Robbie Williams says Aussie indie films better than Hollywood box office hits

Better Man didn’t fire at the box office but Robbie Williams defends his indie biopic and says Hollywood is “killing the film industry.”

Robbie Williams is the subject of one of the most talked-about biopics of the year but he confesses he’s not a film fan.

The Angels pop superstar, who will lend his star shine to the 2025 AACTA awards where Better Man leads the nominations, said he had turned off movies because of their predictability.

Australian film-maker Michael Gracey has changed the mind of the English entertainer with his bold and bonkers biopic which cast Williams as a CGI chimp and features big musical numbers reminiscent of old Hollywood.

“I don’t like films. We (already) know the story and nobody is taking a risk or a gamble on giving us fresh things that we haven’t seen before because there is too much anxiety about everybody losing their job and their money,” he said.

“Unfortunately, it’s killing the film industry.

Jonno Davies plays Robbie Williams in Better Man. Picture: Supplied.

“But, it takes an independent movie, like Better Man, to remind people that audacious examples of humanity and great storytelling, done in a f***ing unusual way, still exist. Go Australia, go Robbie Williams.”

The audacious independent biopic’s production budget was reported to be $110 million, with some of that funding secured via the Victorian Government’s VicScreen program and other Australian film investors. Gracey shot many scenes in Melbourne.

But it failed to fire at the box office and has taken in about $28 million worldwide since its Boxing Day release because of his lack of profile in the US and the ongoing musical film juggernaut that is Wicked.

Australian director Michael Gracey shot many of Better Man’s scenes in Melbourne. Picture: Manuel Pinilla Cruces via Getty Images/

Better Man has a record-breaking 16 nominations for this year’s AACTAs with Williams up for Williams up for Best Original Song for Forbidden Road, which he penned for the film.

It is likely he will perform that song at the awards on the Gold Coast on February 7.

That song also scored a Golden Globes nomination but was disqualified from the Best Original Song shortlist at the Oscars because the Academy ruled it “incorporates material from an existing song that was not written” for Better Man.

The Academy’s music branch ruled Forbidden Road bears similarities to I Got a Name, a 1973 Jim Croce song penned by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel - the theme for the film The Last American Hero.

Fox happens to be one of the three Music branch governors for the Oscars.

Williams promoted the film in Australia with a free concert in Melbourne. Picture: NewsWire/ David Crosling

Williams shrugged off the Oscars disqualification on the Golden Globes red carpet, saying a nomination would have been nice “but also, as an introvert, it’s another party I don’t have to go to.”

He told news.com.au Forbidden Road was written after Better Man director Michael Gracey rejected several songs Williams sent him to close the film.

“I sent several songs to put at the end of this film that Gracey was ‘no’ about. And I was like, ‘You’re f...ing wrong, Gracey,’” he said.

“And then I saw the film, and I realised that what I sent was wrong, and at the end of the movie, you need a cuddle and you need to be told it’s alright, because as a viewer, you’ve been through a lot. And so it is musical Xanax.

The film’s soundtrack, which reimagines some of his signature hits including Angels, Feel and Rock DJ, landed at No.5 on the ARIA album charts in the weeks after his New Year’s Eve performance in Sydney.

Originally published as Robbie Williams says Aussie indie films better than Hollywood box office hits