On January 1, ‘Better Man’, the biopic of Robbie Williams, who appears represented by a monkey, opens in theaters. Michael Gracey, the director of ‘The Greatest Showman’, has managed to make such an outlandish idea work with a script that revolves around how harmful fame sprinkled with alcohol and drugs can be, and Robbie Williams’ difficulties in accepting himself. himself as he is. Throughout more than 2 hours of footage, his ghosts never stop haunting him.
The artist has visited Madrid to promote the film, accompanied by the director. Everyone has 8 minutes for each means of communication, strictly timed by an intimidating countdown behind their backs. These are not the optimal conditions to delve into anything with anyone, and it is clear that Robbie Williams has come to this promotion to have fun, to joke superficially, and not so much to delve into his life with an endless handful of strangers. Even so, the experience is pleasant because as the director says, referring to filming: “the interaction with Robbie is always entertaining. Even talking about dark things, it makes you smile.
It is to be commended that the marketing team in Spain has been able to serve large and small, general and specialized, print and digital media. Faithful to a film that they classify as “independent.” Robbie Williams greets you with a fist bump, because since the pandemic there are few things worse than shaking hands with anyone. He looks excited and in an apparently great mood. If you explain your means of communication, out of politeness, “just so he knows,” his response is, “just so you know, you’re talking to one of the biggest pop stars in the world.” You can’t start better.
It’s hard to remember that Robbie Williams wasn’t always the star he is today. Once a wayward and hooligan member of Take That, he had his bad press for being supposedly fat, being supposedly gay or not being handsome enough. His first solo album was initially a failure that did not go beyond number 11 in its first week in the UK. It immediately sank, but then resurrected and reached number 1 six months later than expected. A constant, that of the fight and the long-distance race, throughout his life.
Face to face, the tormented character that appears in ‘Better Man’ does not seem to be even hiding in the rear. «I am really enjoying this promotion. The movie is already made, and the movie is the movie. It’s better than good: it’s incredible. What I enjoy most about this whole process is sitting here, knowing that I am promoting something that is going to have a profound impact on my life, and I hope for the better. Has it been hard to face such delicate traumas in your life, related to your addiction to drugs and alcohol? “No,” he responds quickly and dryly. «There is a lot of tragedy, trauma and pain. But I have lived those scenes as they were filmed, so I have had the opportunity to make peace with them.
‘Better Man’ goes through the beginnings of Take That, leaving some hilarious scenes, to which Mark Owen has already given his approval. It seems more complicated about other members: “If Howard and Gary see her, I imagine them watching her from behind the couch,” Robbie jokes, covering his face. But above all, the film draws on his historical solo songs, along with an unreleased song called ‘Forbidden Road’ that has been nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Song. The song talks about the “bad decisions” that the artist has made. «They would give for ‘Better Man 2’, and for parts 3, 4 and 5. I have had a disease in terms of alcoholism and addiction. Also attention deficit disorder, agoraphobia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, agoraphobia… I’ve said that one twice. The feeling of wanting to be in a closed space… All this has led me to discontent in life. I have always been aware that my natural state is corrosive and toxic. So I have to row against that.
«I have always been aware that my natural state is corrosive and toxic. So I have to row against that.”
Some of Robbie’s classics that benefit from appearing on the film are ‘Feel’ or ‘Angels’, a song that at the time was not number 1 even in the United Kingdom. Williams cannot remember the moment when it became a classic and he certainly has not controlled that phenomenon. «I can’t be in people’s heads. It is something that exists outside of my catalog, something that exists outside of me, that already belongs to other people. It doesn’t depend on me. “I’m grateful that it happened and I hope more of my songs work like that.”
Director Michael Gracey gives us details on how the compositions have been integrated into the script. «A narrative follows, the songs are not in chronological order. We tried to highlight the high points and the low points. The narrative takes you up and down. So, we were thinking, “Of all of Robbie’s songs, which ones fit the narrative of each moment? That led us to fit, for example, ‘Feel’ into a particular scene. “People have a very particular connection with Robbie Williams’ songs, but apart from that, in this film we offer a new version, in a new narrative that will change the way you see them.”
