by Rosalba Panzieri
"I'm a monkey walking the wire without a protective harness," Robbie Williams introduces "Better man" the extraordinary biopic about his life.
" what I was able to do, what I was able to accomplish, and what I was able to overcome is equivalent to stretching a rubber band from Stoke-on-Trent to Mars."
Fearless, irreverent and tender, able to hold together a strong and fragile duality that seduces, Robbie Williams indulges in reporters' questions by beginning with a request to make a group video to send to his daughter as proof "you have it figured out that I am the pop star, but my daughter doesn't think I am an important person," he says laughing. The theme of recognition goes through the route of play to become central to the plot of the film, which tells the story of Robbie Williams, from the time he was a 12-year-old boy happily singing in his living room to climbing the world charts, passing through abysmal falls and sidereal rises. And with his characteristic self-deprecation, Williams describes his life as "a collection of extraordinary things happening to a particularly insignificant person." He continues, "But what I've been able to do, what I've been able to accomplish, and what I've been able to overcome is equivalent to stretching a rubber band from Stoke-on-Trent to Mars. I hope people find it interesting. Everyone has a story inside them. Everyone is interesting. Everyone takes a hero's journey. It's part of being human. I just hope that mine, in particular, people like it. And musicals are powerful because of their transformative nature and the ethereal quality of the music. Music speaks to the soul, deeper than words can."
Better man is an overwhelming, dreamlike and moving film that tells the true story of a 12-year-old boy who dreamed of becoming a pop star. Surely this biopic will supplant other films in the genre, as predicted by Robbie during the press conference and red carpet at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, organized by Luchy Red, Fondazione Musica per Roma and Alice nella Città, for the Roman presentation of the film. The brilliant, courageous and visionary choice was that of director Michael Gracey, who chose to portray Robbie in the guise of a monkey, precisely to bring the viewer inside the artist's image of himself. Equally courageous and extraordinarily honest was Robbie, who points out "I chose to show myself without any filter, even in the darkest parts of my life, because I live that way and I believe we are all desperately searching for an authenticity that is missing."
At the heart of the film is the wonderfully complicated father-son dynamic between Robbie Williams and his entertainer father Peter Williams, known by his stage name Peter Conway (Steve Pemberton), as well as the loving relationship between Williams and his mother, Janet (Kate Mulvany), and his grandmother, Betty (Alison Steadman). Williams' parents divorced when he was three years old, and Peter devoted all his energies to stand-up comedy and singing rather than being fully present for his son. Pemberton's portrayal of Peter infused the role with empathy, comedy, and showmanship; Steadman's performance as Robbie's grandmother added emotional depth to the film and symbolized unwavering love and support; and Mulvany captured the authenticity, heart, and humor of a single mother's relationship with her son.
"There were not many people where I come from who would have even dreamed of going into the entertainment industry, because it was not possible for us to have that kind of dream," Williams recalls. "Yet, my father was part of that dream. He was living it. So I could see that it was possible. The way my father talked about the people in his industry that he admired and loved was like he was talking about the gods. To me my father was like a hero. He is charismatic, engaging, and being in his company is wonderful. Everyone loves Peter, and no one more than me." And it seems right here, within this father-son knot, within his father's eyes admiring elsewhere, to have life the incendiary spark that will lead Robbie to yearn for that recognition and gaze that his father directed elsewhere.
About love.
Another important woman in Williams' life was his grandmother, Betty, played by acclaimed BAFTA-winning British actress Alison Steadman. "My relationship with my grandmother was the most important relationship I ever had before I met my wife, because there is nothing more important than unconditional love," Williams says. "And while my parents had to educate me, my grandmother just loved me. If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't have understood selfless love, where it comes from and what it means."
Born in Stoke-on-Trent in northern England, Robbie Williams has charted a unique path in the music industry since he exploded onto the scene with boy band Take That in the early 1990s. After leaving the band in 1995, lightning struck for the second time when he embarked on an even more successful solo career, topping the charts. His debut album "Life Thru a Lens" was released in 1996 and demonstrated his gift for storytelling through music. One of the world's most awarded music artists, Williams boasts six of the top 100 best-selling albums in British history, the huge figure of 85 million albums sold worldwide, 14 No. 1 singles and a record 18 BRIT Awards, more than any other artist. He achieved his 14th number 1 album in the UK in 2022 with " XXV ", breaking the record for the solo artist with the most number 1 albums in the UK. His total number of chart-topping albums in the UK, between solo albums and albums released with Take That now stands at 19. This places him among the top two artists of all time with the most number 1s in their catalog. In 2003, his concerts held in Knebworth attracted 375,000 fans over three nights, an attendance record that has yet to be broken.
The genesis of the film.
Better Man originated when director, producer, and co-writer Michael Gracey was busy filming The Greatest Showman in 2016, starring Hugh Jackman as American showman, politician, and businessman PT Barnum. "Whenever Hugh would refer to PT Barnum, Hugh would say, 'Just like Robbie Williams,'" Gracey recalls. "And it became a joke among everyone working on the film that whenever he mentioned anything about his character, he would refer to Robbie Williams, whether it was his showmanship, his swagger, his musicality or any part of the performance. Robbie Williams
Has always been his guiding star."
