The nonsense headlines the Daily Mail comes up with . Effing idiots :angry:

 

 

 

The heartbreaking reason Robbie Williams struggled on stage during his New Year's Eve concert in Sydney

Edited January 3Jan 3 by Sydney11

Robbie Williams reveals he is excited to show off his new look at the Golden Globes after being nominated for Best Original Song for biopic Better Man

 

 

Robbie Williams has said he can't wait to show off his new look as he prepares to mingle with Hollywood A-listers at Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards. The Let Me Entertain You singer, 50, revealed he has got new teeth after ditching his old 'yellow nubs' for the ceremony and is excited to show them off. The former Take That star is nominated for Best Original Song for Forbidden Road, from his new biopic Better Man. Despite not normally attending award shows, Robbie said he feels 'very fortunate' and 'lucky' to be nominated.

 

Speaking alongside wife Ayda Field at the pre-Golden Globes bash, The Palm Springs International Film Festival, Robbie joked he is now a diva after being unknown in Hollywood after three decades. He told The Sun: 'I am as excited as anybody else at meeting famous people. Honestly, on the evening, there'll be an 11-year-old inside me going, 'Oh, guess what? Look who is over there?' Yeah. I'll be super-excited. It's very exciting. I feel like a brand new artist experiencing new experiences in a brand new time at the end table. It's fabulous.'

 

Robbie added: 'It is always nice being invited to the party, even though normally I don't go. But I really wanted to come. I feel very fortunate to be nominated and very lucky to be invited here.'

 

It comes after Robbie's hopes of scoring his first Academy Award were shattered after his latest song was deemed ineligible for a nomination. The singer's track Forbidden Road, from his upcoming biopic Better Man, was shortlisted last month in the for Best Original Song category. However, Oscar bosses have since disqualified the song, saying it shares too many similarities with another tune from 1973, according to Variety. The melody of Forbidden Road has been compared to I Got a Name by Charles Fox-Norman Gimbel, which was performed by Jim Croce in the film, The Last American Hero. The Academy rules state that the lyrics and music of any track submitted in the category, must be 'original and written specifically for the motion picture.'

 

Robbie made the painful admission he struggled on stage during his New Years Eve concert in Sydney on Tuesday. The UK megastar admitted he struggled with mental health 'demons' as he performed on stage in front of thousands of fans, which almost interrupted his show. 'I battled with anxiety and mental health demons. Yes, the other night I was on stage on TV. I had the tail ends of a cold,' Robbie told the Herald Sun.

 

The singer added he was taking medication for his cold and when combined with his ongoing mental health battle, he was left feeling very vulnerable. 'On top of a cold, I had jetlag. Cold plus jet lag plus anxiety and mental illness is a very potent combination. 'I noticed once I stepped on stage in front of 11 million viewing people, I felt crazy. I also had to hold it together and not, outwardly, let what was happening inwardly.' He added his 'demon' of insecurity began to play with his mind and he worried about whether he would be able to perform to the best of his ability. 'The demons now are, "Twitter's gonna think I’m on stage off my face on coke." Not only do I look crazy, I feel crazy. 'While I'm enjoying myself, and going with it, I'm also experiencing anxiety, and all the mean comments out there in internet land.' Fortunately, Robbie managed to pull himself together and gave his many fans a show to remember.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/artic...Better-Man.html

Edited January 5Jan 5 by Sydney11

He is so funny :P

 

 

Rob's been wearing the most beautiful classy suits these past few months :heart:

 

America Doesn't Need To “Get” Robbie Williams

 

 

When the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man came out at the end of last year, director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman, Rocketman) held out hopes that the chimpanzee musical might resonate with US audiences. “It’s truly exciting that they’re hearing these songs for the first time in the film,” he told IndieWire, referring to the fact that – despite selling over 75 million records worldwide – most Americans still don’t know who Williams is.

 

Gracey shouldn’t have held his breath. Americans don’t “get” Robbie Williams now, just like they didn’t in 1999, back when he signed to Capitol Records and embarked on a tour across North America. After Better Man, the disgruntled TikToks started rolling in from across the pond. “We don’t like him,” said one user. “The music is not good and the music ya’ll keep playing to tell us that he’s good… we don’t like it.” For others, they thought his lack of American fame must equate to not being famous globally. “Every so often somebody tries to convince me that there’s a person who’s been around all along and I can’t help but feel like I’m being gaslit,” said another. “This… Robbie Williams?”

 

Predictably, Brits flipped out en masse (British culture is dunking on Britain constantly until an American does it and then suddenly you’re the most patriotic person on earth). Indeed, there’s a particular type of deranged British vs American head-butting online that starts with a person in, say, Arizona asking something innocuous like “what’s baked beans?” and ends with someone in Kent frothing at the mouth and rage-typing “AT LEAST WE DON’T HAVE GUNS!!” To that end, the Robbie Williams back and forth should have come as no surprise. What is surprising, however, is the idea that Americans ever should or would get Robbie Williams, Mr Rock DJ, our Robbie from Stoke-on-Trent, to begin with.

 

At the centre of all of this confusion, it seems, is his music, which doesn’t always translate for reasons that are complicated and hard to explain. Robbie has never been an incredible singer (he can belt; you can tell he was raised on pub cabaret). He’s had a number of misses in among his myriad hits (someone hide “Rudebox” from the American people). His songs, which have often teetered between bolshiness and fragility, ego and vulnerability, Britpop and showtunes-esque balladry, don’t really make sense without the man himself. Because to try and understand Robbie based on his music alone is to miss the point entirely. It’s like judging a Wetherspoons meal on its actual taste, rather than the ritual of getting a full English for £5.75 on a hangover. Or trying to explain why smoking areas are culturally significant. They just are. Robbie Williams just is. And we love him for it.

 

Robbie doesn’t tone down his British-isms, but instead leads with them, because he can’t help it. In a 2011 interview with Vogue, he said the sentence “Slags are what I like” (try to imagine, like, Bruno Mars saying that). His song “Angels” has become such a mainstay among the pubs and clubs of Britain that there is not a single person who would need the lyrics in order to sing it at karaoke. When he played Knebworth in 2003, marking the biggest music event in UK history, he said, “You’ve watched me grow up so far. I wanna get old with you lot. Please, please don’t leave me.” He is charm and bravado personified, but – unlike a more poised and shiny American swag or earnestness – there’s a fragility simmering just beneath the surface, with a heavy dose of winking sarcasm on top of that. He sang it himself in “Come Undone”: “So ‘need your love’, so ‘f*** you all’.”

 

Some Brits might tell you that they love Robbie Williams ironically, but they’d be lying. There’s a widespread affection for Robbie over here – and, oddly, among the rest of the world bar America – that isn’t dissimilar to the affection one might feel for their hometown or first love. He makes you want to roll your eyes and get misty-eyed at the same time. The opening chords to “Let Me Entertain You” is like knocking back a tequila shot after work on a Friday. Whether or not he “makes sense” in America – ever did, ever needs to – is irrelevant. As Moya Lothian-McLean put it in Line of Best Fit: “Robbie was never going to make it there. He has too much about him. Coldplay could crack the US with bland, inoffensive stadium rock, but Robbie, with his demons and his tattoos and his hedonism? Absolutely not, and it’s their loss.”

