December 14, 2024 • 15 mins
Famed UK singer-songwriter Robbie Williams stars in a grand retelling of his life and career - while taking on a new simian alter ego.
Better Man depicts the star's career, from his childhood, to his Take That days, to his solo works, exposing all the pitfalls of fame in between - with Williams being represented by a CGI chimp.
He says he felt compelled to do a biopic after a successful meeting with the film's director, Michael Gracey of The Greatest Showman fame.
"The first time I saw it, I was like - this is mindblowing. It's absolutely incredible. But then I was like - hang on, I'm prone to ego and narcissism, maybe I just think it's the best thing I'd ever seen because it's about me."
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is Angels by the one and only Robbie Williams.
You know, there was a time in my life I
didn't want to ever hear this song again. It just
seemed to be absolutely everywhere. And I sat in this film.
This version of the song is from Robbie's new film,
and I sat watching this film and I sung every
word anyway. The movie sees Robbie played by A. Cgichimp.
(00:34):
It tells his life story from his childhood through to
Take That and his solo career, and it doesn't shy
away from the dark side of fame. It's brutally honest,
including his use of drugs and his bad star behavior.
The film it's called Better Man.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I'm Robbie Williams.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I'm one of the biggest pop stars in the world.
This is my story, but I'm not going to tell
it in an ordinary way because I don't see myself.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Help over see me.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Two hours your right to be honest.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
I've always been a little less evolved, a wrack.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
So let's take it from the top, shall we.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I am absolutely delighted to have Robbie with me.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Robbie Williams, good morning, Good morning, Donnin How are you.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I'm very good. Thank you. You could tell why the
trailer of this film and the artwork that it was
going to be a little bit different, But I really
did not know what to expect and whether it would work.
But I loved it. I laughed, I cried. I left
the cinema with this huge smile on my face. Are
you happy with it?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I am over the moon. I can't believe.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I mean, I can't believe the final finished thing, and
I am overwhelmed by the response that it's having because
the first time I saw it, I was like, this
is mind blowing, It's absolutely incredible. But then I was like, oh, well,
I'm going because I am prone to ego and narcissism.
(02:11):
Maybe I just think it's the best thing I've ever
seen because it's about me. And then and then I
was like, oh no, what's what if it's a turd?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
And I just don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
But then you know, people like your good self have
been to see it and saying really positive things about it,
and then lots of people are going back to watch
it for a second and third time.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
It's not even out yet.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I need to go back and watch it again, because
of course we saw it as an advanced screening in
order to talk to you, and there were five of
us in the cinema, and all of us we're trying
to hold back, just sort of singing along and getting involved.
I think it'll be a fantastic experience with it with
a big crowd.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Yeah, I especially in the rock DJ sequence. I know
when I've watched it. I think I've seen the film
like ten times now because of premieres and with people
and showing people like your good self. And I do
notice that when rot DJs on, I'm rocking out in
(03:14):
the chair and then I look around the cinema and
I seem to be the only person that's rocking out
this much. Once again, narcissism.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Have you stopped crying when you watch it?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Yeah, yeah, But that doesn't mean that the tears have
stopped stopped. They could reappear, and I'm sure that they
will at any time. I'm now on a whistle stop
tour of different countries doing premieres, and I did notice
that in Canada I started to cry at Tiff the
(03:50):
Toronto International Film Festival at the end of the movie,
and then I had to do a Q and A
and I couldn't do the Q and A because I
couldn't talk. And then I thought to myself, Oh no,
I can't do this at every screening and every premiere.
Can't be broken man crying at own life story like
(04:12):
but like in that one particular moment, paramount in particular,
like more tears, more tears.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Promote the film, promote the film.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
How did I? How did Sorry Robbie? How did the
project come to be? How did you meet Michael Gracie?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
I met Michael Gracie at a party of a mutual
friend of ours, and instantly that loved him, got on
with him really well, and he was just like Wow.
He pitched me a movie, not for me to do
anything to it, but it was just telling me the
movie that he was doing, and he pitched it so
(04:52):
well and told the story so well that I instantly
wanted to see the movie as soon as the last
sentence of his stopped. And then he asked me for
a favor. And he came round to my and he said,
I need a favor from you, and I'm like anything mate,
and he said, I'm doing this film. It's called the
(05:12):
Greatest Showman. And instantly, because of narcissism, I think he's
going to ask me to be the lead in it.
