Robbie Williams as chimpanzee in 'Better Man' biopic is 'genius'

Robbie Williams describes himself as a “professional attention seeker.”

He doesn’t bother with this self-diagnosis to categorize his immense success in Britain, first as a member of stadium-storming boy band Take That and, since his 1997 debut solo album, as a superstar with dozens of top 10 hits in the UK

No, Williams is right. He craves attention. And for decades, his role as the Bad Boy of Pop was linked to serious real-life problems, including drug and alcohol abuse and extreme depression.

Williams dissected his demons in a 2023 Netflix series of the same name, which was sometimes painful to watch as he struggled with his self-esteem with harsh reactions and biting honesty.

His complicated, colorful life was portrayed in a more fantastical way in “Better Man,” the new film from Michael Gracey (“The Greatest Showman”), in theaters Friday.

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The film contains a lot of musical biopic tropes, but they happen to be true: small-town kid gets dabbed with the magic wand of fate, becomes wildly successful, can’t handle success, falls into addictions, goes it alone, fills stadiums with hyperventilating, ecstatic fans trying to get along to win the love of his cabaret-singing father with his sublime pop hymns and idolizes his greatest supporter, his grandmother.

But there’s a variation on “Better Man” that immediately highlights its unconventionality.

Williams is not portrayed as a human, but as a chimpanzee.

Robbie Williams says chimp portrayal is ‘genius’

In a recent video chat, Williams – still looking boyish at 50, wearing a sleeveless white T-shirt that reveals his numerous tattoos – says he is “completely obsessed” with Gracey’s idea that his musical biography would cast him as represents a monkey (well, technically a chimpanzee, because the figure has no tail.)

“I’m just like a performing monkey,” Williams often said to Gracey, whom he became friends with during “The Greatest Showman.”

Gracey praises Williams for not asking for anything to be cut from the film, not even the more ruthless parts of its story. Gracey also notes that he was never concerned about how his idea of a human being as a chimpanzee would be received by audiences or film studios, but understands why “Better Man,” which took more than five years to complete, might be a tough sell .

“In any musical, the real world is not people walking down the street singing a song,” Gracey says in a separate video call. “Basically, you have the first 10 minutes of a film to seal the deal with the audience. You have to get someone to start with the song so they understand that this is the contract that we’re setting… We’ve set the contract that it’s not just a musical, it’s a monkey, and once you’re in it , you don’t think about it anymore.”

Williams “thinks it’s brilliant,” he says. The stunning choice “did what it was supposed to do, which was to get people talking and cause arguments.” I’d say the audience goes, “What?” for about eight to 12 minutes and then you forget about it completely and is taken on a ride the likes of which have never been seen before.”

Who plays the chimpanzee in “Better Man”?

While the vocals in “Better Man” are all Williams – “Let MeEntertainYou”, “Feel” and his biggest US hit “Angels” make appearances, the chimpanzee symbolizing Williams is all Jonno Davies, with help from Wētā Workshop.

The British actor, best known in the US for his role in the TV series “Hunters,” spent his time on set in a jumpsuit covered in performance capture markers, 101 “dots” on his face and a helmet camera that captured every raised eyebrow. Chin line and rubber face as the embodiment of Williams. The performance was supplemented by some computer-generated imagery, with a high-resolution digital scan of Williams’ eyes placed over Davies’ eyes in post-production.

Davies, who saw Williams in concert with his parents as a nine-year-old, never spent time with his real-life counterpart. But studying videos and simply growing up with Williams’ aura seeping into pop culture shaped his performance.

“It was hard not being a fan of his as a kid,” Davies, 32, said in another video call. “But it was the essence of him that I really wanted to capture. Since it’s a chimpanzee, we didn’t have to ask the audience to choose its likeness. It was more about filling the space the way he does; the way he enters a room and the energy changes.”

Davies also had to take part in the choreography, especially in the film’s most spectacular part, a prowling stroll down London’s Regent Street to the pulsating pop-funk of Williams’ 2000 hit “Rock DJ.”

The scene took a year and a half to manifest itself, as Gracey needed the blessing of Westminster City Council, the Crown Estate (Regent Street is royal land) and permission to close a bus route for four nights.

The cast, including 500 dancers for the production, rehearsed for a week in a studio space modeled on the famous London street and were ready to film when Gracey received a call. Queen Elizabeth II had died and filming was canceled.

“All the money we paid, the deals we booked, the crew and everything, the money was gone,” Gracey said. It took five months to raise additional funding and many arguments with studio people who knew more about math than art and suggested to Gracey that they simply cut the number.

“I said, ‘You don’t understand, that’s the central musical number in the movie,'” Gracey says, adding that the delay also led to a postponed release of “Better Man,” which premiered in Gracey’s native Australia in December . “There were such great obstacles to this film ever seeing the light of day that every time it comes on I grin and think, ‘People have no idea how close it was that this never happened’.”

Robbie Williams talks about new album

Williams is aware that, despite the enormous fame in his homeland that almost brought him to his knees many times, America has always been a difficult market to conquer.

“Many people already know my story and many are insulted by me, not many are indifferent and some really love me,” says Williams. “So it will be incredibly interesting (in the US) how we get this story across. People have told me that there has been an argument on TikTok about whether or not I can join the pantheon of great artists who have never cracked America, which is exciting and confusing at the same time.”

In addition to working diligently through extensive promotion for Better Man, Williams is also finishing a new album – he declines to give a release date “because I don’t have one yet” – that features a high-octane album with the legendary Black Sabbath Rocker features guitarist Tony Iommi and Deep Purple alumnus Glenn Hughes.

And despite completing a highly acclaimed residency at Wynn Las Vegas in 2019, Williams remains ambivalent about his next steps.

“I did these shows at the Wynn as a busman vacation and to soothe my itch. But the plan was to grow it, and COVID came and my focus and other projects began to waver, and I hit the road,” Williams says. “I would like to show off even more for everyone in (the US) than I have been able to. But if my film is met with indifference again, it will be very difficult for me to muster the enthusiasm to do something.”

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Robbie Williams as chimpanzee in ‘Better Man’ biopic is ‘genius’

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