Biopics are known for sweeping linear tales that often star famous actors embodying the subject's ticks and tendencies. But Better Man, from The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey, is no standard biographical movie. Rather, the big-screen story based on the life of Robbie Williams, the enfant terrible of a 90s’boy band who became an international superstar, features actor Jonno Davies as the model for the CGI monkey that appears on screen as the former Take That star.
Featuring infectious production numbers, and wild scenes of the monkey as Williams indulging in booze and blow, Better Man highlights familial trauma, addiction, and the craven capitalism of the record company forcing Williams’s girlfriend, All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), to abort their baby. The heartfelt film also honors the queer clubs where Take That amassed a devoted gay following, a community Williams still reveres.
“I'm from a northern English town in a northern English time, the ’70s and the ’80s, where to grow up at school, the thing that you could be bullied about was you may be a homosexual, so you learn that being a homosexual is a shameful thing and there's nothing you should aspire to,” Williams tells The Advocate. “Also, at the same time, I see the [gay] characters and the people on the TV, and they seem like really nice people and they're making me feel happy. This is confusing.”
Liam Head as Howard Donald, Jake Simmance as Gary Barlow, Jonno Davies as Robbie Williams, Chase Vollenweider as Jason Orange, Jesse Hyde as Mark Owen, and Damon Herriman as Nigel Martin Smith in Better ManCourtesy Paramount Pictures
“As a 16-year-old, I get into a band called Take That, and we do gay clubs for the first 18 months,” Williams says. “And what I can say is this, where I'm from, we do kindness and violence really well, and you don’t know which one you're going to get. So, you're never safe because you're surrounded by psychos.”
“First gay club that I went to, I was safe, I was welcomed, and not only was I welcomed, I was loved and appreciated, and yeah, it was instantly life-changing, life-affirming, and I'm very grateful. Still am,” he adds.
Liam Head as Howard Donald, Jonno Davies as Robbie Williams, and Jake Simmance as Gary Barlow in Better Man Courtesy Paramount Pictures
As for Gracey, whose Greatest Showman has its share of queer devotees, he says, “I am very fortunate. I'm surrounded by many marginalized groups who are wildly passionate about what I love to create.”
“What's interesting is I love telling stories, and I tend to tell stories about people who are not necessarily appreciated or in the spotlight or are struggling. And if there is a way of, through music elevating those people, I think there's something really moving about that.”
Raechelle Banno as Nicole Appleton in Better Man Courtesy Paramount Pictures
An uplifting story of survival given Williams’s overcoming addiction and continued success, Banno praises the film for its fearless storytelling.
“Nicole [Appleton] was contacted, and she was sent the script, and they were very much like, 'If you want to take anything out, this is your story as well.' And she said, 'No, you tell it as it was, because these things need to be talked about, and they weren't talked about back then,'” Banno says.
“Being a woman, let alone a young woman who’s trying to achieve a career and is striving for that, but then there are family and life and things that happen, and we're often faced with choices we have to make about our bodies, about what direction we go in… But then to have the powers that be really put pressure on you is devastating,” Banno adds. “And the fact that she had to go through that, that they both [Appleton and Williams] did at the age of 22, 23, is really rage inducing, but also heartbreaking. And I am really proud of the way that they handled that in this film. And I'm really proud Nicole is proud of that.”
Shouting out to The Greatest Showman and Keala Settle's breakout role in that, Gracey says, “Whether you are telling a story about a monkey, whether you're telling a story about a bearded lady, in all of these situations, I think we all see ourselves in that.”
It’s 30-plus years since Williams joined Take That and Williams continues to sell out stadiums and he's won more Brit Awards (the British equivalent to The Grammys) than any other artist. He credits some of his earliest fans with helping him get to where he is.
“The gay community and the Black community have informed me of how I want to present myself, how I want to be, what I can be and what is possible. So I'm very grateful,” Williams says.
Watch the interviews with Robbie Williams and Michael Gracey and Raechelle Banno and Jonno Davies above. Better Man is in theaters now.
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