No really, why is Robbie Williams a monkey in the new biopic ‘Better Man’?
nypost.comRobbie Williams — the British pop star gets in touch with his inner primate.Indeed, the 50-year-old singer — who rose from the boy band Take That to become one of the biggest UK music icons of the 1990s and early ’00s — is transformed into a singing, dancing chimpanzee thanks to the wonders of CGI in the film that opens wide on Friday.“I’ve been a cheeky monkey all my life,” Williams, who narrates the movie, told the Associated Press. “There’s no more cheekier monkey than the coke-snorting, sex-addict monkey that we find in the movie.”And Williams believes that this ape take on his story — which traces his life from childhood to his struggles with addiction and depression at the height of his fame — benefits from seeing it through a furry-faced chimp.“We care for animals more than we care for humans, most of us,” he told AP. “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?”There were other reasons why it was better to work with a monkey than a man.“With musical biopics, you deal with the star or their estate, and that gets hard,” director Michael Gracey told the Hollywood Reporter. “People want to protect their legacy and image, but ‘Better Man’ has scenes where Robbie is highly unlikable.
That’s way more relatable than a holier-than-thou star, so the monkey allows you to empathize in those uncomfortable moments.
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