 

Robbie knows that America doesn’t get him. He jokes about it all the time. When an American interviewer recently asked him if there was anything he wanted to say to his “fans in America” who might be experiencing his story for the first time, he turned straight to the camera, the hint of a smile on his lips. “Yeah I’ll speak to that one fan. Hi Linda! You alright? Nice to see you. Sorry I haven’t been back to America since the last century but it’s nice that you still check out my stuff online. How are the family, are they good?”

 

https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/america-doe...robbie-williams

Edited January 7Jan 7 by Sydney11

Coldplay could crack the US with bland, inoffensive stadium rock, but Robbie, with his demons and his tattoos and his hedonism? Absolutely not, and it’s their loss.”

Well said

“Jump In and Learn How to Swim After”: Robbie Williams, Andra Day and the Songwriter Roundtable

Andrew Watt, Camille and Andrew Wyatt also discuss their dream collaborators, spirit animals and whether writing film music is more like a battle or a surreal experience"

 

From left: Andra Day, Andrew Watt, Robbie Williams, Camille and Andrew Wyatt discuss, as Williams puts it, “the magic and majesty and healing of music.” They were photographed for the THR Songwriter Roundtable on Nov. 18 at The Luckman Club at Soho House West Hollywood. Photographed by Beau Grealy

 

Andrew Wyatt is a songwriter and producer who has worked with Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Miley Cyrus. Andrew Watt also is a songwriter and producer who has worked with Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Miley Cyrus. They often get mistaken for each other. “I get congratulated for winning an Oscar, and he doesn’t,” Watt says of Wyatt, who won the 2019 best original song Academy Award for “Shallow,” from A Star Is Born. “People come up to me and say, ‘I love your work with The Rolling Stones,’ ” Wyatt says, referring to Watt, who worked on Mick Jagger and company’s 2025 Grammy-nominated Hackney Diamonds and is nominated himself for producing songs for Pearl Jam and Gaga and Mars. He adds: “At this point, literally I’m so sick of correcting people. I just say thank you.”

 

Watt may joke about masquerading as an Oscar winner, but it could very well become reality: The song he co-wrote for the doc Elton John: Never Too Late is one of 14 tracks on the Academy’s shortlist. He created “Never Too Late” with Brandi Carlile, Bernie Taupin and John, an EGOT on track to win his third Oscar.

 

Wyatt almost won his second Oscar nearly a year ago for co-penning Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” but lost to another Barbie song — Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For.” He’s back this year with The Last Showgirl, for which he scored and also co-wrote the movie’s main song, “Beautiful This Way,” by Cyrus. For The Hollywood Reporter’s Songwriter Roundtable, the Andrews are joined by two-time Oscar nominee Andra Day, who stars in Exhibiting Forgiveness and wrote the original track “Bricks”; Robbie Williams (whose “Forbidden Road” for his biopic, Better Man, was later deemed ineligible for incorporating existing material); and French musician Camille, who composed music alongside her partner Clément Ducol for Emilia Pérez and is the Oscar frontrunner with two songs in contention (“El Mal” and “Mi Camino”).

 

I wanted to start with this question because it beautifully showcases the power of music. Andra, I was at your Amazon Music taping, and as you performed your last song — we all had goose bumps — there was a woman in the audience bawling. You locked eyes with her, gave her a hug and you both walked backstage. Could you take me back to that moment?

 

ANDRA DAY It was a reminder, to me, that music is healing. As a person of faith, I reference this scripture where there was a village that was sick, there was a drought, and whatever water they had was sick. And they brought this prophet in to heal the water. I love the story because the first thing the prophet says is, “Bring me someone to play the lyre,” which was a harp or maybe guitar back then. It wasn’t until a musician came, played, that he was able to actually heal the water. I love the idea that music is designed to be healing — and I think for her in that moment, it really was. She opened up to me and expressed some things that she had really been struggling with. It was a reminder in the moment that that’s why I’m there. All the other stuff is amazing. I’m super grateful for it. It’s fun and it’s exciting, but that connection is why I do what I do. I believe in divine appointments.

 

For the rest of you, have you had that kind of visceral experience through a performance or a song that you worked on?

 

CAMILLE I wrote a song for Emilia Pérez called “Papa,” and it says “Hueles como papá.” The little boy tells Emilia, “You smell like papa.” She’s actually his papa, but he doesn’t know. And so I [remembered] how my dad smelled. My dad passed away 12 years ago, and it really inspired me. I’m actually talking about my dad [in the song], mixing it with some smells I imagine in Mexico: piedrecitas, like stones and the sun; cigarro, my dad is French and would smoke cigars; guacamole, some clichés like that, but sweet, you know? A guy came to me the other day and told me, “That song, you know, I live apart from my dad, who lives in South America, and it smells exactly like my dad.

 

DAY Wow.

 

ROBBIE WILLIAMS It’s incredible — you just said one word with four letters, and it was “papa,” and before you’d explained the song itself, we all understood what it was. For me in that moment, a tear was forming in my eye before you’d even said it. I think it was — (pointing to Andra) to talk about what you were talking about — is the magic and the majesty and the healing of music.

My biggest song is a song called “Angels,” and every time I perform, I am stepping up and giving the people what they want. It takes a lot out of me — whether you believe that or are bothered at all, it does. I’ll look into the audience, and there’ll be several people that will be in tears because they’re thinking about their grandma who’s no longer here or they’re thinking about their mom or they’re thinking about their father, best friend, sister, brother.

 

Was there a song for you, Andrew Wyatt, that had that sort of a response?

 

ANDREW WYATT I was in Russia, and they brought my band [Miike Snow] over there, kind of as part of the Sochi Olympics. I will never forget looking at the reaction in the back of that crowd, and it kind of speaks to what Andra was saying.

 

When you first get involved in music, you’re doing it because you’re a kid and you’re like, “I’ll probably never get to do this, but I’ll try.” And you are trying to get somewhere with it all, and it’s more about your verdicts and how do these verdicts affect me and my life path? Let’s face it, we’re all kind of like that. Then, once you have been doing it for a minute, you start to take in other aspects of it.

This was one of those moments where in a very real way I realized music’s important to people. Like, it’s actually really giving life to people. Like Kanye used to say, “If you make him dance, you got a chance.” I think for a long time I thought people needed food and shelter, and music’s kind of optional, but it’s not really optional if you want to live the good life. It really changed the way I felt about music.

 

You’ve all had amazing film songs come out recently. Let’s start with you, Camille: What was it like working on the music in Emilia Pérez with Zoe Saldaña?

 

CAMILLE Zoe’s definitely a singer. She kept telling me, “I’m a dancer, I’m an actress, but I’m not a singer.” I said, “Yes, you are a singer, Zoe.” And she’s not only a singer, she’s a performer. When she sings on the screen, it’s as if she was onstage. She really takes control of the scenes and really sings to the public live; it really feels like a live show. I loved working with her.

 

What was it like when you watched the film back and saw the music woven into the scenes?

 

CAMILLE I was stunned. It felt like coming back from [a battle] and everybody’s saying, “Ah, it’s great.” And I was exhausted and happy to see that people related to the movie with their hearts. That’s why I liked that movie so much. I think it’s great technically, but more than anything it touches people’s emotions, hearts.

 

WILLIAMS Can I ask a question?

 

CAMILLE Yeah.

