That barnstorming success was, of course, a loose reimagining of the life of P.T Barnum, and the filmmaker knew that if he were to make another film adapted from a true tale, he didn’t want to take a more conventional route.
“The only thing that interested me in telling Robbie Williams’ story was if I could tell it with a monkey”, Gracey told Zavvi. “But with something as bold as that, you have to make it the star’s idea, so I asked him what animal he saw himself as – and he said a lion, which obviously wasn’t going to work!”
Long before work started on Better Man, a barnstorming, R-rated musical retelling the life of the pop icon in chimp form, Gracey sat down with Robbie for a series of recorded conversations. At this point, he had no idea that these would be the basis for a biopic screenplay.
“The original recordings weren’t necessary to make a film, I just wanted to capture Rob telling his story – my pitch was that these may only be for him to listen to in a nursing home one day, but they should be captured while he still remembered them. It was only over the course of the year and a half we recorded these that the idea for a film began percolating.
“Rob kept referring to himself as a performing monkey, without even realising. I knew that if I could get him to acknowledge this, then it would be an interesting way to frame the movie; not from the perspective of how we see him, but how he sees himself.”
Nobody in Better Man once acknowledges that Robbie is a monkey, and you’ll be surprised by how quickly you forget. The visual effects – created by WETA, who have brought to life characters from Gollum to Planet Of The Apes’ Caesar – are photorealistic to the point you stop questioning just how ridiculous the conceit is quickly.
“The team from WETA were so passionate, and their work here is so remarkable, I think it’s some of the best work they’ve ever done. It’s building from the performance capture work they’ve done with Peter Jackson and James Cameron, all the way to the Planet Of The Apes prequels; you compare the first of that trilogy to the last, and you see an incredible evolution in how they capture the performances.
“It was after War Of The Planet Of The Apes that I was convinced you could use this technology in a musical, as you could see actors like Andy Serkis were now able to give human, subtle performances that weren’t lost behind the effects. I knew that we could do justice to Rob’s story in the same way.”
Of course, any technology to bring Monkey Robbie to life wouldn’t have any impact if it didn’t have a performance that could ground it. Star Jonno Davies was given far more freedom than the usual biopic lead – he didn’t need to worry about looking like Robbie, after all – but also far more responsibility.
Gracey explained: “I’m in awe of Jonno as an actor, he did an incredible job of studying Rob and bringing him to life in a way which was compelling, emotional and grounded. But because of the nature of the performance character, it means that even when the camera isn’t focused on him, and it’s just a shoulder in shot, he still must act like it’s his main shot, as this will still be transformed into the character via performance capture.
“It’s almost like the camera was always rolling on him, so he would be bold with even the smallest of movements, giving something different every time even if it was almost out of frame. There was a real freedom for him to dive in; he didn’t need to worry about clothes or his hair, he could just focus on the purity of the performance, using his voice and his movements to convey the evolution of Rob from a teenager to adulthood.”
For Davies, playing Robbie was a dream come true; he saw him in concert at the Milton Keynes Bowl when he was nine years old, and admits to being a “proper fanboy” at that age. He can’t believe that his fandom has come full circle, although thanks to the motion capture, the daunting challenge of living up to Robbie had been taken off his shoulders.
He told Zavvi: “The fact I was going to be portrayed as a monkey made the experience so freeing for me; I could take all vanity out of the situation. When you’re making films, you can often focus on how you will be perceived, on what your best side is, or if you’ve got a double chin – this experience removed any of those doubts and allowed me to focus solely on the performance.
“There was a huge encyclopedia of performances and interviews of Rob to study, but to make sure this character had depth, we obviously needed more than one perspective. It was useful for me to meet the man himself and find the more vulnerable human behind the pop star, which would make him approachable.
“Whenever I see famous people, I tend to assume they’re on a pedestal, distanced from my life. Meeting him and having one-on-one time helped get rid of that assumption – he's just an ordinary person with an extraordinary story.”
Robbie also made sure not to give Davies any advice on how to play him, allowing the actor space to try and approach this as a more grounded character drama.
“The mark of what makes a good character is when you find yourself in them, even if it’s just a slither”, Davies continued. “It keeps it grounded so you can empathise with their story, even though you’d never know what it feels like to walk in their shoes.
“Even with the spectacle of the monkey in our movie, it is fundamentally driven by the relationships between the characters.”
Robbie’s key relationship within the film is with former All Saints star Natalie Appleton. Australian actress Raechelle Banno, an alum of soap Home And Away, makes her Hollywood debut in the role, and if you thought the idea of a romantic arc between a pop star and a monkey would be comical, think again.
Not knowing the true story of the tragic, short-lived relationship between the pair prior to seeing the movie, I was caught off guard by how bleak it was. Their first meet-cute – which prefaces a spectacular duet rendition of She’s The One – quickly unravels into an unsparing portrait of a doomed young couple forced into the spotlight.
Banno told Zavvi: “It was a pretty intense experience. There’s a scene where we have an argument in Nicole’s living room, which was shot over a couple of days because we kept trying to find the right tone that would honour their story.
“Interestingly, due to how the schedule of the shoot fell, our meet-cute was the last thing we shot. We got to finish on a light note where we could flirt and dance, which was a nice way to finish as they go to some dark places – and them being so young makes it even more tragic.”
During the shoot, none of the actors knew just how the visual effects would appear once post-production had finished. As soon as the cameras started rolling, Banno quickly forgot her scene partner would be transformed into a monkey.
“In the audition brief, it stated that Robbie would be depicted as a monkey, which sounded jarring – it didn’t correlate with anything in the scenes that were written. As time went on and I met Michael, he was so generous and shared sketches of what they wanted Robbie to look like as a child and adult, as well as animations of how they wanted to visualise it – so when we got on set, we arrived with a vision.
“However, that all went out the window, because when I’m acting, I only see Jonno. The scene is all about making the relationship with the person in the scene feel real – all the magic is added later.”
The music numbers were the last piece of the puzzle added to the screenplay. Rather than follow the biopic arc and have each song appear at the moment it was released within the real-life timeline, Gracey instead preferred to choose which songs made the most “emotional sense” within each moment.
For example, one sequence - a jaw-dropping reinvention of Rock DJ - takes place towards the start of his Take That Days, instead of when he’s already a solo superstar in his own right. If you can suspend disbelief at Robbie being a monkey, you can suspend disbelief at this.
“In a musical, songs are used to help propel the story forward; this isn’t necessarily lyrically, it may just be helpful when placed alongside a visual motif. Take She’s The One, where we flash forward through an entire relationship in one number – the songs allow us to be theatrical with our storytelling, so the beats of the story would determine which song would go where.”
This approach meant that a lot of Robbie’s greatest hits didn’t make it into the movie.
“I’ve been getting a lot of grief from people for not putting Millennium in, but there wasn’t a moment where that would make sense. I promise that one will appear in Better Man 2!”
Better Man is released in UK cinemas on Thursday, 26th December.
