Michael Gracey had no doubts about having Robbie Williams portrayed by a chimp in Better Man
'Better Man' director Michael Gracey claims it was a simple decision to have Robbie Williams portrayed by a chimp in the new film as the singer considers himself to be a "performing monkey".
Michael Gracey says it was an obvious decision to have Robbie Williams portrayed by a chimp in 'Better Man'.
The new biopic sees the 'Rock DJ' hitmaker depicted as a primate in a unique move but the director explained that it was perfect because Robbie sees himself as a "performing monkey".
Michael told IndieWire: "I wanted to find a creatively interesting way into the story, but not for the sake of having a gimmick. I wanted to honour the way Rob sees himself. In the recordings we did over the course of a year and a half, he mentioned himself as a performing monkey time and time again.
"There was also a statement he made: whatever age you get famous is the age you stop evolving. So, everything just pointed to the monkey.
"And on another level, I wanted to explore both his external and internal life."
The filmmaker believes that having the former Take That star depicted as a chimp was better for the "fantastical" elements of the picture.
He said: "The thing is, if you do a musical, you are already starting in a place of heightened reality, having people break into song, which is more theatrical than real life.
"As long as you set that contract with the audience, they will go along with you. But if you add a monkey on top of that, it's even more heightened and theatrical.
"I always knew that I wanted to slip in and out of inside Robbie's head, which, in some scenes, is quite fantastical. And so it's a much easier transition when you're in this space of heightened reality to go into fantasy - quite fluid to go from theatrical reality to pure fantasy.
"I genuinely think the monkey allows us to see more of Robbie."
Michael was given the creative freedom by Robbie to tell the story in the way he wanted and he respects the fact that the 'She's The One' singer didn't demand changes after seeing the film for the first time.
'The Greatest Showman' director said: "He signed off on the script. But it's one thing to read a script, it's another thing to watch it up on the big screen. There are certain scenes where he comes off rather unfavourably, which, to be honest, is the power of the film.
"When you watch the sanitised version of someone's life, you don't relate to it. Because we all have things we're ashamed of. We've all said things that we're ashamed of. We've all said things we wish we never did.
"And when you see someone's life story portraying those moments, you can relate to it. What you can't relate to is the glorified, perfect person that never did anything wrong, never said anything wrong and never hurt anybody."
Gracey continued: "When Rob watched it for the first time - and I didn't want to show him anything until there was a monkey in for every shot - he sat here and I sat here and I did not watch the screen at all.
"I just sat there staring at him for two hours, terrified that he was going to say at the end of it, 'Take that out', or 'Please don't show that.'
"To his credit, he didn't make one edit to the entire film. The film that I showed Rob is the film you're all watching. And I have so much respect for him for allowing me to go to these places."