 

WILLIAMS So you’re saying you experience watching a movie back, and a lot of the time when people get to the top of the mountain, they can have an empty feeling. Was it an empty feeling or was it a glorious feeling? Was it a mixture of both?

 

CAMILLE We won the [battle].

 

WILLIAMS So it filled your heart?

 

CAMILLE Yes. It’s the feeling of having worked and that people were in their emotions, but you come back from work, you know what I mean? So I was basically filled with the amount of work we’d done and actually still looking at the film like it was work, “Oh, this, oh, this.”

 

Robbie, what was it like watching back your film, in which a “performing monkey” portrays you?

 

WILLIAMS I’m a narcissist, so I loved it. OK, so the first time sitting down, because it’s 50 years in the living, seven years in the making, there’s so much expectancy from me that I need this thing to facilitate the third act of my career. And I’ve been excited, excited, excited. And then I sat down to watch it, and I was like, “Oh, what if it’s shit?” That was my main fear. And then I disappeared into the movie, and at the end of it, it is and was better than I could have ever expected. I was relieved. It was surreal. It was emotional. It was incredible.

 

[For the music,] I sent a bunch of songs to Michael Gracey, the director, and he would then send them back and tell me basically, kindly, they weren’t good enough. And I know this story about 8 Mile when Eminem sent “Lose Yourself,” and the director said it’s not good enough, and then it became “Lose Yourself.” And in my head I was like, “This is ‘Lose Yourself,’ and you are wrong, actually.” But I didn’t have a bird’s-eye view of the film. I didn’t know what was needed. We saw the film, and basically what it needs is a hug, so we [gave it] a hug because by the time you get to the end of the movie, you’ve been through a lot and you need a hug.

 

Were you always on board to do a biopic?

 

WILLIAMS Mate, yeah, whatever: film, book, documentary. I’m a professional attention-seeker. This is what we do.

 

ANDREW WATT When you’re watching your story and you see the monkey, do you find yourself forgetting that it’s a monkey that’s playing you at all?

 

WILLIAMS When you watch Bohemian Rhapsody, you’re very aware that he’s doing a great job as Freddie Mercury. The same with Rocketman; he is doing a great job as Elton John. Because it’s the monkey, you’re not even thinking he’s doing a great job as Robbie Williams — it removes you somewhat. Plus, we are more compassionate to animals, so you empathize with me on a level that you wouldn’t empathize with me if it was skin and bones.

 

WYATT I don’t know, I’m empathizing a lot with you. My heart is melting right now.

 

WILLIAMS I feel it. OK, question: In my film, a monkey plays me, so what animal would your spirit animal be?

 

DAY It would be a sloth.

 

WYATT Oh, no, no, no.

 

DAY It’s the animal that I love the most.

 

WATT Joe Pesci.

 

DAY It’s got to be an animal.

 

WILLIAMS Joe Pesci’s an animal? OK, fair enough. Anybody else?

 

CAMILLE A wolf.

 

WYATT I think you got the hair. I was going to say the wolf, too, but we can’t really do two. I would say a wolverine. Wolverine’s a little tougher than me, though, to be totally fair.

 

Andrew Watt, you’ve worked with Elton before — was the session for “Never Too Late” different from your others?

 

WATT Yeah, totally. The way Elton writes songs is he gets the lyrics and then sees a picture in his mind; he’s described it like a movie scene almost. He puts them up on the piano and then writes the song to the lyrics.

[John and Taupin] kind of invited Brandi into that process, and Elton sang the lyrics that they came up with together, which were completely based on his life and this Elton documentary she saw. And we all kind of saw this early version of it, and she wrote this amazing thing about his life. And I’m sitting there writing a song that’s really about him. It’s just an amazing thing to witness.

 

Andrew Wyatt, what was your process when writing “Beautiful This Way”?

 

WYATT I landed on this particular groove that was a little bit martial, meaning (gestures drumming) like “dun dun-dun-dun,” and then also had some kind of dreaminess to it, which permeates the whole film. I tried to make a song that could communicate what the character [played by Pamela Anderson] has been through but also feel like it was part of the tapestry of the rest of the film. All the score, that was really my response to the images that I was seeing, which were kind of these beautiful but somehow sad images.

 

What was it like to work with Miley Cyrus again?

 

WYATT She’s amazing. The thing about Miley is every syllable that she sings sounds like her life depends on it. That’s so incredible about her as a singer. The other thing about her is that she’s still so young, but she’s had such a storied career already, and so there are so many layers to her voice. And in that way, her voice has the same level of gravitas of Pamela’s character, who’s playing someone who’s way further down the road in years than Miley is now, but it can actually carry that. So it can actually tell that same story, which is part of the phenomenon that is Miley.

 

Andra, you play a singer in Exhibiting Forgiveness who is working on the song “Bricks,” which you wrote for the film. What was it like acting and creating music for the film?

 

DAY I read the incredible script, and I got to talk to [director] Titus Kaphar every day, watch them develop these characters. And one of the things that struck me most about the story was — and I was shocked that I never thought of it before — it’s called “Bricks,” and the line says, “Building with bricks that we were never given.” Because I think one of the great miracles of life is the ability to create a life or a future or build a family that you’ve never actually seen or experienced. How do you create a household of peace and of nurturing when all you’ve ever known is abuse and chaos? The movie exemplifies that.

 

The legendary Quincy Jones recently passed and you worked with him not long ago, Andrew Wyatt. What was that like?

 

WYATT Very lucky to be able to do that with him and Chaka Khan at the same time. He obviously was incredible. We did this song for his [2018 documentary Quincy] that [his daughter] Rashida Jones directed, and we tried to do it justice by having the musicality that he always had and was always very ardent about bringing to everything. Nothing wrong with that three-chord music, but he was not a three-chord-music kind of guy. So we tried to layer it up like that. Talk about a surreal moment.

 

WATT Did you find in that experience that you’re like, “OK, they asked me to be here, so I should just say what I think, right?”

 

WYATT Totally, yeah. That’s what it is. Otherwise, you’re going to waste everybody’s time. You’ve got to step up at some point and just …

 

WILLIAMS Do the thing.

 

WYATT Jump in and learn how to swim after.

 

WATT Working with bands is fun and funny … because you want to help them. “It’s a major chord. No, it’s a minor chord.” Then I started realizing it’s just min-jor. Just let them do their thing.

 

Andrew Watt, you’ve worked with many contemporary acts, but what has it been like to have legends like The Stones, Elton, Pearl Jam, Ozzy and Iggy Pop call you to produce their latest albums?

 

WATT It kind of feels like a weird dream sequence, honestly, even hearing those names together. It’s the joy of my life. I am a fan — always have been a big fan of all those acts. And I guess that’s what I’m there to do when I’m there: represent the fans.

 

WILLIAMS As those names were reeled off: How old were you when you came around to my house — 19, 20?

 

WATT Like 19 or 20 years old. [Editor’s note: Watt is 34 now.] And you never f***ing called me back!

 

WILLIAMS No, no, no. But you were lovely and are lovely. I’m just thinking as this young man left my house, “Nice lad, I hope he does OK.” Wow. Congratulations.

 

WATT You were awesome to me then.

 

Andrew Wyatt and Andrew Watt — have you guys worked together yet?

 

WYATT We did work on one song with Bruno, right?

 

WATT Yeah.