And he plays me one song and it's mind blowing,
this is me. And then he plays me another song
and I'm just I'm just like, oh my god, Oh
my god. And then he shows me the the hand
(05:33):
drawn sequences of the film and I'm like, yes, yes,
big break in Hollywood here I come.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Just ask me. I'm in.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
And he goes and here's the favor And I say,
what anything, mate, And he goes, will you ring Hugh
Jackman and convince him to be the lead in the
movie Restfall?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And yeah, and you did it.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, I did it.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I did it, and I helped to make that movie
a reality.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So he's very kindly come the circle has been complete.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Oh he's made it up. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Whose idea was it to have you portrayed as a
CDI monkey throughout the film.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Michael's idea. Michael's brilliant idea. I think the thing is
with biopics, now we've seen them, we know the format,
it's long. We're getting a bit bored and he understood
that we needed a usp, a unique selling point, and
(06:33):
boy did he come up with one. Then he needed
to convince people with money to put money behind this idea.
And my god, they are insane and God bless them
that there is still people on the planet that exist
that go, yeah, let's do this. Whoever they are, I
wish i'd have parted with them in the nineties. I
(06:55):
think we'd have had fun.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So did that idea resonate with you that you were
sort of this performing monkey, you know, throughout part of
your career, which is is Is that why it resonated
with you? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Yeah, it just resonated as an idea because it's surreal
and eccentric and unusual. And going forward, I want that
to be my m O. I want to be unusual.
I want to do unusual things because I've kind of
been chasing the past for the last ten years, and
in chasing the past, I've become.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
A bit vanilla. And I never was, you know, I
never was.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
I had I had ideas that were unusual, and you know,
they're they're they're like the rock DJ video or whatever.
The way I say things or the way I present myself,
and yeah, and the documentary me in Bed in my Underpants.
I don't know if anybody's seen it, but I did
a documentary I was in bed in my underpants.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Unusual.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Going forward, I'd like to carry on with this trait.
And this is a huge, grandiose, unusual swing that we're having,
and so far, so good, but it's not out yet.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
We all know you as the great entertainer, the singer
songwriter who's got it, and you talk about it a
little bit in the film, but this sort of takes
you behind the persona, doesn't it. It shows a vulnerable
young man, an insecure young man who was world famous
at twenty one, as you say, raging alcoholic and addicted
to coke. How important was you to you? The story
(08:29):
was told?
Speaker 4 (08:30):
So honestly, I try my best to live a very
authentic life with and shine the light hopefully on my
best bits, and shine the lights on my worst bits too.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
People seem to.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Respond to authenticity, and I know that I can wind
people up as well, just by false bravado.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Or arrogance or you know.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
I think people can get wind up by That's the
thing is about it. You have to shine it and
believe that you have it somewhere in you to transcend
and project it. And when you are projecting it, lots
of people, including myself. If I wasn't me would be
going turn it off now bed.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Were you would all get it?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Were you all?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
It'd all worried about being judged by being so honest.
I mean, I love it. If you were, it wouldn't work.
The thing wouldn't work.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
So I've been judged well, I've been judged well. So
not so much in the nineties, the early two thousands.
You can't say I'm I'm mentally ill. In nineteen ninety
nine or two thousand and three, you can't say that
I'm on antidepressants because what on earth have you got
to be sad for, you know? And that was a
(09:58):
moment that I went further into my shell and felt
shame and felt isolated. But you know, it wasn't It
wasn't momentary sadness.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
This was a.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Genetic mental illness that has been passed down probably for centuries.
And now I am lauded for things, for saying things
that I used to be derided for. But it also
happens to be I'm at the other end of the arc.
I'm at the other end of the story. I'm talking
(10:35):
about what was and not what is, and I think
that helps.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You're talking the film about how you lost yourself. And
I'm quite intrigued talking to people about this, because fame
is a mystery to most of us. How does that happen?
What is it about? Is it about that you're suddenly
treated differently, that people expect you to perform a certain
(11:02):
way or be a certain way, or how do you
what does it feel like to kind of lose yourself?
Speaker 4 (11:11):
I I I do you know what, I'm as baffled.
I'm as baffled. I wrote this thing the other day.
