British superstar Robbie Williams is an icon of pop music, from his boy band days with Take That to his sold-out global tours, but Toronto International Film Festival premiere on September 9, uses a tantalizingly unorthodox approach to depicting the musician's life — portraying him as a CGI monkey. Notably, the singer himself has compared himself to a monkey performing for the public's entertainment, highlighting the significance of the storytelling device.
Better Man is directed by Michael Gracey, who is best known for directing the visually (and musically) stunning The Greatest Showman. Gracey employs many of the spectacular tricks he learned from tackling P.T. Barnum, as well as his own background in visual effects, but the casting and motion capture performance of actor Jonno Davies is central to the movie's success. The story melds William's personal and professional highs and lows with an intimate touch despite its visual gimmick, delving into the artist's tendency towards self-sabotage as well as lauding his self-aware genius.
Screen Rant's Toronto International Film Festival 2024 Awards
Screen Rant covered the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. We saw so many films and had to hand out some awards for the best films of the fest.
Screen Rant interviewed Gracey and Davies during TIFF 2024, asking them about the challenges they faced during Better Man's filming process, how they incorporated various milestones in Robbie Williams' life, and just how crucial Wētā Workshop's visual effects were to the final look of the movie.
How Queen Elizabeth II’s Death Affected The Filming Of Better Man
“Two days before we were met to go in and start filming… The Queen died.”
Screen Rant: Michael, in your introduction, you said that this was a very easy film for you to make, but it seems like quite a challenge from an outside perspective. Can you talk about that?
Michael Gracey: Yeah, it was. I think when you start any project, you think it's going to be easier. I think that's the naive thing that allows you to finish a film and then actually want to make another one.
This was a very different process for me because it was an independent film, and I hadn't done an independent film before. Whilst I loved the creative process of that, when things go wrong... For example, we were going to be shooting on Regent Street. We spent a year and a half prepping, rehearsing, putting everything in place - and because it is on Regent Street, we couldn't rehearse it. So, we had to tape out a version of Regent Street in a huge studio space. Then with 500 dancers, a crew and everybody, practice as if we were on Regent Street.
Two days before we were met to go in and start filming, after spending an entire week of rehearsal, the Queen died. We weren't allowed to shoot because there were 10 days of mourning. Then there was the funeral, then there was the coronation. It actually, it took us five months to get back onto Regent Street. We lost that money for the production and things like that.
When it's an independent film, you have people saying, "Well, you just don't need that musical number." And you're like, "What? No, you really need that musical number." The effect [was] in of our schedule, in of the financing and stuff like that. When you take a hit like that, it's incredibly difficult. So, whilst I said it was incredibly easy, I was being facetious, which you obviously picked up on.
Screen Rant: The film has set a new bar for music biopics. What aspects of that were most interesting for you during the filming process?
Jonno Davies: Obviously, for me, it was the performance capture. It was working alongside Michael and Wētā and creating this walking, talking, life-fulfilling monkey that was representing a global superstar and telling that story in a very different way.
Musical biopics are obviously so popular the last few years. Michael had the vision to kind of change it up, and thankfully, I was entrusted with the role. And so it was about creating Rob's energy; the way that he fills a space, the way he lights up a room as a monkey. How do I bring that kind of flamboyancy, that fun, that energy, that self-deprecating humor that he has, and bring it to life in another way whilst having a camera boom on my face the whole time? Whilst wearing grey pajamas throughout the whole shoot.
Better Man Approaches Robbie Williams’ Controversies With Care
“It doesn't matter what interactions Rob has with anyone. No one comes off worse than Rob.”
Screen Rant: Robbie was mistreated by a lot of high-profile figures throughout the film. Was there any hesitation about putting that on the big screen, and how did you feel about portraying those big stars in such a negative light?
Michael Gracey: Yeah, I think the one thing that is true about the film is it doesn't matter what interactions Rob has with anyone. No one comes off worse than Rob. I think there is just this amazing thing where - and it's true of even interviews that he does with people - everyone sort of sits on the edge of their seat. "What is he going to say?" And he's very unfiltered. He's very unfiltered in life. He's very unfiltered in the way that he engages with his fans.
In the film, we just went with that approach of, "Let's not water down these stories. Let's not water down these moments. Let's just be faithful to the way that Rob re it." And that's the point. It is all from his perspective. There are many different s, and we double-checked a lot of that, and we read and spoke with a lot of the people that we were representing in the film. We wanted to make sure that things lined up, that it wasn't all just flights of fancy. I think that once you take the essence of what it is, because people have a different perspective of what it was for them, you're like, "Okay, this happened, and it happened in this way."
Narratively, we folded in moments. The moment with Take That by the tree when he ends up leaving did happen, it's just that he didn't leave the band in that scene. The time he did leave the band was at the start of a tour in a rehearsal space, and in that rehearsal space there was a table that had a watermelon on it, and that's where the watermelon bit came from. He didn't really know what to say. So he just pointed to the watermelon and said, "Can I take this?" Again, it's a hundred percent true. He did have a moment at Gary's house where he was on a swing being told off by the boys. He did leave the band, and he did take the watermelon, we just put those two scenes together. There is a lot of folding in for the sake of narrative, but the actual events are true.
Breaking Down Wētā Workshop’s Role In Perfecting The Monkey Version Of Robbie Williams
“It meant that every scene continued to evolve as we shot it.”
Screen Rant: The team at Wētā seems to have opened the door for each of you to make daring choices, both in acting and directing. What does the scene work look like on set before all the effects are finalized?