 

WYATT And I don’t think it’s out yet.

 

Camille co-wrote “El Mal” and “Mi Camino” for Emilia Pérez. PAGE 114 – WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS – PATHÉ FILMS – FRANCE 2 CINÉMA

f you all could pick any artist, dead or alive, to write a song for or collaborate with, who would that be?

 

WILLIAMS I would like to write a new Rat Pack album. I think I might do it. And whether they join in or not, it’s up to their estates, but we’ll see.

 

CAMILLE I’m a solo artist, so [Emilia Pérez was] the first time I wrote songs for other singers. I enjoyed it very much working for all of them, especially Selena Gomez, because she already has a singing career. And we got on. I don’t dare to tell her, but she inspires me.

 

WILLIAMS Tell her.

 

CAMILLE I’ll tell her. And there’s another woman that touches me — that’s Celine Dion. Because she has been through hard times, having troubles with her voice. And this is very touching for a singer to be able to, maybe, write about what it feels like losing your voice or finding it back and what you’re going through. What does it mean when it happens, sometimes that suddenly you lose your voice? It hasn’t happened a lot of times to me, but it has happened. And you always wonder, “Why am I being silent?”

 

WILLIAMS Most of the time we take artists for granted because they’re just there and they’re in our lives. It wasn’t until the Olympics when Celine came when I was reminded, “Oh my Lord, this is a very special person.” I agree with you; you should write a song and collaborate with her.

 

DAY It could be someone dead or alive? My dead answer would absolutely be Billie Holiday [whom Day portrayed in The United States vs. Billie Holiday]. I would be fine with her cussing me out in the studio. I’m like, “That’s fine.” [Also] Michael Jackson, obviously, and Quincy. Alive? Definitely Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott. They were like the new Billie for me, and Ella, and the new Sarah Vaughan. Those three women were really essential in my self-discovery [and] becoming a woman.

 

WYATT Dead: Jimi Hendrix. He’s the coolest person you could probably spend a day or a week or a month with, so it has to be him. Alive is … (looks at Watt), “Didn’t you do something with Stevie Wonder recently?”

 

WATT I did, yeah. He’s the greatest.

 

WYATT Stevie Wonder was my absolute god. I had posters above my bed. So sometimes you’re like, “Do you really want to do work with someone that you really looked up to as a god?” But I think I would probably do it anyway. One of the biggest regrets I have is, actually, we were offered to do this performance [with Stevie], but we couldn’t do it. For some reason, somebody in the band decided they couldn’t do it. We were going to perform at the Super Bowl, like the Budweiser sideshow or something, and Stevie Wonder was also performing. And they’re like, “There’s only one thing: You have to agree to do one song with Stevie Wonder.” I was like, “What?” So there went my chance.

 

Andrew Watt, what’s your answer?

 

WATT Such a hard question.

 

WILLIAMS You’ve done it, haven’t you?

 

WATT Siouxsie Sioux, I love. Haven’t heard music from her in a long time; just to even talk to her.

 

WILLIAMS How about Robbie Williams, please? Please. I beg now.

 

Well, Robbie’s got an album coming out. Is it too late?

 

WILLIAMS No, no. Never too late.

 

WATT That’s the name of my [Oscar-shortlisted] song. There we go.

 

This story first appeared in a January stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

 

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/musi...ble-1236102191/

Edited January 7Jan 7 by Sydney11

WOW!!

 

Thank you!

 

I so happy to see Robbie at this Roundtable.

I love this format and every year near Oscars time I'm waiting for such meetings between actors, directors, etc.

You know, when you love some topics it's great to see the experts close to each other. Amazing format!

 

And well, I waited for something like that with Robbie or Michael this time.

Happy to see Robbie there and come on! What a topic! Songwriter Roundtable!

Maybe one the important occasion for Rob himself and too irony it connects to the cinema where he is a (almost) newcomer.

 

Same but with video!

Please watch everybody.

 

And there are two teases of the new music! Let me don't tell what this exactly ;)

 

Well this is an interesting one . to hear Rob being discussed on here is a big deal ..

 

 

Edited January 7Jan 7 by Sydney11

 

Amazing pictures Alex , thanks :)

WOW!!

 

Thank you!

 

I so happy to see Robbie at this Roundtable.

I love this format and every year near Oscars time I'm waiting for such meetings between actors, directors, etc.

You know, when you love some topics it's great to see the experts close to each other. Amazing format!

 

And well, I waited for something like that with Robbie or Michael this time.

Happy to see Robbie there and come on! What a topic! Songwriter Roundtable!

Maybe one the important occasion for Rob himself and too irony it connects to the cinema where he is a (almost) newcomer.

 

Same but with video!

Please watch everybody.

 

And there are two teases of the new music! Let me don't tell what this exactly ;)

 

 

New music mentioned! 😱

View this post on Instagram

@1877018184659664899

Not much about the movie itself ))

 

The Robster mode in this interview detected.

 

 

Really like this discussion on the movie

 

 

4.5/5

 

 

Edited January 10Jan 10 by Sydney11

Robbie Williams just wants to entertain you. Why won't you let him !

 

Ask Robbie Williams how he's doing and you might get a surprisingly honest answer.

 

"I am insane," says the British pop singer, on a Zoom chat Monday from Los Angeles. (Note: this interview was conducted prior to the start of the massive L.A. wildfires.)

 

On any given day, Williams might give a similar answer to a fairly innocuous question, because he just can't help himself. That's part of his wily charm.

 

At this particular moment he's insane — his words — because he's fighting off a burgeoning cold while doing massive press for his new biopic "Better Man," which opens in theaters Friday, and in which he's played by a CGI monkey. (More on that later.)

 

"This is the kind of promo that would give a boy band member from the '90s a nervous breakdown," says Williams. He was coming off of Sunday's Golden Globe Awards, where his "Better Man" offering "Forbidden Road" was nominated for Best Original Song from a Motion Picture, though the prize went to "El Mal," from "Emilia Pérez."

 

"So I'm jet lagged, excited, unsure of myself and feeling a bit vulnerable, but apart from that I'm having a wonderful time," he says. "How are you?"

 

Welcome to Robbie's World. It's a place North Americans have been famously resistant to embracing since Williams broke out of British boy band Take That and forged his own solo career in the late 1990s; his highest charting single in the U.S. is "Angels," which peaked at No. 53 on the Hot 100 tally 25 years ago this month, and he hasn't landed a single song on the chart since.

 

Compare that to Britain, where he's a massively beloved superstar with 14 No. 1 albums and seven No. 1 singles who regularly sells out arena and stadium tours. (His career philosophy is perhaps best summed up in the title of his 1998 hit, "Let Me Entertain You.")

 

For a barometer of his popularity in his homeland, watch a clip of him performing "Angels" on stage with Taylor Swift at London's Wembley Stadium in 2018; listen to the crowd's reaction as he rises up from below the stage, and try not to get goosebumps.

 

Yet in the U.S. — where he toured just once, including a May 1999 stop at Detroit's Saint Andrew's Hall — it's crickets for the cheeky singer, who is bold and brash and loud and self-destructive, all excellent qualities for a larger-than-life pop star. (For the record, he says he was stoned that entire tour, and doesn't remember anything about the Detroit concert or any other shows on the U.S. run, for that matter.)

