Robbie Williams has revealed that the script for his forthcoming biopic, Better Man, was amended because his former bandmate Gary Barlow was unhappy about his portrayal.
The film tells the story of Williams’ rise to fame in boyband Take That before he left the group in 1995 to embark on a successful solo career. For it, Williams chose the unconventional approach to be portrayed by a CGI chimpanzee.
Williams said that Barlow read the first script and thought he came “off worse than Darth Vader in Star Wars”.
Appearing on the New Year’s Eve episode of The Graham Norton Show, Williams said: “I sent the first script to Gary Barlow and he phoned me up – we have a great relationship now – and said ‘Rob, I come off worse than Darth Vader in Star Wars’, so we made amendments.”
“When you talk about my past it happens to be contentious, and I was a different person then. The film brings all that up again so it’s super odd and I can understand how it could be hard for Gary.
“As for the other people I throw under the bus I don’t care.”
During their time in Take That together, the group became one of Britain’s biggest boybands in the Nineties, but tensions began to grow between Barlow – the serious songwriter of the group – and Williams, who was more rebellious.
Williams cemented his successful solo career with songs such as “Rock DJ” and “Angels”, but is now looking back on the experiences that led him there.
The singer didn’t shy away from his more controversial moments in the film, which gives an unvarnished insight into his more “shameful” moments, such as his self-sabotaged relationship with All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (played by Raechelle Banno).
For the film, Jonno Davies wore a motion-capture suit to depict the chimp’s movements, while Williams himself provided the voice.
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The singer has said that he hopes the chimp element of the movie offers a twist on the traditional biopic approach.
“When I heard everyone else in the film would be human and I would be a monkey I thought ‘Yes! This is an eccentric idea, it’s a huge swing, I can instantly see it, it’s incredible.’”
“It was only when I told my wife I realised it might be contentious.”
Williams admitted that it was difficult to watch some of the more damning moments of his younger years in the film.
“It starts out all cheeky chappie and then 45 minutes in it is just like Trainspotting – it’s like the greatest hits of trauma and grief so yes, it’s a bit confronting, a bit triggering,” he said.
In The Independent’s four-star review of Better Man, critic Clarisse Loughrey was pleasantly surprised when the chimp in the film turned out not to be a gimmick.
“Turns out, it’s a little easier to cope with the hard facts of it all when they’re being relayed by an ape in a suit.
Better Man is set for release on 26 December in the UK.
The Graham Norton Show will air on BBC One on New Year’s Eve at 10.25pm.
