Robbie Williams has revealed he had rewrite the script of his new semi-autobiographical film – after Gary Barlow took issue with it.
His movie, Better Man, is based on Angels singer Robbie’s meteoric rise to fame as part of boy band Take That, alongside Gary, and his massively successful solo career. It also charts his downward spiral into drug and alcohol addiction and his triumphant return to the spotlight.
The big twist is Robbie, now 50, is played by a chimp – a play on the fact he sometimes feels ‘like a performing monkey’, which is dividing critics ahead of the film’s release in UK cinemas on Boxing Day.
Though they ‘have a great relationship’ now, Robbie told Graham Norton that Gary, 53 – who he had a longstanding feud with after leaving Take That in the Nineties during the middle of a world tour – was not happy with the original script, as he claimed he ‘came off worse than Darth Vader in Star Wars.’
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Appearing on the New Year’s Eve episode of The Graham Norton Show on BBC1, Robbie shared: “I sent the first script to Gary Barlow and he phoned me up – we have a great relationship now – and said ‘Rob, I come off worse than Darth Vader in Star Wars’, so we made amendments.
“When you talk about my past it happens to be contentious, and I was a different person then. The film brings all that up again, so it’s super odd, and I can understand how it could be hard for Gary.”
But though he wants to stay on good terms with pal Gary, Robbie isn’t bothered about anyone else he might offend with the film. He said: “As for the other people I throw under the bus, I don’t care.”
Take That were one of Britain’s biggest ever boy bands in the 1990s, evoking hysteria reminiscent of The Beatles. Original members included Robbie, Gary, Mark Owen, Howard Donald and Jason Orange.
Robbie quit the band in 1995 and the band split a year later causing mayhem across Britain – with helplines even set up for devastated teenage fans. They got back together as a foursome in 2006 and released more music and headed out on tour.
The band patched up their differences with Robbie, who briefly rejoined the group for a string of performances in 2010. But since 2014, when Jason Orange announced he was leaving the band for a life out of the spotlight, they have performed as a trio featuring Gary, Mark and Howard.
Revealing why he is portrayed by a CGI chimpanzee in the new film – offering a twist on the traditional biopic style, Robbie said: “There needed to be a creative difference because the biopic genre has got a bit long and a bit tired, so we needed a unique selling point.
“When I heard everyone else in the film would be human and I would be a monkey I thought, ‘Yes! This is an eccentric idea’. It’s a huge swing, I can instantly see it, it’s incredible. It was only when I told my wife I realised it might be contentious.”
Directed by Michael Gracey, the man behind musical favourite The Greatest Showman, the film follows the singer’s childhood, time in Take That and solo career, while also exploring the issues fame can bring.
And Robbie admitted the film was challenging to watch at times, saying: “It starts out all cheeky chappie and then 45 minutes in it’s just like Trainspotting – it’s like the greatest hits of trauma and grief so yes, it’s a bit confronting, a bit triggering.”
*The Graham Norton Show will air on BBC One on New Year’s Eve at 10.25pm
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