Jonno Davies: We have 50 to 100 witness cams all rigged around the space. In of capturing what I do, you don't just have the hero cam, so you're kind of never off. Every take is a take that could potentially be used, which is really freeing actually, because you're not having to worry about setting to a particular wide. It's not like we've got the wide, we kind of have to match that for the rest of it.
It means that you can constantly make new choices. Me and Michael could be like, "I feel like we can tweak something here," whether it's the blocking, whether it's a beat, or whether it's a new line. "We can add that." It meant that every scene continued to evolve as we shot it, which was really refreshing. I think it helped keep each other on our toes as well, rather than getting settled.
Michael Gracey: Wētā were phenomenal. And that process of working was exactly what Jonno said. We could take a shot that we absolutely nailed with the camera department and go, "Okay, we're going to use that." But Jonno's performance from Take - I'm going to make it a low number; he never went above 5. "Jonno's performance from Take 4 was perfect." So, you can use that take, but use the camera move from Take 8. That's what's incredible.
You can pick and choose the moments of Jonno because he's always being captured, even to the point where when we'd watch a sequence well after we shot the scene, we were able to go back into the motion capture space at Wētā and do pickups just with Jonno performing moments that we could then put back into scenes. It was such a luxury to be able to work that way.
It is a credit to Jonno, and it's a credit to Wētā that the performance of Robbie is so well refined. It is an unbelievably refined performance. Actually, I've got to mention Simon Gleeson as well. He co-wrote Better Man, but he also spent so much time working with Jonno and the performance, trawling through takes and moments and even the audio editing. It is incredible how detailed the work that went into getting the best version of Jonno was. And it's a credit to Jonno and the amount of work that he put into it that we were sort of spoiled.
We had takes where we would keep going back and forth, "I don't know, I like this. Yeah, I like that. They're both amazing, and they're both very different, and they're both very Robbie." We had this great thing where we could choose from multiple takes, [instead of] sometimes when you're always chasing that perfect take where everything just sits. We had the ability to look at any digital take of Jonno and go with that.
Sometimes we'd audition it, sometimes we'd cut one in and watch it in a run. The other joy of working with Wētā, and I haven't worked this way before, is we'd only ever review sequences. Rather than reviewing a shot and going, "The animation could be different," or whatever the note is, we didn't get into that on a shot-by-shot basis. We actually just reviewed sequences, so you're only just looking at it as a performance and not as a visual effects shot. It really changed the way that [I work]. I'll never work any other way. Working in sequences, coming from a background in visual effects, was a dream.
Jonno Davies: It meant there was a real buzz, though, in the Director's Village on set. You had you, Patrick, Simon, and the Wētā boys all crowding around the monitor. And when it all fell in place, all the cast and crew would be waiting to hear Michael shout, "Gold!" If we heard "gold," we knew we had money. We were in.
Screen Rant: I just wanted to quickly ask about your VFX background. Did that change how you directed Jonno at all?
Michael Gracey: Yeah, actually, it didn't change how I directed him. It actually put me at ease because I knew not to worry about that. That's probably the most freeing thing. I think if you don't have a grasp on something as technical as motion capture, or you don't have a partner like Wētā who can just put your mind at ease and say, "We've got this. You just focus on the performance..." In either of those cases, if you are thinking too much about anything technical, you lose it.
It's the same even with the camera department. If you don't have a cinematographer that you trust, and you're starting to question where the lights are, [you lose]. If you surround yourself with the right people, it should free you up to really focus on what's important.
Jonno Davies: I think it helped as well that we never focused on playing Rob as a monkey. I wasn't walking around on all fours or beating my chest. It was very much playing a human, knowing that Wētā afterwards would render it into this new world. We didn't have to focus on that side of the performance.
Michael Gracey: Yeah, early on we explored, "What if there were elements of that?" And the more we did it, the more it took away from actually seeing Rob in the monkey. Once the monkey starts performing like a monkey, it starts becoming a monkey. Whereas we did this sort of chart where this is Rob and this is a monkey, and then this is an evolution all the way to this point. "Where do we sit?" And we sat really close to just a full human role, but we did explore those other variations.
Check out our other TIFF 2024 interviews here:
- Hyun Bin (Harbin)
- Andrew Garfield (We Live In Time)
- Grace VanderWaal (Megalopolis)
- William Goldenberg, Anthony Robles & Don Cheadle (Unstoppable)
- Caitriona Balfe, John Turturro & More (The Cut)
- Barry Keoghan & Nykiya Adams (Bird)
- Chris Sanders (The Wild Robot)
- Janson Siblings & Leland Douglas (Nutcrackers)
- Lily McInerny, Claes Bang, & Aliocha Schneider (Bonjour Tristesse)
- Brandon Routh, Malina Weissman, Mena Suvari, and Joseph Kahn (Ick)
- Annalise Basso (The Life of Chuck)
- Will Poulter, Diego Calva & Sasha Calle (On Swift Horses)
Better Man will have a limited release in U.S. theaters on December 25 before going wide on January 17, 2025.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
Better Man
- Release Date
- December 25, 2024
- Runtime
- 136 minutes
- Director
- Michael Gracey
Cast
Robbie Williams
Jonno Davies
WHERE TO WATCH
Directed by Michael Gracey, Better Man explores the life and career of singer Robbie Williams through his own eyes.
- Writers
- Michael Gracey, Oliver Cole, Simon Gleeson
- Studio(s)
- Footloose Productions, Zero Gravity Management, Jumpy Cow Pictures, Showman, Rocket Science
- Distributor(s)
- Roadshow Films
- Main Genre
- Biography
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