Why is Robbie Williams a monkey in the new biopic ‘Better Man’?

In “Better Man,” the new musical biopic of Robbie Williams — the British pop star gets in touch with her inner primate.

In fact, the 50-year-old singer, who emerged from the boy band Take That to become one of the biggest icons of British music of the 1990s and early 2000s, transforms into a singing and dancing chimpanzee thanks to the wonders of CGI in the film that opens wide on Friday.

“I’ve been a cheeky monkey my whole life,” Williams, who narrates the film, he told the associated press. “There is no monkey more daring than the cocaine-snorting, sex-addicted monkey we meet in the movie.”

And Williams believes this simian version of his story, which traces his life from childhood to his struggles with addiction and depression at the height of his fame, benefits from being seen through a hairy-faced chimpanzee.

“Most of us care more about animals than humans,” he told the AP. “I guess there is also an elimination. It’s very much a human story, but if you’re watching it and someone plays Robbie Williams, you’re thinking: Does he look like him? Do you act like him? Do you talk like him?

There were other reasons why it was better to work with a monkey than with a man.

“In musical biopics, you have to deal with the star or his estate, and that becomes difficult,” director Michael Gracey. he told the Hollywood Reporter. “People want to protect his legacy and image, but ‘Better Man’ has scenes where Robbie is very unpleasant. It’s much more relatable than a holier-than-thou star, so the monkey allows you to empathize in those awkward moments. We feel more compassion when we see animals suffer.

“Fortunately,” he added, “Rob was on board. He said, ‘I’m not interested in the glorified, watered-down version of my life.'”

The original, if not extravagant, spin on the “Better Man” musical biopic came from Gracey, who previously directed the 2017 Hugh Jackman musical. “The Greatest Showman” – after several interviews with Williams.

“So I went back to those recordings, and when I listened to them, I found Rob often saying that he was just dragged along to perform, like a monkey.” he told Deadline. “And he said it so many times that I was like, ‘Oh, that’s how he sees himself.’ He literally sees himself as an acting monkey.’ And I thought, ‘That would be amazing; “I would love to see that movie.” “That’s where the idea came from.”

And Gracey wasn’t kidding about her artistic vision.

“It came down to Rob’s engaging storytelling and the monkey,” he told THR. “If I hadn’t come up with the jumpsuit as a creative way to participate, I would never have done ‘Better Man.’”

The CGI chimpanzee, the only non-human in “Better Man,” actually has Williams’ own eyes, but actor Jonno Davies is the man behind his movement and voice.

“There were certain things where Jonno smiled, but Michael wanted a smile that was more Robbie Williams,” said visual effects supervisor Luke Millar. he told IndieWire. “We called them ‘Robbie-isms’ that were injected throughout the movie. And that’s just to create that quintessential resemblance to the person we represent.”

To that end, the great ape sports everything from Williams’ eyebrows to his tattoos. “Michael wanted people to be able to look at Robbie the ape and see Robbie the singer,” Millar said. “So we did a lot of conceptual work trying to lean into the human aspects. “We tried human teeth, human hairstyles, human eyes, everything human, and very quickly we got to a very strange place where we were starting to lose the chimpanzee at that point.”

But the chimpanzee was not cheap. “The Monkey also meant almost tripling the budget of most musical biopics, so it took years to finance,” Gracey told THR.

For Williams, “Better Man” is a chance to make a better name for himself in America. Despite all their success in the UK, with hits like “Angels” “Millennium”, “Let me entertain you” and “Rock DJ” – has never really conquered the United States.

“In America, they say, ‘Who is this guy?’” he said. told the New York Timesadmitting that he has become “a little jealous” of the attention his chimpanzee counterpart has been receiving.

“I thought, ‘What if the monkey destroys America and I don’t?’”