing as a director and first movie musical with The Greatest Showman – which earned $435million (£346.8m) from a budget of $84m (£67m) – he insists he’s felt no pressure while working on Better Man.

Better Man revels in its Britishness and the way it drives nostalgia (Picture: Paramount)

Gracey’s first film was the big musical hit The Greatest Showman, but he says he feels no pressure (Picture: Ntavernise/20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock)

‘No, I think the great thing about doing a film is that you finish it and you’re like, I just want to do it again, knowing what I know now! This was an amazing opportunity to do it again, and it was also to do something that was a little bold, coming off a film that was a success. Because not every film is going to be a success, nor should they.’

Gracey is hopeful that we’re in a new era of movie musicals enjoying mainstream success, given his past triumph and the domination of Wicked at the box office recently.

Better Man seems likely to attract big audiences – certainly in the UK – but it’s curious to ruminate over its reception in America, where Williams has never managed to break through. He’s also made it clear that this film is his latest hope for doing so.

‘I think it’s going to be interesting in the US, because they’re going to watch it like an original musical, more like they watched Showman,’ suggests Gracey.

Audiences in the US are likely to see Better Man in a different way to the home fans (Picture: Paramount/Directing Better Man/YouTube)

For the UK audience, he appreciates that we come to Better Man ‘with a great deal of love for the music, but you’re sort of giving them a new context for those songs’.

‘The hope is, as a filmmaker, that they leave the film and the next time they hear Rock DJ, they think of Regent Street,’ he smiles.

And given that’s one of the musical’s biggest and most spectacular production numbers – shot on location – in a movie that has made Williams never seem more relevant, it seems to be a safe bet that they will.

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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