 

"I don't think I can name an artist in recent history that has moved the needle so much everywhere in the world apart from North America. Anybody that moves the needle also moves the needle here, too, apart from me. It's highly unusual," says Williams, who has long called Los Angeles his home. "A lot is my own doing. I came once, it didn't work, and I decided to live here in anonymity and turn down any work that I could get in America, on purpose.

 

"The reason was two-fold: one was because I trying to learn how to be human, and I thought that it would be in my best interest to have anonymity and try to have a normal life in my abnormal life. And the other one was to go, 'I don't consent to the fact that you are telling me it's important to break America,'" he says. "Why isn't it as important to break Brazil, where I didn't break? Why isn't it as important to break Japan, where I didn't break? Why is there a light shined on it? As Brits we can be quite contrary, and I am a contrarian, too."

 

As "Better Man" rolls into theaters nationwide, Williams — who hails from central England's Stoke-on-Trent — says he wouldn't mind finally kicking down that American door that has remained closed to him for so long, but he's not holding his breath for it to happen.

 

"I would now like to come in, but I'm not being told, on my behalf, that it's a do-or-die situation," says Williams, who turns 51 next month. "Because here's the truth: I would love to come and show off for North America. But I've also existed, so far, without showing off for North America. If it does or doesn't happen, I will be grateful if it does, and I will pivot if it doesn't, because I did before."

 

There are some who appear dedicated to keeping that door to his Stateside success blockaded. Recently there have been a wave of TikToks posted by users who are not only resistant to Williams but who come off borderline hostile toward his very existence. Williams says he's aware of the videos, and rather mystified by them.

The psychology of it is interesting," says Williams, dressed in a white undershirt that shows off his heavily tattooed arms. "It is, 'The door is shut, and we will not have him.' And for those people taking part in that conversation, why is it so important for you that this doesn't happen for me? What is that? And I would say that the first time I came around it wasn't that America, as a whole, went, 'Oh, no, we will not have it.' There was a difference, and I wasn't seen, as are thousands of artists that come over here from the U.K., Australia or New Zealand and make no impact. I was just another one of the thousands.

 

"I think that my non-impact is so profound, on a level, because of the success I have everywhere else," he says. "But the psychology of why it remains important that the door remain closed for me to so many people is confusing."

 

Also confusing to many — but right in line with Williams' bold approach to stardom — is the decision for the pop star to be played in "Better Man," for 100% of the film's runtime, by a digitally rendered monkey. (Think "Rocketman" meets "Planet of the Apes," and you're on the right track.)

 

A more conventional biopic was initially in play — you know, with an actual human star at the center — but Williams says he was approached with the monkey idea by the film's co-writer and director, Michael Gracey ("The Greatest Showman"), and it immediately spoke to him.

 

"Because I'm on the spectrum, this part of the spectrum found it such an intoxicating, brilliant, genius idea that I was instantly sold," Williams says. "It was only then pointed out to me that it may be unusual, from people telling me it's an unusual choice. But it just is what it is."

 

And what it is, undoubtedly, is audacious, which speaks to a through line in Williams' career, from putting out an album of standards covers at the height of his fame (check out his delightful rendition of "Somethin' Stupid," a duet with Nicole Kidman) to his decision to kick off concerts on his 2003 tour by hanging from the top of the stage, upside down, suspended from his feet.

 

"My whole career has been built on audacity, and this is an audacious idea. And that excites me," says Williams, of his on-screen simian alter ago. "But also, with things that are audacious, there is jeopardy to audacity. And I probably exist on the fumes of audacious behavior and audacious ideas."

 

"Better Man" — the title comes from one of the tracks on his 2000 album, "Sing When You're Winning" — is nakedly honest in its depiction of Williams, his personal shortcomings, his battles with drugs, his habitual self-sabotage and more. It is also an at-times thrilling and jubilant jukebox musical celebration of his career in light of those struggles.

 

Putting himself out there for the world, even in monkey form, is daunting, he says, especially given the business concerns attached to the film's success.

 

"It's terrifying because you can't help but get caught up in the expectation train," says the father of four. "I think what I'm finding with this movie is it will have its way, one way or the other. In my mind, my expectation is that I pull all levers and become omnipresent again. Maybe that won't happen. But we're in the process of finding out what this movie means to the world, and I am trying to negotiate with myself and navigate having it be the right size in my life, without it breaking me and my fragile, sensitive self."

 

That fragile, sensitive self — mixed with his attention-loving self and his primal self — is at the center of "Better Man." Through and through, the movie is unabashedly Robbie Williams, for better or for worse.

 

This is a competitive industry, whether people like it or not. And I want to take every moment that I can and be different to everybody else," he says. "I want to take every moment that I can to say and do something and behave in a way that everybody else doesn't. That is my USP" — shorthand for unique selling point — "and you either like that or you hate it. But you won't be indifferent to it."

 

agraham@detroitnews.com

Edited January 10Jan 10 by Sydney11

@1877740478373716303

Really interesting interview :)

 

Robbie Williams Would Like to Reintroduce Himself

 

“Who is Robbie Williams?” That's the question the British pop star poses in the opening and closing moments of his new biopic, Better Man. At home in the U.K., he needs no introduction. After rising to fame as a teenager in Take That, one of the most successful British boy bands of the ‘90s, Williams—widely considered to be the bad boy of the group—went on to forge a solo career that reached stratospheric heights. He’s enjoyed 14 No. 1 albums in the U.K., won 13 BRIT awards as a solo artist, and broken records with his concert ticket sales. But while Williams has built loyal fan bases around the world, his success has never quite translated to the U.S. market. Now, Williams has a chance to make a first impression—again.

 

Much like how Pharrell Williams broke the biopic mold last year by having his story told with Legos in Piece by Piece, Robbie Williams—never one to be confined by tradition—is portrayed by a CGI monkey in Better Man. Actor Jonno Davies delivered the lines and motion-captured moves, but the audience sees an anthropomorphic monkey. It was the film’s director, Michael Gracey (best known for The Greatest Showman), who approached Williams with the inspired idea. “I thought it was brilliant, genius, and high f-ckery,” Williams tells me over Zoom from Los Angeles, his second home. It’s the morning after the Golden Globes, which he attended as a first-time nominee, for the movie’s closing track, “Forbidden Road.” (The song was also shortlisted for an Academy Award, but was later disqualified due to not meeting the required criteria.)

 

When Williams initially received his invite to attend the first-time nominee luncheon in December, alongside the likes of Wicked’s Ariana Grande and Emilia Pérez’s Zoe Saldaña, he intended to decline. “I said to my wife, ‘I’m not going. It’s a bit pick me.’ And she then reminded me that I’m the voice and face of Felix the cat food, so I was like, ‘Yeah, OK, let’s go,’” he says with his trademark candor. As for the awards show itself, Williams has mixed feelings. While he enjoyed the ceremony, he was less inspired by the red carpet beforehand. “Giant f-ckery. Huge disorganization,” he says. “There was this huge line, like it was for Space Mountain at Disney, to do the step and repeat [publicity picture]. Normally, I’d go, ‘F-ck this’ and walk in, but I’m heavily promoting my film, and I’m really proud of it.” So he grudgingly got in line, next to Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldblum, Ewan McGregor, and Salma Hayek.

 

Now 50 and a dad of four, Williams appears to view the only industry he’s ever known as both beautiful and beastly. “I embrace the madness fully, but honestly, it’s a sh-t show,” he says.

