Monkeying with Superstardom: Why 'Straight Gay Man' Robbie Williams Couldn't Pass Up 'Better Man'

EDGE: And the monkey. I thought of "Me and My Monkey," a great Robbie song. Whose idea was it? And did you embrace it right away?

Robbie Williams: I guess that Michael Gracey understood that the genre of the biopic is now long and exhausted, and we needed a point of difference. He came up with this unique idea and then sold it to me, and it didn't take much. I was totally in, straight away. What is unusual is how contentious it has become in people's minds. I don't get how contentious it is, because I'm a great believer and a great fan of not everything having to make sense. The weird thing about the movie is that you forget about the monkey after eight to 12 minutes, and from then on in you have an experience that you've never had before. And it works on a level so profound that it makes more sense than a human playing a human. It's very strange.

EDGE: There's so much joy in this film. I think it captures your high highs, but also the low lows. The second half is pretty dark.

Robbie Williams: Yeah, it really is. It's the Greatest Hits of my trauma and grief for the TikTok generation.

EDGE: Much like the Netflix docu series where we see your incredible honesty. You, watching your life, and reacting to all of these (seismic) things. We don't get this from celebrities.

Robbie Williams: Well, I've spent my life, A. showing off to make myself known to the world – to forge a way in the industry that I find myself in – and, B. at the same time, trying to sabotage myself in so many different ways. It's been my raison d'etre and M.O. to figure out why I feel and think and react to the world in the way that I do. And whilst I'm trying to figure out why I feel and think and react to the world in the way I do, I'm telling people of my findings. I suppose that I'm a journalist, and my main subject is me.