Better Man is based on the true story of the meteoric rise, dramatic fall, and remarkable resurgence of British pop superstar Robbie Williams, one of the greatest entertainers of all time.
Under the visionary direction of Michael Gracey, the movie is uniquely told from Williams' perspective, capturing his signature wit and indomitable spirit.
It follows Robbie’s journey from childhood, to being the youngest member of chart-topping boyband Take That, through to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist - all the while confronting the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring. Oh, and Robbie? He's portrayed as a photorealistic CG monkey!
"Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes with 88%, Better Man has been hailed as one of 2024's best movies. Last week, we had the privilege of sitting down with Gracey (The Greatest Showman) to learn more about how he approached shooting his ambitious musical and biopic.
During our conversation, the filmmaker talked about recapturing the look and feel of the singer's concerts, the challenge presented by the motion capture and VFX work, Better Man's viral Regent Street sequence (which required 500 dancers), the epic Knebworth fight scene, and more.
You can check out the full interview with Gracey on Better Man below.
My wife and I saw Robbie Williams in 2017 for his Heavy Entertainment Show and one of the things that struck me about this film is you capture the feel of his concerts. How challenging was that?
We were fortunate in that a lot of the concert footage is us throwing concerts with Robbie. We would just take over the stage. We did that at the Royal Albert Hall and the Take That concerts. There's a real energy to those crowds. Even with Knebworth where there were 125,000 people, that first 2,000 people are all in camera. For the actors, when they're playing in front of those sort of crowds and the Take That boys are up on stage with a stadium full of people cheering and screaming, it doesn't take much acting to look like you're a young band who is just starting out and having fame for the first time. You've got adrenaline dripping from your ears because there are all these people screaming for you.
The actors had the time of their lives shooting those sequences. Rob would stand on stage and say, 'Look, we're doing this for my film - I want you to all go crazy when the boys are up here as if it was me, aged 16.' He'd go off stage, the boys would come up on the hydraulics, and the crowd would go wild. It was fantastic. A big part of what you're talking to was about getting real audiences.
You're telling this story about the rise of an iconic pop star but a lot of mental health and addiction issues came with that. To have Robbie on hand so he could share some insights with you must have been hugely beneficial.
Yeah, having Rob be so supportive of the film but also the things you mention...they're quite dark moments in Rob's life. I was just really grateful he would be so open to us sharing what are quite raw and often unfavourable moments on screen. That is a big power of the film. You don't feel like you're getting the sanitised version of Robbie's life.
It goes without saying that the monkey has captured people's hearts, but when it came to the motion-capture work and all the post-production VFX to make that 'Robbie,' how difficult was that as a filmmaker?
I was really fortunate that my background is in animation and visual effects. That was one aspect I was confident with. Also, teaming up with WETA. We were trading off three films from Planet of the Apes which, when you look at them from a technical point of view, get more photorealistic and subtle in their performances. I think we were fortunate to have a team with a background in executing realistic apes and then taking all that and applying it to our version of an ape. We're much more human than the Planet of the Apes monkeys, but we got to evolve it another step and I think in that evolution and the passion the artists WETA put into this, I couldn't be more proud of. The work they put into this is mind-blowingly good.
It is amazing. A good example of that is the Rock DJ sequence on Regent Street. I've read you had something like 400 extras -
500. It was 500 dancers.
Wow. What about shooting that really stuck with you? It must have been an intense process...
It was an intense process because if any one of the nights we didn't get what we needed, that was it. It's a continuous shot so if any one night we didn't make our shoot, then the entire number was for nothing. It was a very high-pressure shoot. Unfortunately, we got delayed because of the death of the Queen so by the time we ended up on Regent Street to actually shoot that, it meant we delayed the delivery of the film. It was a very, very expensive musical number to pull off because of the delays but every time I watch it...it was worth it. It was an absolute career highlight to be standing on Regent Street in the middle of London with 500 people in front of you dancing and singing. It was just electric.
The Knebworth Festival scene you mentioned is also jaw-dropping, especially when we see Robbie battling those different versions of himself. There's obviously a lot of meaning to that, but at the same time, it's a great action scene. What was the process of putting that together like?
It was a lot. I look at choreography as there's a reason it's called fight choreography. Whether we're choreographing a fight number, a dance sequence, or the camera. The choreography of the camera plays a huge part in storytelling. I look at people like Bob Fosse who have mastered the art of choreography when it comes to camera work and a sequence like that, it's a lot of storyboarding and a lot of doing fight choreography and cutting it together. Sort of like sketching, you know? You sketch it out time and time again until there's a flow and meaning to it, such as who he's confronting at what moments.
I often would talk about wanting it to feel like one person and there's a wave crashing in on him. The idea that there's an ocean of people in front of him, he's jumping into it and battling himself, but the waves keep crashing in. It has that feel to it and then obviously, the final moment is him confronting himself so he has this mirror moment where he's staring at a version of himself and, yeah, it was a lot of work. We looked at references of different films and fight sequences but again wanted to make it unique to this moment. And fatigue is something I thought was really beautifully done in a French film, La Reine Margot, and I wanted to make sure by the end of it, there was an exhaustion to that battle.
Better Man arrives to purchase or rent on Digital on February 11 from Paramount Home Entertainment.
The movie will arrive in a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo as part of the Paramount Presents line on May 13 and will also be available on DVD.