Australia-bound Robbie Williams reveals why biopic Better Man will be ‘more Deadpool than Iron Man’

Superstar Robbie Williams reveals why Aussies understand him best and how he’s embracing his ‘villainous’ side for biopic Better Man.

If Robbie Williams is serious about revealing his true self in Better Man, there’s surely no better place to film it than his chosen destination of Australia.

The global superstar will arrive in Melbourne next month to shoot the biopic and says that he, wife Ayda and their four children would happily live here, were it not so far away.

Williams says that tall poppy syndrome has him “constantly watching my p’s and q’s” and apologising for his success in his native UK and his cheeky, self-deprecating, piss-taking sense of humour often leaves people “confused or disappointed” in his adopted home of the US.

But Australia loves him just the way he is – and the feeling is mutual.

“When I get to Australia I am allowed to be myself and I am applauded for it,” Williams says.

“I am needy and I am a human and when people agree with my personality and my sense of humour, that feeds me. I am not pandering to the locals when I say this. I am not that kind about a lot of countries but with Australia I f--king mean it. I have a love affair with your country and I love going down there.”

Robbie Williams is heading to Australia next month to film biopic Better Man.

Williams has been a regular visitor to these shores over a 30-plus year career that began with UK boy band Take That and shone even more brightly as one of the most successful solo acts his generation – but his last trip was undoubtedly the oddest.

He’d been due to perform a one-off gig as part of the 2020 Australian Grand Prix celebrations, only to have the country – and then the world – shut down with Covid.

“We heard the day before that Miley Cyrus was cancelling and I was like ‘I’m from Stoke – I’m not cancelling’,” Williams says. “But it was foolhardy bravado. We’d obviously never had a pandemic before so I didn’t know what it was we were going into. We arrived on your gorgeous shores and it was cancelled and we came home. When I arrived back in Los Angeles it felt apocalyptic.”

Williams bunkered down with his family while the pandemic made touring impossible. But bubbling away in the background was Better Man, which promises to be an authentic, warts- and-all telling of his rise from working class roots to stadium-filling star and the many highs and lows encountered along the way.

He’d been pitched the idea by Aussie director Michael Gracey, who had a monster hit with the Hugh Jackman-led musical The Greatest Showman, and was also an executive producer on the Elton John biopic Rocketman.

The pair hit it off immediately (“he’s an Aussie, which automatically gets a pass from me”) when introduced by mutual friends about seven years ago, but Williams says he’d never have been brave enough to suggest a film about his own colourful life.

Robbie Williams, pictured with Aussie Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo, was last here for the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, which was cancelled due to Covid-19. Picture David Caird

“He came to me,” confirms Williams. “He’s my mate but he’s also a genius and his energy is incredible and he could sell anything to anybody.

“He could make me believe that him sleeping with my wife would be a good idea. I’d be like, ‘Yeah – you should do that, Michael, and I’ll put a duvet over you to make sure you’re warm’.”

Moving into the film world, however, proved challenging for Williams, whose scant acting credits include the 2013 TV movie Gangsta Granny and as the voice of Dougal in the 2005 film version of kids’ cartoon The Magic Roundabout.

“When you do music, it’s really easy,” he says.

“You just write a song, hope that it does good, go and promote it, put some tickets on sale and then go and entertain people. With the film world, there are so many cogs and moving parts and it’s so disjointed and fragmented it’s a wonder anything gets made.

“The great news about it is that I know what is about to happen on film and it’s absolutely incredible – and I say that as someone who doesn’t like himself.”

Details of the story and cast of Better Man are under close wraps so far, but it’s expected that the Melbourne shoot will inject up to $107m into the economy and create around 2200 local jobs, including Australian actors potentially cast as real life figures in Williams’ life.

Rumours have abounded as to who will play the lead role – including Williams himself with the aid of de-ageing technology and a CGI monkey – but he’s not saying anything for now.

Williams’ friend, The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey, will direct Better Man. Picture: James Croucher

“Do you know what, I would like to know who’s playing me,” he says rather cryptically. “I am definitely going to be me at some point and who is playing me is still up for debate.”

He does reveal, however, that Better Man – named after his 2000 song of the same name – will be closer to the fantastical style of Rocketman than the more straightforward approach of Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

“The tone is that it will be for grown-ups and there will be that phantasmagorical element to it; there is fantasy … but it will be more Deadpool than Iron Man.”

As such, Williams is determined not to shy away from the darker and more difficult aspects of his life, which have included prolonged battles with mental health issues and substance abuse. He says he poured his heart out to Gracey for 12 hours to kickstart the script and “then basically ran away and hid behind a sofa”.

“I also want to do the warts-and-all,” he confirms. “I am not scared to portray myself with the human characteristics that some would see as villainous. But hopefully the overarching storyline will explain who I am and what I am and why I am.”

He also made peace with his tendency to open his heart and “spill everything about the inner workings of my mind” in his music many years ago. Whereas he has been told several times in the past that it’s an unusual way to live, for Williams it’s the only way and he hopes that honesty will filter through into the film.

Robbie Williams will play a one-off show in Melbourne in April, to be filmed for Better Man.

“I don’t have the filter that other people have when they go, ‘Ooh maybe we should take that out’ until the book is out or the song is out and then people point that bit out and go, ‘really?’,” he says, laughing. “So, I am assuming the same will be for the film.”

Despite his transition to the film world, Williams is certainly not leaving behind his day job. While in Melbourne, he will play a one-off show at Rod Laver Arena on April 30 and part of the 60-minute greatest hits set will feature in Better Man. There’s also an album featuring orchestral versions of his greatest hits in the works and his unmistakeable pipes appear on a new dance track called Sway, by Lufthaus.

The latter project is the brainchild of Williams’ long-time collaborators and friends, Melbourne artists Tim Metcalfe and Flynn Francis, who co-wrote most of his 2012 album Take the Crown. But Williams is once again evasive as to whether there will be more to come from the trio.

“I don’t know who they are,” he says with a cheeky grin of his musical mates, whose house he has visited to write songs. “I won’t know who they are for at least another two to three months.”

An Exclusive Evening With Robbie Williams, Rod Laver Arena, April 30. Tickets on sale Friday at frontiertouring.com

Originally published as Australia-bound Robbie Williams reveals why biopic Better Man will be ‘more Deadpool than Iron Man’