 

Better Man showcases the extreme highs and devastating lows of Williams’ life and the industry that raised him. During one early scene where a young Robbie is watching Frank Sinatra perform on TV, we see his dad, an aspiring stand-up comic and singer, tell him: “You can’t learn it. You’re either born with it or you’re a nobody.” Williams later wonders what “it” is and desperately worries that he might end up as a nobody. His dad soon leaves to pursue his own dreams, shifting the family dynamic and setting forth a complex father-son relationship. In later scenes, we see Williams struggle with addiction, his body image, and incessant thoughts of self-loathing, all while portraying himself as a happy-go-lucky cheeky chap—or cheeky monkey, as it were—to the rest of the world. The on-screen pop star strives to decipher who he really is, and the audience is taken on the same journey as we watch him evolve.

 

Ahead of the film’s nationwide release in the U.S., Williams discussed his no-holds-barred biopic, the healing nature of confronting past behaviors, and how telling his authentic story unavoidably caused discomfort for others.

 

TIME: I’m curious to know how you’re feeling about Better Man being widely released in the U.S. Have you considered how this will translate to a U.S. audience, who perhaps may be less familiar with your story than those of us in the U.K.?

 

Williams: I can’t help, because I’m a human, to get on board the expectation train and follow everybody else’s lead that is invested in this movie, both financially and emotionally. I am no less ambitious than I’ve ever been. I think it would be novel and exciting to get to show off for a North American audience on a scale that I’ve not been able to, ever. I wonder, if that doesn’t come to pass, how it will make me feel. As it is with my job, I am waiting for the general public to allow me to exist and that is a scary place to be. And it’s not lost on me as a 50-year-old that I need to sort this out.

 

I watched your 2023 Netflix docuseries, in which you spoke openly about how your attempt to cross over into the American market as a solo artist didn’t go to plan. They didn’t understand you and your personality. Does it feel different this time around?

 

 

I think there’s so much onus, especially for Brits, to “break America.” As a Brit, I think we’re contrarians. Like, “You’re not going to tell me what’s important to my career without my consent.” I don’t consent to the onus being put on this. Why isn’t it really important to break Japan? That being said, I don’t like it being used as a tool to pinpoint when [people are] successful. In the aspect of my career, it’s: “And he didn’t break America.” For the chance to go, “F-ck off, d-ckheads.” That’s the only reason why I want to it. I don’t think that’s a good enough reason, but it’s a reason all the same.

 

I hear you. Are people having a conversation somewhere right now about whether they can “break England?” I wonder if it’s because we grew up with so many American films and American culture is so prevalent over here. It’s a weird relationship we have with it.

 

Yeah, it is. If I look at it as a well individual, which I’m not, it’s like, “How much fame do you want and how much money do you need?” Because that’s all it means, is extra fame. I’m addicted to success. The hole will never be filled, but still I persevere. I would love to be able to show off in North America and do shows over here and have them embrace me just to scratch an itch. But I’ve been to the top of the mountain before and I had an existential crisis, saying, “What does it all mean?”

 

From watching the documentary, I know that it ultimately ended up being a good thing for you, not being well known in America, as you were able to seek refuge there from the spotlight.

 

I genuinely think that I don’t know if I’d be here [without it]. It was a very different time, with very different aspects of a sociopathic industry, leaching from you by any means necessary, most of them illegally. And if they weren’t illegal, they should have been. I made a grown-up decision and chose to live in anonymity in North America for the last 25 years, so I can be Bruce Wayne here and Batman everywhere else.

 

I want to pick up on the Bruce Wayne/Batman thing, as it reminds me of something from the film. Throughout Better Man, there’s a distinction made between Robert Williams—the boy who once sat on the sofa, eating crisps with his nan—and Robbie Williams— this pop star character. Do you still recognize those as two separate entities within you or are they one and the same now?

 

I don’t think they’re one, but I don’t think there’s such a distinction now. In parts of my career, it was definitely really important to have Robbie—the singer, pop star—and Robert—the sovereign individual off-stage—just for my sanity. Right now, that doesn’t matter. With the acceptance of myself and the industry, and the gratitude towards my job, it means that both of them are, I suppose, more one than they’ve ever been. And I know people get accused, quite rightly, of talking about themselves in the third person, but everybody who knows me has an opinion about me in the third person, and it’s not who I am, so I get to do it, too, thanks.

 

It was intriguing to see the early, pre-fame days of Take That on display. The sense of brotherhood was evident, but the contention between your younger self and Gary Barlow is clear from the offset. Your narration is double-edged—you thought of Gary as a genius, but also as a “d-ckhead” in old trainers. You’ve said that when Gary saw the first iteration of the script, he felt he came across quite badly, so you revised certain elements. Given that you’re both in a better place now, were you keen to have his sign-off before moving forward?

 

I love Gaz and I sent it to him to give him a heads-up. It’s a very, very difficult situation to be in. The most important aspect for me is to be able to tell my story authentically, but also, if I tell my story authentically, Gaz, in particular, gets thrown under the bus. Our relationship now is at a place where there are just scabs. The wound isn’t open. We’re friends and there’s mutual love and respect. But in telling the story, which is a tool that is needed to prolong my career, I found it more important to tell my story authentically than to actually look after Gaz. Because my whole career and well-being is telling you exactly what I see in front of me, without having to edit myself. The script did change after Gaz’s response, because he was really upset and so there was a change for his sake.

 

Has revisiting those days made you more understanding of why you and Gary clashed in the first place? From how things were depicted in the film, it seems like you were almost pitted against one another at certain times by your manager and others. A lot of the tension appeared to come from outside pressures…

 

There was very much a divide-and-conquer get-up happening. We weren’t made to feel safe with each other. You know, the last century was the last century. We didn't know so much about mental health and about what is needed for a conducive working atmosphere. Great lengths have been made to change that in the last 15 years. The pendulum has swung so massively one way now, that it’s brought its own neuroses and intricate problems, but back then, there was none of that, it was the dark ages for toxicity in the workplace, and I don’t think that anybody can be held to account for what they didn’t know.

 

One last note on Gary, I chuckled when we saw his stately home and the butler at the door. I thought it was surely an embellishment for the film, but a swift Google search told me he did, in fact, have a butler at one time. Brilliant!

 

Oh yeah, he had a butler called Maurice. I had 74 grand in the bank, and I was still living at my mum’s house, and Gaz would turn up for promo with all of his clothes individually wrapped in tissue paper. He had a manor house, several cars, and a swimming pool. And I had a contract out on me to kill me and couldn’t move my mum out of the house we grew up in. A lot of the stuff that would, quite rightly, cause contention, wasn’t Gaz’s fault. It’s not his fault he wrote the songs and made millions before we [the rest of the band] made anything. But that did happen and that’s gonna cause a problem.

 

 

We get an intimate look at the relationship between yourself and your ex-fiancée Nicole Appleton [of All Saints fame], including the difficult period when Nicole had an abortion. I know you had Nicole at the U.K. premiere. What was it like having her watch the film, and did you get a chance to talk about it after?

