After todaysTelluridepremiere ofBetter Man, the cat will be out of the bag.
Or, more appropriately, the monkey will be out of the barrel.
Directed byMichael Gracey,Better Manis as much a full-blown musical as his last hit,The Greatest Showman.
Michael Gracey directs Raechelle Banno on ‘Better Man’ set
Only here, all of the characters are depicted by humans, except for Williams.
He appears throughout the film in the form of, as Williams says, a cheeky chimpanzee.
I met Williams at a Telluride brunch this morning.
Robbie Williams, left, and Michael GraceyMichael Buckner for Deadline
It left a whole Williams filled in all the wrong ways.
Because it feels pretty fucking mind-blowing.
And this is a movie full of classic oversharing, whether I look good or look bad.
But its got a fantastic portrayal of what happened in my life.
Williams hopes a new audience in the U.S. will want to hear more from him.
I am completely anonymous, and I didnt plan to change it until now, he said.
And now Im kind of desperate for that to change.
I moved [to L.A.] so I could be Bruce Wayne in America and Batman everywhere else.
It worked for me because there were periods in my life which were pretty risque.
I needed a place to retreat and not be known, and I got that.
But now Im old and wise enough to want the experience of incredible success again.
And maybe that would be in America.
I said, Mate, I hope I cant f*cking do this in 18 months time.
Ive been happy being anonymous in America.
Maybe I can do that.
But it all depends on the film.
The one on Regent Street, especially.
How did you manage to shut down that whole block?
MICHAEL GRACEY: That was a year and a half in the planning.
We had four nights to shoot it, and we couldnt rehearse there.
We had to literally just … go for it.
Its owned by The Crown.
And they called me and they said: The Queen died last night.
DEADLINE:How do you overcome something like that?
Everything was booked, and thenthe Queen died.
We lost that money after the 10 days of mourning, the funeral, the coronation.
It was five months before we got back onto Regent Street to shoot that number.
And we had to raise the money again to do it.
We came this close to it not happening.
It was a miracle that we got that number.
DEADLINE:What did that setback cost the production?
Thats how passionate they were about staying around to realize this film.
It is an enormous musical number.
DEADLINE:This was a hard one to get made.
GRACEY:Showmanwas a studio film, and this was independent.
I felt like this would be a very hard pitch for any studio.
And then I wouldve to say, just one thing: Robbies going to be portrayed by a monkey.
DEADLINE:Why a monkey?
What was that symbolic of in the way that Robbie looked at himself?
GRACEY: I developed a script through a series of interviews with Rob.
And to be honest, when we first started, it wasnt necessarily for a film.
I just wanted to capture him in his own voice telling his story because I found it so compelling.
The majority of the recordings in the film, the voiceover is from those recordings.
I just felt there was a more creative way of entering into this particular story.
He was just up the back performing like a monkey.
And he said it enough times that I was like, Oh, thats how he sees himself.
He literally sees himself as a performing monkey.
And I thought, That would be amazing; I would love to see that film.
Thats where the idea came from.
And then of course, I had to pitch it to him.
DEADLINE:Tell me how that went.
GRACEY: I said, If you were an animal, how do you see yourself?
And he immediately said, A lion, definitely a lion.
In my head, I went, No, thats the wrong answer.
So I said, Really?
And he sort of smiled.
and he went, Wow, if Im being honest, Im more of a monkey.
Hes got a global following its a lot to ask.
How did you get him to wrap his arms around that?
GRACEY: The films pretty raw.
I always think that when you go to those dark places, you feel the light so much more.
I really didnt want to shy away from that with Robs story.
He has such moments of extreme highs and these extreme lows.
So he would be portrayed as a monkey through the whole film, and he just grinned.
And he was like, Yeah.
I showed him two pencil sketches by Brian Sloan, an artist I worked with.
Thats what sold him.
They really captured Rob.
You could still see Rob in the monkey.
I think in the film, the monkeys eyes are Robs eyes, like a hundred percent.
We took high-res scans of Robs eyes.
Weta had done threePlanet of the Apesfilms at the time that I approached them.
Fortunately, Weta were completely on board with it.
They were so excited about the challenge of bringing Robbie to life as a monkey.
But to Robs credit, he didnt blink an eye.
He never once questioned it or the level of honesty that we were going to do this with.
DEADLINE:What did you film that made you feel, Im all in.
This is going to work…
GRACEY: The way I work, and I did the same onShowman.
That pre-vis is actually what helped me finance the film.
And even in the crust forms, people understood that the bookends of the film worked.
DEADLINE:Explain the magic trick.
Do you have somebody in a suit for the singing and dancing?
GRACEY: Jonno Davies plays Robbie for the majority of the film.
So he was there in the motion-capture suit, just like Andy Serkis when he plays Gollum or Caesar.
And so thats what Jonno is doing on a set.
DEADLINE:You put it all together and show it to Robbie.
How nervous were you, and what did he say?
Everyone just stares at the monkey.
And thats what you do with stars, with celebrities.
You stare at them.
Even if someone else is talking to you, they draw you in that way.
And so I only ever showed Rob sequences that had the monkey in them.
I never showed him gray-suit Jonno performing.
Rob watched 20 minutes of the film at a Cannes screening for international distributors.
The next time he watched it was the finished film.
DEADLINE:What did he say?
GRACEY: First time, it was like watching someone who was shell-shocked.
It was so much to take in that I think it was very hard for him to process.
He was hugging me, and he just was like, That is a lot to process.
I got it completely.
Its not just the fact that its a monkey depicting your life.
It took till the third watching of the film before he really could take it in.
So hes watched it three times now, and I think he finds it more enjoyable each time.
The first, that was just an assault on all fronts.
Rob stood by his warts-and-all story, and he goes to some very dark places.
And in a very raw way; we were very purposely not glamorizing the rock-star lifestyle.
We werent glamorizing the drug taking, we were showing it in a dirty, visceral way.
Whether its alcohol or drugs, they can get portrayed in a very glamorous way.
And we made a conscious choice to not do that.
DEADLINE:Closer toSid and Nancy?
We lovedThe Greatest Showman.
We cant wait to see his new film.
Theyre standards in Europe, Australia and other places.
GRACEY: What you just said to me is everything.
You just meet the film as if it is likeThe Greatest Showman, an original musical, right?
American audiences dont know these songs, but unlikeShowman, he has had over 70 million worldwide album sales.
Tell us exactly which songs are hit songs.
They will forever associate that song with this film.
And I think thats an amazing thing.
Its rare you go to the cinema, experience something and go, I havent seen anything like this.