And so, when Jackman needed reassurance about the film's music, Gracey knew there was only one person who could convince him that he was in great shape. "I met Robbie one Sunday and went to see him at his home in Los Angeles," the director recalls. "He listened to the songs and I saw that he liked them, so I asked him to record a video for Hugh. I think Hugh would have loved to hear the greatest showman himself."
"We hit it off right away," Williams recalls of that meeting. "I was enchanted by this man and the story he was telling about his film. Then he played me all the music from The Greatest Showman, and every song was phenomenal. I really admire Michael's skills."
The two gradually became close friends, and whenever Gracey spent time with Williams, she remembered the entertainer's natural gift for storytelling. "His stories were fantastic," Gracey recalls. "It's a rise to fame story, but what made it really interesting was the way he told it. He's very good at remembering details. So I told him, 'You should write these stories.' At that point, I told him that the next time I was in Los Angeles, I would go to him and we would record our conversations. And that's what we did for 18 months. There was always a soft spot where the storyteller in him, the artist in him, liked to tell about the life he led, and we captured it in a raw and very informal way."
Gracey began resenting the recordings, mixing and editing them together to determine if there was a narrative arc. "I would close my eyes and imagine what the film might be like," Gracey recalls. "And it excited me because there were universal themes. Like following your dreams. But also the ability to look in the mirror and love what you see, and being able to accept the person you are. Rob was a boy from Stoke- on-Trent, in the north of England, not a musical genius but he has 'that thing,' whatever it is. And that took him from Stoke-on-Trent to the whole world."
The added authenticity comes from the use of those recordings within the film. "Most of the times you hear Rob in the film, the material comes from those recordings because even when we tried to recreate them, we couldn't," Gracey says. "Rob speaks a certain way in those recordings; it would have been different if it had been someone reading lines from a script. "In 2019, Gracey collaborated with longtime friends and creative collaborators Oliver Cole and Simon Gleeson to write the screenplay, and together they developed themes, added nuance to the characters, and expanded the story rhythms and key musical numbers in the film. But the script never strayed too far from its foundations, and that was from those initial recordings.Producer Paul Currie soon came on board the project; he had known Gracey for many years, and both were thrilled to have finally found a project to collaborate on together.
Says the director, "The style of Better Man reflects this blend of influences, combining a visceral and emotionally charged narrative with dynamic, dreamlike sequences that really explore the depths of Robbie's memory of his early rise to fame. It is a story of resilience amidst a relentless quest for personal fulfillment and the complexities that come with being a figure who is both adored and scrutinized. Robbie putting his value in the hands of others and struggling to take it back is as much a cautionary tale as it is a self-love letter. Robbie's memory is unique, so it seemed appropriate to capture the story from his perspective, portraying him not as we see him, but as he sees himself: a trained monkey.
Ultimately, the film tries to tell the story I always chase: the pursuit of an impossible dream. Robbie's dream can only seem impossible when told from his perspective. In Better Man, Robbie is more than just a pop star and more than the person he presents to the world. The film reveals the imperfections, contradictions and talent that make up the man he truly is."
THE CASTING OF ROBBIE WILLIAMS
Michael Gracey always knew that a conventional approach would never work for such a unique character. Therefore, Gracey came up with a completely original, somewhat daring method that took advantage of a CGI monkey that is at the center of almost every scene. To begin with, Williams himself was digitally scanned and his movements captured as he performed a song from the film so that the production could reference his facial expressions, mannerisms, and movements during the performance. Gracey then chose two actors to play the young Robbie Williams: Australian actress Asmara Feik and British actor Carter J. Murphy. While British actor Jonno Davies took the lead role of Williams as a teenager and as an adult. After filming their respective performances via motion capture, Gracey and the revolutionary and award-winning digital effects house, Wētā FX, merged all these elements to create the monkey character and offer a deeply impactful portrait of this unrepeatable artist.
"Choosing Rob was really difficult," admits Gracey, about the lead actor who would bring Williams to the screen most of the time. "You needed great talent to pull it off. Some people had the dramatic gifts, some people were great entertainers, some people had the ability to bespirited and had charisma. But finding a person who could do all these things at a level that
satisfied what Robbie is, it turned out to be almost impossible."
So impossible that ten days before production began, the lead actor had not yet been chosen. It was actress Kate Mulvany, who plays Janet, Williams' mother, who suggested Davies, with whom she had worked in the Hunters series. Davies proved to be the ideal choice to portray all of Williams' complexities, delivering an extraordinary performance that perfectly embodies her charisma and physicality with surprising accuracy. "Jonno gave his all in this film," Gracey says. "His commitment to portraying Robbie truthfully, emotionally and energetically was impressive. He left me speechless. He made an in-depth study of what makes Robbie who he is, including his relentless nature. Take after take, he always gave 150%. This film is so beautiful because of Jonno's dedication to the performance."
For Davies, it was a role he knew he wanted passionately from the beginning. "I was starring in a Michael Gracey film and playing one of the icons of my childhood," he says of his enthusiasm for the opportunity. "Robbie was one of the first people I saw live with my parents when I was about nine years old. That was around the time of his shows in Knebworth. He is etched in my mind. Robbie is a person who literally bursts with emotion. We get very deep into his life in this film. But no matter what Robbie puts others through, we are on his side."
And although it is not Davies' human face we see on the screen, the performance is his, Gracey says.
Better man will be released in theaters on January 1, 2025, as a good omen for all those who believe that dreams and truth can coexist.
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