 

Nicole saw a pre-screening of it before the premiere. I was in Switzerland and she was in London watching it, and I was counting down the minutes so that I could FaceTime her. Here’s the fact of the matter: Nic has a pure heart. She’s a kind person. She met an out-of-control, alcoholic, drug addict at a point in his life where he was unconscious. My unconscious way of being meant that I acted in a way that was unbecoming to the person that I wanted and needed to be. So I treated her really badly. One of the beautiful aspects of this project for me is I get to make things right on such a grandiose level. I’ve got to say, “I’m sorry.” In return, she has told me, “It doesn’t matter. I love you anyway.”

 

Oasis are also depicted in the film in a rather amusing scene. The “Oasis vs. Robbie” feud headlines were prevalent in the press when I was growing up. But this biopic offers another side. We see that you were actually a fan of theirs and admired them before everything turned.

 

I still am [a fan]. When it comes to Oasis, they became the poster childs of bullies. They were not the worst, but they represented it because they were the most omnipresent. Whether Noel and Liam know it or not, whether they like to understand it or care, they gave every schoolground bully permission to grow up and still be bullies by the way that they acted and behaved. Liam has very much evolved and softened, But Noel, still, in this aspect of his life, remains unevolved, when it comes to just being unnecessarily cold, malicious, and unkind about people that have done nothing to him other than exist. And as a way of promoting his albums, he still lashes out at the most successful people in the industry.

 

Now, back in the day, when both were at it, for whatever reason, I was like, “If no one else is gonna f-cking step up to them, I will.” But I think everyone was either smarter than me, scared of them, or both. In the ‘90s, it was deemed to be cool, it was lauded and applauded, and I think we grew up in a time where that energy was exciting and entertaining. And, may I say, more interesting than the vanilla aspect of the whole industry that we have now. I don’t know which one I prefer.

 

 

Your family connections help form the heart of the film. We see really tender moments between yourself and your nan. As with any biopic, there’s not room to mention everything, so how important was it to include those grounding moments between a young Robbie and his nan?

 

 

It was important for Michael Gracey to have the story move forward. Yet again, I think all aspects of the frontward-facing media is manipulation. And in my story, there is a beautiful manipulation to evoke emotion. Much like the heartfelt stories from The X Factor or renovation shows, everything is done to elicit some form of empathy or compassion. Sometimes it’s done for nefarious purposes. Sometimes it’s done to produce magic. And I would like to think that my film manipulates people to produce magic.

 

The other pivotal relationships in Better Man are between yourself and your parents. The relationship between you and your dad is especially complex. Has the film prompted you to have real-life conversations with your dad about the past? How does he feel about the way he’s been depicted?

 

My mum hasn’t seen it. She’s got dementia [like my nan in the film] and doesn’t know what’s going on. But with my dad, he’s feeling confused because he hasn’t seen it yet either, but he’s read about it. He’s got Parkinson’s and can’t get out of bed [which is why he hasn’t seen it], and I’m doing what we’ve done all of our lives, which is to put our heads in the sand and not talk about it. It’s a highly unusual aspect of, I would say, Northern [English] relationships. Because the people that came before us were from just after the war, and as Brits, what we did then and what we do now is not talk about anything. Up until there’s a biopic about your life that’s cost $120 million and is being broadcast to the whole of the world depicting the relationships that you haven’t talked about with the people that you’re having the relationships with. It’s uncomfortable.

 

 

The hilarious and sad thing for my dad, is that this is the story told through my mum’s eyes. So what is depicted may not have happened, but my mum’s version of the events is way more cinematic than my dad’s version [laughs]. Hey, ho. You take the rough with the smooth. Everybody’s had a great ride living in the shadows of their son’s success, and this bit is the rough.

 

https://time.com/7205825/robbie-williams-be...asis-interview/

Edited January 10Jan 10 by Sydney11

Thanks Tess.

Wow! TIME interview. I will read later, of course.

 

---

 

One more interview at SPIN looks fresh and fine.

 

 

Robbie Williams on His Touching Reception as a Pan Troglodyte

A fabled entertainer appreciates being humanized in fur

 

Written by Karen Bliss | January 10, 2025

 

Better Man, chronicling the warts-and-all rise-and-fall — and rise again — career of UK pop phenom and self-described self-loather Robbie Williams is unlike any other biopic. While Williams, now 50, narrates the story, he is portrayed by actor Jonno Davies as a chimpanzee. Better Man is directed by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman), and if it sounds odd that’s because it is, but somehow this CGI-primate with the singer’s facial expressions and mannerisms is both endearing and an ass. We accept him, root for him, laugh with his cockiness, gasp at his self-destruction. “I don’t want to be a nobody,” he says as the adorable kid chimpanzee, a desire that dominates his life — probably to this day.

 

For the unfamiliar, Williams got his break at age 16 as a member of ’90s boy band Take That, before his quitting the group led to a phenomenal solo career in which he played to a record-setting 375,000 people over three nights at the Knebworth Festival in 2003, and sold over 75 million albums thanks to hits like “Angels,” “Old Before I Die,” “Let Me Entertain You,” “Come Undone,” “Rock DJ,” “Kids” and “Millennium.”

 

 

His success was accompanied by a shitstorm of depression and mental illness intertwined with booze and drug habits. All this is told with a mix of grit and sensitivity in a multi-layered film that dazzles by its sheer technological achievement and storytelling that covers his complicated relationship with his entertainer dad, his loving encouraging nan, the ego-driven band rivalry, and tumultuous whirlwind romance with Nicole Appleton.

 

Better Man opens January 10, and might spur a menagerie category at a future Oscars: Swift as a giraffe; Madonna as a Panther…

 

SPIN spoke to Williams about the film.

 

[Publicist on Zoom call] Please say your name and outlet and you can begin.

 

SPIN: My name is Karen Bliss. My outlet is SPIN. Hi Robbie. How are you?

 

Robbie Williams: Hi Karen. My outlet is self-sabotage and sugar.

 

That’s a nice combo. I’ve seen the film twice. The first time was during TIFF [Toronto International Film Festival], so I went in cold and I was like, “What the f***? He’s a monkey?” And then like 10 minutes in, I’m like, “Sure, he’s a monkey.” You go with it. I even got a little teary in certain parts. You got very emotional after the screening. Why?

 

I wasn’t expecting to get emotional after because I’d seen the scenes as they were being stitched together and I’d done my crying then. No spoilers, but it’s the greatest hits of my grief. And then I watched the movie for the first time, hoping and praying that it was good, and it was. And then I get to TIFF and I’m just incensed on soaking in the moment. And I sit with Jonno, who plays me, and Michael Gracey, who directed it, and I feel very proud that I’m sat in Canada; there’s 2000 people watching my story, and I get to soak it all in and be grateful of the moment. And then what happened was at the end of it, having me expose all of my demons and all the worst aspects of myself, 2000 strangers turned around and clapped me and Jono and Michael that were on a balcony. And in that moment, something unexpected happened, but I completely understood that I was being seen and heard and forgiven and loved, all in one, by a bunch of strangers that know nothing about me. And that touched me on such a profound level.

 

 

Has that changed over the months since? Is it as healing, as cathartic or re-traumatizing or are you like, “Oh, there’s me as a monkey. Aren’t I cute?”