Among those that have been missed the most, there is a moment when it seems that ‘Freedom’ by George Michael is going to play, but in truth it has been preferred to integrate the cover of ‘Land of 1000 Dances’ because Robbie has performed it many more times live. Due to its correspondence with its current state, I highlight the absence of ‘Love My Life’, perhaps not as well known, as it is newer. “Everyone is telling me that they miss a song of mine, like ‘Me and My Monkey’ or ‘Millenium’,” the singer tells us. «I’m glad that people miss songs in particular. I hope another movie is made. ‘Love My Life’ is a somewhat unknown song, but also quite well known. Other songs in my current repertoire that I have tried to sing have worked worse live. But my audience does know ‘Love My Life’. Right now it’s a hit on my setlist. It contains a message that is important to me to sing loud and strong. In fact I have started to “like my life” now. “I didn’t like it that much before that album came out.”
His life before that album was the disaster that is seen in much of the footage. In fact, when I ask him when the stage began to be a “safe space” for him, one of the most important ideas that the ‘Better Man’ script revolves around, Robbie sighs long and hard. That last bump passed too recently: «Only in the last 8 years. Definitely in the last 5. And there is no doubt that this has been happening thanks to the arrival of my children. I have realized that this is a job. It had never been a job. There was no other reason for me to do this than my own indulgence, to satisfy my needs and to please the general public. But it turns out that it leads to an existential crisis when you reach the top of the mountain, and you realize that you are not okay and that there is no one else there. Since I’ve had children, “when dad leaves home, dad goes to work.” Since I know this is a job, I love my job.
That peace with oneself that Robbie Williams now sells is contrasted with the hell that was the Knepworth concert, in front of 250,000 people. It is one of the key scenes in ‘Better Man’, as the director explains to us: «Knepworth represents the peak of Robbie Williams’ dreams. When that dream comes, it had to be the best moment of your life. And the truth is that it was a nightmare: all the voices that you have always heard in your head explode in front of 250,000 people. We worked on how to show that in a film, through a visual representation. That’s why we show versions of himself looking at him with disgust while he performs. The more famous he is, the more he has that feeling of being isolated. All of this reaches an extreme in Knepworth, due to self-medication, alcohol, drugs… It is not until the end of the film that he accepts all of that.
Michael Gracey is satisfied with the work done, although he remembers that this film almost didn’t get made. “Jonno Davies did an excellent job during filming, and I was always confident that the monkey idea would work, but no one else. It has been very difficult to finance, no major studio wanted it. It’s independent but it’s very big, it’s a very big film to be independent, but it was the only way to tell this story. “Everyone told us no because of the monkey.” The director denies that the financing problems had to do with the fact that Robbie Williams is not a star in the United States. «We don’t even try to sell it in the United States. We focus on everyone except the United States. We decided that we would focus on the United States when it was finished. There you have to explain who Robbie Williams is, but only there. Otherwise, people in the industry were excited by Robbie Williams, by the director of ‘The Greatest Showman’, but never by the monkey.
Now, it’s time to look to the future, which includes a tour that will bring Robbie Williams to Barcelona on July 5, and new music. In fact, the artist refuses to point to any underrated album from his past. «Nah! (thinks) Nah! “I always think about the next album, never the previous one, I’m excited about what’s next.” At the moment, though, he can’t make much progress, since he hasn’t written much in recent years, nor has he met with his trusted author, Guy Chambers, who also has very nice scenes in ‘Better Man’. «We haven’t worked lately because I haven’t made music lately. Only the song ‘Forbidden Road’. But Guy and I always come back together. I’ve been waiting for this fucking movie to come out, because it should have been finished like 2 years ago. “When you do a project like this, you have to do the promo, and I’ve been waiting forever to release new music, but this is a great opportunity.”
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