Robbie Williams Explains Why ‘Better Man’ Depicts Him As A “Cheeky Monkey”

Robbie Williams hopes being depicted as another species will help audiences see his humanity.

In the Michael Gracey-helmed musical biopic Better Man, premiering Dec. 25 in theaters, the 18x Brit Award winner’s story is told through actor Jonno Davies, in the form of a CGI chimpanzee, as Williams explained his “MO has been cheeky.”

“What’s more cheeky than a cheeky monkey?” he said to the Associated Press. “I’ve been a cheeky monkey all my life. There’s no more cheekier monkey than the coke-snorting, sex-addict monkey that we find in the movie.”

Williams added, “We care for animals more than we care for humans, most of us. I guess there is a removal, as well. It’s very much a human story but if you’re watching it and someone’s playing Robbie Williams, you’re thinking: Does he look like him? Does he act like him? Does he talk like him?”

The Take That alum previously told Deadline referred to his primate avatar as “a very special magic trick,” explaining, “It desensitizes and sensitizes you all at the same time. We have deep empathy and compassion for animals, way more than we do for humans.”

Gracey also recounted to Deadline how the idea arose to depict Williams as a chimp after interviewing him several times over a year. “I just felt there was a more creative way of entering into this particular story,” he said of Better Man compared to other musical biopics.

“So I went back to those recordings, and when I was listening to them, I found Rob saying often that he was just dragged up to perform, like a monkey, or it didn’t really matter,” said Gracey. “He was just up the back performing like a monkey. And he said it enough times that I was like, ‘Oh, that’s 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.’ That’s where the idea came from.”