British pop star Robbie Williams got candid as he addressed the persistent speculation about his sexuality in an interview with The Guardian discussing his biopic “Better Man.”
“I’ve done everything but suck a cock. Honestly, you’ve never met somebody that wants to be gay as much as me,” said Williams about his 2005 libel case against a tabloid that claimed he had engaged in “homosexual encounters.” He added, “You want to be an ally while at the same time protecting your own authenticity and your own life.”
Reflecting on his early career performing at gay clubs with Take That, Williams recalled, “When I went into the gay world there was none of that [violence]. There was total acceptance and humour and gay abandon. And safety.”
Popular on Variety
Related Stories
Helmed by “The Greatest Showman” director Michael Gracey, “Better Man” chronicles Williams’ journey from his early days in Take That to his struggles with substance abuse and mental health. Gracey revealed that the simian concept presented significant challenges during development. “Convincing financiers was really hard,” he said. “People would go ‘the director of The Greatest Showman plus Robbie Williams, we are in.’ And then you go ‘one thing, Rob’s going to be played as a monkey’. That was the end of so many finance meetings.”
Williams’ complex relationship with his former Take That bandmates, particularly Gary Barlow, is also portrayed in the movie. According to Williams, Barlow expressed concerns about his portrayal in the script, saying, “Rob, read the script, I come off worse than Darth Vader in the first ‘Star Wars.'”
“Better Man” also delves into his relationship with All Saints’ Nicole Appleton, including a controversial sequence depicting their terminated pregnancy. Williams noted that the scene was included only after securing Appleton’s approval, reflecting on the industry pressures of the time. “That you were guided, nay made, to terminate a life because of being in a pop band… It’s only now that you go ‘what the fuck? That’s insane,'” he said.
Williams compares his early exposure to fame to his teenage experimentation with drugs. “I first took LSD when I was 15 and I shouldn’t have taken LSD when I was 15. I shouldn’t have taken fame. It’s the same thing,” he explained.
Now married with four children, Williams approaches his career differently. “Daddy goes to work, that’s what I say now,” he noted. “It wasn’t a job before. It was something that was supposed to be magical and when I got to the top of the mountain all that was there was existential crisis.”
“People say ‘how dare you call it a job, all you do is X, Y and Z’, but just because your job is shit doesn’t mean my job has to be shit. This is my job – and I fucking love it,” Williams said in the interview.
Williams also addressed the unconventional approach to his biopic, opting to be portrayed as a CGI chimpanzee rather than a human actor.
“Let’s face it, a Robbie Williams biopic without the monkey is way less appealing, or intriguing,” Williams told The Guardian. “It would be interesting to my fans, but not to anyone else.”
“Better Man” is scheduled for release on Dec. 26.