I'm as baffled about what fame is myself. Suppose I'm
going to be asked what it is that makes the
boys in the band sick?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Or maybe I won't.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I guess we all think, well, it's all the things,
isn't it, without understanding what the things are. To be honest,
I'm not sure I totally understand what it is either,
and I was there. I'd really like a scientific breakdown
for the layman. Why do we become fractured when introduced
to fame? We all have these theories based on presumptions
(11:51):
that we don't really know are true. Overbearing workload, that's
a given. No one there to say no for you,
and no one to fully understand when no should be
the answer. Also a given, no one asking if you're okay,
and often no one listening when you're trying to say
you're not okay, and you yourself not recognizing you are
not okay. But what about all the other things? What
(12:13):
about friends, family, and the people locally have become accustomed
to you not being something big on the tally? And
then I go on and on and on. I don't
understand what it is myself. I just know that you
it's Look, I took acid when I was fifteen. I
shouldn't have taken acid when I was fifteen. Fame is
(12:34):
very much like acid. It's like a drug.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
And I don't mean addictive, like ooh, I've got to
have more.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I mean like a psychedelic experience without the.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Good bits. It is a psychedelic.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Experience that you don't know that you're having because you
haven't ingested anything or snorted anything.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
You're just on the tally.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
No, it's fascinating, isn't it. I think you do some
of that beautifully. I just want to touch on something
else that was in the film which I was intrigued by,
Guy Chambers, is that films sorry, that songs are only
valuable if they cost you something. What did he mean
by that?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
It's just a line in the movie.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
It's a good one, no way, it really is.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
It really is.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And yeah, I can only speak from experience of what
I want to do when I when I'm trying to
write a song, I guess I'm exercising demons or was
and I wanted to explain myself. Michael Gracie says, you know,
(13:48):
in musicals we sing when words won't suffice. And I
guess that I needed to sing because words had stopped
having meaning and they weren't fixing anything. So I guess,
you know, my songs have cost me something. I guess
(14:10):
the adage is right. But it's just a it's just
a great line in the movie.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
It's a good line, Robbie. Just to finish up, this
is very much a family drama as well that documents
the beautiful relationship you head with your grandmother and your mother,
and the complex relationship you head with your father. Has
it been easy to share that, has it been quite
a cathartic experience having this sort of portraying in a film.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
No, not really, because I think my dad gets a
rough ride in the movie, and in many ways I
don't think that's fair, But I can't argue with the
film as a piece. I'd like him to not watch it.
He hasn't yet. It's uncomfortable because there's lots of bits
(14:56):
of our history that we haven't talked about that and
right now, you know, with him having Parkinson's and not
being very well, it's all good my dad, I have no.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
I just love my dad.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
I have no ill feeling towards him, and he was
a better father than how he's depicted in the film.
But you know, feelings are how they felt, and it's
not his fault that, you know, his partner gave birth
to a son that was dramatically oversensitive.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Thank you so much for your time and for the movie.
Is in absolute blast. I loved it.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Thank you, Francesca.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
That was the one and only Robbie Williams the movie is,
I see it fantastic. You can catch Bitter Man in
cinemas from December the twenty sixth.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
For more from the Sunday session, with Francesca Rudken. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is Angels by the one and only Robbie Williams.
You know, there was a time in my life I
didn't want to ever hear this song again. It just
seemed to be absolutely everywhere. And I sat in this film.
This version of the song is from Robbie's new film,
and I sat watching this film and I sung every
word anyway. The movie sees Robbie played by A. Cgichimp.
(00:34):
It tells his life story from his childhood through to
Take That and his solo career, and it doesn't shy
away from the dark side of fame. It's brutally honest,
including his use of drugs and his bad star behavior.
The film it's called Better Man.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I'm Robbie Williams.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I'm one of the biggest pop stars in the world.
This is my story, but I'm not going to tell
it in an ordinary way because I don't see myself.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Help over see me.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Two hours your right to be honest.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
I've always been a little less evolved, a wrack.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
So let's take it from the top, shall we.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I am absolutely delighted to have Robbie with me.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Robbie Williams, good morning, Good morning, Donnin How are you.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I'm very good. Thank you. You could tell why the
trailer of this film and the artwork that it was
going to be a little bit different, But I really
did not know what to expect and whether it would work.
But I loved it. I laughed, I cried. I left
the cinema with this huge smile on my face. Are
you happy with it?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I am over the moon. I can't believe.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I mean, I can't believe the final finished thing, and
I am overwhelmed by the response that it's having because
the first time I saw it, I was like, this
is mind blowing, It's absolutely incredible. But then I was like, oh, well,
I'm going because I am prone to ego and narcissism.
(02:11):
Maybe I just think it's the best thing I've ever
seen because it's about me. And then and then I
was like, oh no, what's what if it's a turd?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
And I just don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
But then you know, people like your good self have
been to see it and saying really positive things about it,
and then lots of people are going back to watch
it for a second and third time.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
It's not even out yet.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I need to go back and watch it again, because
of course we saw it as an advanced screening in
order to talk to you, and there were five of
us in the cinema, and all of us we're trying
to hold back, just sort of singing along and getting involved.
I think it'll be a fantastic experience with it with
a big crowd.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Yeah, I especially in the rock DJ sequence. I know
when I've watched it. I think I've seen the film
like ten times now because of premieres and with people
and showing people like your good self. And I do
notice that when rot DJs on, I'm rocking out in
(03:14):
the chair and then I look around the cinema and
I seem to be the only person that's rocking out
this much. Once again, narcissism.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Have you stopped crying when you watch it?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Yeah, yeah, But that doesn't mean that the tears have
stopped stopped. They could reappear, and I'm sure that they
will at any time. I'm now on a whistle stop
tour of different countries doing premieres, and I did notice
that in Canada I started to cry at Tiff the
(03:50):
Toronto International Film Festival at the end of the movie,
and then I had to do a Q and A
and I couldn't do the Q and A because I
couldn't talk. And then I thought to myself, Oh no,
I can't do this at every screening and every premiere.
