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Robbie Williams knows exactly what is being said about him. The musician is so acutely aware of his public perception that he chooses to confront these assumptions head-first in the opening scene of his latest endeavour—a frantic, primal and entirely hypnotic musical biopic film titled Better Man.
“I’m one of the biggest pop stars in the world,” the 50-year-old says in a voiceover, his familiar regional English accent echoing over a new arrangement of “Let Me Entertain You”, the fifth and final single from his debut album. Take his words and his music as a sonic indication of what’s to come, the raucous frontman is about to put on a show.
The genre of a great artist rehashing their trials, tribulations and triumphs on screen to the tune of their best hits is a tired trope that has been endlessly mined. (Namely, Elton John with Rocketman and more recently, Baz Luhramm with Elvis.) However, as we’ve seen throughout Williams’ creative evolution, first as a member of the boy band Take That and then in his solo career, the story of his life would not be painted in conventional strokes.
In an inspired idea by Australian director Michael Gracey, who helmed the movie, Better Man makes an ambitious move to render Williams as a monkey. It’s rare that a release with a CGI simian as the main character can deliver such a heartfelt and captivating arc. Though, as proved over the two-hour run time, the decision to substitute an actor for a “less evolved” lead is arguably the best artist choice.
As Better Man takes us through Williams’ unwavering desire to perform and amuse, we realise the depths in which his craving for attention and validation parlayed into a fractured personal life and crippling drug addiction. In both the harrowing scenes and the buoyant musical performances, the film is anchored by an element of magical realism that allows the cast to take the material further than if it was just recited. In making him a primate, Better Man has shown Willams through a more human lens.
At the centre of the film’s emotionality is Williams’ connection with ex-girlfriend, All Saints’ Nicole Appleton. Though Better Man takes liberties with the romance’s origin, which is rendered as a fantastical montage beginning with a lavish dance sequence on a super yacht to “She’s The One”, it doesn’t shy away from depicting the most tragic stages in their relationship’s breakdown, tackling substance abuse, adultery and abortion.
This was, in part, due to a tender performance from Sydney-born, London-based actor Raechelle Banno. “There’s definitely pressure involved,” the 31-year-old told GRAZIA over Zoom.
“These are real people who’ve dealt with a traumatic experience that a lot of people can relate to.”
“Maybe not the fame aspect that’s put on top of that, but going through tragedy is something that everyone can sort of understand,” she said.“We wanted to find the truth in a way that honoured both Nicole’s story and Robbie’s perspective. We found a middle ground, and then Jonno and I came in and found a way to do our version of that.”
We caught up with Banno the day after the film’s London premiere in late November—three years since she first made a self-tape for a role she admittedly initially “wasn’t aware of how big it was going to be”.
“I had this unfamiliar and thrilling yet intimidating feeling of ‘I think I might be able to do this,’” Banno confessed. After trawling through the “treasure trove of information” on Appleton and reading the 2002 autobiography she co-wrote with her sister in preparation, Banno landed the part. Despite knowing from the outset that she’d appear alongside a monkey for all of her scenes, the actress revealed she “didn’t believe” the twist at first.
“I found out in my audition brief!” she shared.
“It was a very small footnote right at the end of a very long email. It threw me for a loop. I didn’t think that it was real.”
“As someone very familiar with Robbie, his music, his performance style and the demons that he battled, seeing Michael represent someone who’s always felt like the other and who’s needed to perform to sort of gain the acceptance of others like this is a bold swing.
“But, actually, this is the perfect individual to tell that story, both Michael as the visionary behind it and Robbie as the vessel. It’s like a match made in heaven and it just made me so curious.”
It would be remiss of us to go any further without acknowledging the performance of Davies, the man in the mo-cap suit who served as the beating heart of Better Man. Unlike Taron Eggerton or Austin Butler, the 32-year-old doesn’t benefit from having his face plastered all over the promotional materials and film posters, especially when all you see in his place is a chimp. It’s a very meta conundrum for the emerging star, especially given that he’s portraying someone who views themselves as an entirely different class of species.
“The beauty of it is that [Robbie] is displayed as a monkey, but no one else sees him that way,” Banno says of navigating acting across from someone in a grey onesie covered in dots and a GoPro-esque helmet. “I didn’t have to imagine a monkey, I just got to look at the beautiful Jonno and connect with him and find the humanity in [Robbie and Nicole’s] relationship.
“[All the technical elements] are sort of the sprinkles on top that make the magic of this film happen. I definitely head-butted the camera on the suit a couple of times. But other than that, it was not something that got in the way of the performance.”
Banno explains that to land the vulnerability of their scenes, Gracey encouraged the pair to develop a rapport from the outset. “I met Jonno in his final audition,” she explains. “Honestly, the second that that man opened his mouth, I just knew that we were in safe hands. He just had that essence and charisma needed for that role.
“We were very playful with one another from the get-go. You can see in old clips of Nicole and Robbie that they sort of keep each other on their toes and that was inherent to Jono and I, right from the beginning.”
Uncharacteristically, Banno waited until after she had wrapped to meet the person she was playing. “It was nice just to sit girl to girl and acknowledge the story that we’re telling and the trauma involved. It was just an opportunity for me to express my deep respect for her.” Appleton returned the favour, thanking Banno for “making her look like a good dancer.”
More importantly, she also gleaned a new perspective about the individual at the centre of this narrative throughout the process. “I was always familiar with the fact he had mental health issues and struggled with addiction, but I was probably too young to understand the nuance of that,” she revealed about her first impressions of Williams.
“To dive into his story and see that a lot of it came from imposter syndrome and wanting to be loved by his family and his fans and to sort of fit in just made me have so much more respect for this person.
“He was a young man in the 90s who was asking for help, whether that be through lyrics or interviews, and that’s just really rare to see. [Working with him] made me respect his vulnerability and look back and realise he was a 21-year-old at a time when those kinds of conversations weren’t happening. It just made me appreciate the inherent rawness of Robbie Williams.”
Better Man will play in theatres around Australia from December 26. Watch the trailer, below.