 

What is great is I don’t have to worry about the film being good or touching people because I know the magic that I have felt is being felt by the people that actually see it too. So now I’m comfortable [with] the aspect that the movie is better than shit; it’s actually something that I can be really proud of. I mean, look at the Rotten Tomatoes; there is 91% journalists and 98% audience reaction. This is not lost on me, but there’s so many aspects that this movie in particular has wrapped up and what it means to me as a fat 11-year-old with no self-worth at all. It’s very easy to get wrapped up with the expectation train, get on that train and be led into oblivion yet again, and what that means for my psyche if I pull all the levers and the machine doesn’t work.

 

It is extraordinary because the film could’ve been crap. The whole concept is wacky.

 

It could have been Howard the Duck.

 

I don’t cry watching Planet of the Apes but I did in this. I’m sure there’s people that go in to Better Man and they’re completely lost. I think you have to have a self-deprecating kind of humor to get it and not walk out going, “Why the f*** is he a monkey? I don’t get it.” Has there been a different response in US versus UK?

 

The “what the f***, I don’t get it “ happens to the people that haven’t seen it. If I go with general reaction, it seems that 98% of people leave the movie not only getting it, but completely embracing it and being completely moved by it.

 

 

Let me ask you about the language in the script. The C-word [c**t] is widely used over in the UK, but it can get you cancelled in America, I think. You use the work “twat” a lot too. Also, a great word for certain occasions. Was using it in the script ever questioned?

 

No, if you’re going to take a huge swing and have your movie be R-rated, you better make it worth it. Otherwise, if we were going to cut that out, why wouldn’t we cut out lots of other things too? We could have made this a whole lot easier and more commercial for ourselves if we’d have made it PG. As it happens, to tell my story authentically, I didn’t live a PG life. And I don’t have PG verbiage. This is how I speak. That is how I was. This is a representation of me. It may not have happened in that order, but everything was how it felt.

 

How did you end up writing a new song for the film?

 

There needed to be a hug at the end of this movie, a hug in the form of a musical hug. I’d sent a bunch of songs to Michael Gracey having not seen the movie and he kept sending them back saying, “No, this is not right.” And I’m sensitive. So, I was upset that he was telling me it wasn’t right. Then, I saw the movie and I completely understood that what was needed was not what I was sending. And the song that we wrote — me, Freddy [Wexler] and Sacha [skarbek] — was a musical hug to let you know that I know I’ve just put you through an awful lot, but we’re all okay.

 

Let me ask you about fame. Now there’s kids that think they just want to be famous. There’s TikTok, Instagram and OnlyFans. In retrospect, do you think you can enjoy fame without the pitfalls of drug addiction, being an asshole, self-isolating, being arrogant, all those things?

 

No, because you’re contracting mental illness. That’s what you’re doing. And how you act and behave towards it is how you act and behave towards it; you can’t contract fame and not be bemused, affected by it on such a profound unconscious level that you spend the life trying to figure out how to put it in its right box. Now, what I will say, for most people that I meet in the entertainment industry that are forward-facing, that are on camera, most people aren’t egoic and twats, but the people with the ego and the twats really stand out and give the entertainment industry a bad name. But I’ve also met people in the energy industry; I’ve met people in the clothing industry that are huge — forgive my language — c**ts. They just don’t get the attention that people in the entertainment industry do because people in the entertainment industry, their bread and butter is attention. And the worst aspects of every part of society will make the most noise. The world’s worst 2% make 98% of the noise.

 

You say in the film that you thought the fame would solve everything. When did you come to the realization that it doesn’t? Was it in sobriety? Was it in advanced adulthood — you’re still young [50], but you know what I’m saying [laughs]?

 

I’m good. I’m an old pop star now. It’s okay. It’s fine. It’s reality. When did it happen? When did it? So, I remember I had this house on a lake. It had its own lake. And I remember as this [enormous fame] was happening, there was these patio doors onto this giant veranda that overlooked this lake. And like a scene from a movie, I was on my knees sobbing, looking at what I’d acquired and feeling how f***ed up and how unhappy I was. And I could see it, like a camera from above coming in at this moment. It was very cinematic. But I suppose that you only realize, consciously, what you’re seeking consciously when it breaks you. And in that moment, I was broken. I realized that I’d got to the top of the mountain and it was desolate and I was lonely and my subconscious came to the front and went ‘Hahahahahaaaa, it didn’t do it.’ [laughs].

 

Well, we are all rooting for you. What are your plans for this year? We want new music. We want to see you in concert over here. What is happening?

 

I want to come to North America. Hopefully, if the success makes an indent, I will do that. I will be touring. Tickets have gone on sale already in the rest of the world [uK, Europe]. They’re doing great, thank you. And, yeah, I’ve got so many things that exist outside of the entertainment industry that happened because I’m in the entertainment industry. I’ve got loads of aspects of business that I want to do. So I need to exist in the public’s attention for me to facilitate everything else that I want to do.

 

You also have a solo art exhibit [Confessions of a Crowded Mind].

 

In Barcelona, Amsterdam, and one’s gonna happen in London, too. I also want to build a university of entertainment and create the syllabus. I want to build hotels with their entertainment venues in them. I have entertainment venues separate to that that I’m doing. I want to buy a soccer team. I also have drinks coming out and I have clothes coming out.

 

I’m very busy.

 

Wow, that is a lot. In the film, without giving too much away, there are the “nasty monkeys” in the audience, that negative inner voice, kind of imposter syndrome. Do you still get that?

 

Yeah. For example, I did a live 30 minutes on TV in Australia on New Year’s Eve. And I got a cold that’s kicking my ass on top of jetlag, and then getting up in front of 11 million people that are watching, and then however many millions of people that could dissect a viral moment if I let my crazy out. So, while I’m on stage, I’m enjoying myself, while also at the same time thinking about Twitter, and the sewage that is on there, and how they must be responding to my performance, whilst also at the same time having a left nostril that is dripping because of the cold, whilst thinking that people will think that I’m on cocaine, whilst having a good time at the same time [laughs].

 

That’s a lot of inner voices. I do love your humor though; when you’re walking through Hyde Park in your pink suit, trying to see if anyone would recognize you [laughs].

 

And no one was recognizing me. It was scary.

 

So, are you a big deal now, again?

 

Yeah, yeah, I am. I am. I’m trying to put everything in the right box and have everything be the right size. And I can only guess at what my future is. And if Rod Stewart is anything to go by — I’ve had a Rod Stewart style career, and he still gets to be Rod Stewart. I hope that the general public allows me to be Robbie Williams when I’m Rod Stewart’s age.

 

https://www.spin.com/2025/01/robbie-williams-on-better-man/

*www.time.com/7205825/robbie-williams-better-man-take-that-gary-barlow-oasis-interview*

 

A lot I didn’t know in here. Robbie’s comments about not breaking America were interesting and Gary Barlow’s reaction to Better Man. And that bit about Oasis!

 

“ I love Gaz and I sent it to him to give him a heads-up. It’s a very, very difficult situation to be in. The most important aspect for me is to be able to tell my story authentically, but also, if I tell my story authentically, Gaz, in particular, gets thrown under the bus. Our relationship now is at a place where there are just scabs. The wound isn’t open. We’re friends and there’s mutual love and respect. But in telling the story, which is a tool that is needed to prolong my career, I found it more important to tell my story authentically than to actually look after Gaz. Because my whole career and well-being is telling you exactly what I see in front of me, without having to edit myself. The script did change after Gaz’s response, because he was really upset and so there was a change for his sake.”