Robbie Williams feeling ‘remarkable’ following years of mental health struggles
The music star is the subject of a biopic called Better Man where he is played by a CGI chimpanzee.
Robbie Williams has said he feels “remarkable” after coming out the other end of a more than decade-long struggle with his mental health.
The Let Me Entertain You singer, 50, has a well-documented history of depression and has also fought drug and alcohol abuse.
Speaking on the red carpet of the European premiere for his film Better Man on Wednesday, Williams said there is “beauty” at the end of a struggle like his.
The music star is the subject of a biopic with a twist as the former Take That member is played by a CGI chimpanzee – a comment on how he feels like a “performing monkey”.
Williams said: “We’re getting quite knowledgeable with mental health, where to go and what to do.
“Just know this. It took me nearly a couple of decades to fight through it, and now I’m at the other end, and it’s beautiful.
“And there is beauty at the end of that struggle, and it feels remarkable.”
Last year Williams reflected on a career in the limelight in a self-titled Netflix documentary charting his success.
Discussing what he learned from the project, he said: “I discovered what I already knew before the documentary, and the film, that I’m incredibly ambitious, and these are tools that I need to utilise to propel me for my third act of my career.
“I also realised that I’ve shared an awful lot of the person that I used to be, and now I’m somebody different, and I like this version of me much, much more.”
Director of Better Man, Michael Gracey, who was also at the helm for movie musical The Greatest Showman, said Williams often described himself as a “performing monkey” during preparatory interviews for the film.
“Portraying him as an ape was based on… we did a whole series of interviews over the course of a year and a half,” he said.
“And when I listened back to those interviews, he would quite often say, ‘I was just at the back performing like a monkey’, or ‘They were would just drag me up on stage to perform like a monkey’.
“And he said it enough times where I was like yeah there’s definitely something to the way that Rob sees himself like a performing monkey.
“And then when I went back to his story, whether he’s trying to be a tough kid in Stoke-on-Trent, whether he wants his dad to look at him the same way he looks at (Frank) Sinatra, you do realise that his whole life has been performing.
“And so the idea of portraying him as a sort of performing monkey, I just felt was really creatively exciting.”
The film is billed as showing “the meteoric rise, dramatic fall, and remarkable resurgence” of the British pop superstar who confronts “the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring.”
Wednesday’s premiere was also attended by William’s wife Ayda Field and stars of the film, including Raechelle Banno, who plays his former girlfriend Nicole Appleton.
Better Man is in select theatres from December 25 and everywhere else from January 17, according to Paramount Pictures.
