Robbie Williams ‘Happy To Be the Main Villain’ In Biopic ‘Better Man’ — Contenders Los Angeles

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Robbie Williams takes responsibility for his role in the darker chapters of his life. His unconventional biopic Better Man pulls no punches when it comes to his addictions and abuses.

“There were many villains in this movie until we legally couldn’t have many villains in this movie,” Williams said of the Paramount Pictures release. “Now the only villain in this movie is me. I’m quite happy to be the main villain in this movie.”

The singer lamented that his first manager got off easy, and said early drafts of the script took Williams’ side in his feud with Take That bandmate Gary Barlow.

“In the script, I speak how I spoke and I think how I thought back then,” Williams said. “We sent him the script and he rang me. Gaz phones me, ‘Rob, I come off worse than Darth Vader in the first Star Wars.”

Williams agreed to soften Barlow’s portrayal in the film. He pulled no punches about his treatment of girlfriend Nicole Appleton, herself a pop star in the girl group All Saints.

“She didn’t deserve the version of me she got,” he said. “I feel great shame I didn’t represent myself in the best way possible because she deserves the best and deserves the best me and she didn’t get it.”

Appleton and Williams had a tearful FaceTime after she saw the film. Williams has reservations about letting his father see the film. His father left the family early in Williams’ life.

“I don’t want him to see it,” he said. “I’ve done so much work on myself. I’ve rehabbed. I’ve therapied. I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 24 years. I’ve picked up on how to do this and heal yourself. Us Brits don’t do that. My dad hasn’t and hasn’t needed to. We haven’t had this conversation.”

Williams attributes his forthrightness in sharing his mistakes with neurodivergence, which he discussed in the Netxflix documentary. He has no filter sharing them in his biopic or on Deadline’s stage.

“I don’t pick up on the cues where normal people go, ‘I better not share that or I better not share that,’” Williams said. “I’m good with social cues. I get them. It’s all this other stuff. I go, ‘Here are my hemorrhoids.’ People go, ‘Maybe you should not show your hemorrhoids.’ I go, ‘Why? I have hemorrhoids. I don’t get it.’”

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