Can't be broken man crying at own life story like
(04:12):
but like in that one particular moment, paramount in particular,
like more tears, more tears.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Promote the film, promote the film.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
How did I? How did Sorry Robbie? How did the
project come to be? How did you meet Michael Gracie?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
I met Michael Gracie at a party of a mutual
friend of ours, and instantly that loved him, got on
with him really well, and he was just like Wow.
He pitched me a movie, not for me to do
anything to it, but it was just telling me the
movie that he was doing, and he pitched it so
(04:52):
well and told the story so well that I instantly
wanted to see the movie as soon as the last
sentence of his stopped. And then he asked me for
a favor. And he came round to my and he said,
I need a favor from you, and I'm like anything mate,
and he said, I'm doing this film. It's called the
(05:12):
Greatest Showman. And instantly, because of narcissism, I think he's
going to ask me to be the lead in it.
And he plays me one song and it's mind blowing,
this is me. And then he plays me another song
and I'm just I'm just like, oh my god, Oh
my god. And then he shows me the the hand
(05:33):
drawn sequences of the film and I'm like, yes, yes,
big break in Hollywood here I come.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Just ask me. I'm in.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
And he goes and here's the favor And I say,
what anything, mate, And he goes, will you ring Hugh
Jackman and convince him to be the lead in the
movie Restfall?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And yeah, and you did it.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, I did it.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I did it, and I helped to make that movie
a reality.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So he's very kindly come the circle has been complete.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Oh he's made it up. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Whose idea was it to have you portrayed as a
CDI monkey throughout the film.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Michael's idea. Michael's brilliant idea. I think the thing is
with biopics, now we've seen them, we know the format,
it's long. We're getting a bit bored and he understood
that we needed a usp, a unique selling point, and
(06:33):
boy did he come up with one. Then he needed
to convince people with money to put money behind this idea.
And my god, they are insane and God bless them
that there is still people on the planet that exist
that go, yeah, let's do this. Whoever they are, I
wish i'd have parted with them in the nineties. I
(06:55):
think we'd have had fun.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So did that idea resonate with you that you were
sort of this performing monkey, you know, throughout part of
your career, which is is Is that why it resonated
with you? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Yeah, it just resonated as an idea because it's surreal
and eccentric and unusual. And going forward, I want that
to be my m O. I want to be unusual.
I want to do unusual things because I've kind of
been chasing the past for the last ten years, and
in chasing the past, I've become.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
A bit vanilla. And I never was, you know, I
never was.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
I had I had ideas that were unusual, and you know,
they're they're they're like the rock DJ video or whatever.
The way I say things or the way I present myself,
and yeah, and the documentary me in Bed in my Underpants.
I don't know if anybody's seen it, but I did
a documentary I was in bed in my underpants.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Unusual.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Going forward, I'd like to carry on with this trait.
And this is a huge, grandiose, unusual swing that we're having,
and so far, so good, but it's not out yet.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
We all know you as the great entertainer, the singer
songwriter who's got it, and you talk about it a
little bit in the film, but this sort of takes
you behind the persona, doesn't it. It shows a vulnerable
young man, an insecure young man who was world famous
at twenty one, as you say, raging alcoholic and addicted
to coke. How important was you to you? The story
(08:29):
was told?
Speaker 4 (08:30):
So honestly, I try my best to live a very
authentic life with and shine the light hopefully on my
best bits, and shine the lights on my worst bits too.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
People seem to.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Respond to authenticity, and I know that I can wind
people up as well, just by false bravado.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Or arrogance or you know.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
I think people can get wind up by That's the
thing is about it. You have to shine it and
believe that you have it somewhere in you to transcend
and project it. And when you are projecting it, lots
of people, including myself. If I wasn't me would be
going turn it off now bed.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Were you would all get it?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Were you all?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
It'd all worried about being judged by being so honest.
I mean, I love it. If you were, it wouldn't work.
The thing wouldn't work.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
So I've been judged well, I've been judged well. So
not so much in the nineties, the early two thousands.
You can't say I'm I'm mentally ill. In nineteen ninety
nine or two thousand and three, you can't say that
I'm on antidepressants because what on earth have you got
to be sad for, you know? And that was a
(09:58):
moment that I went further into my shell and felt
shame and felt isolated. But you know, it wasn't It
wasn't momentary sadness.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
This was a.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Genetic mental illness that has been passed down probably for centuries.
And now I am lauded for things, for saying things
that I used to be derided for. But it also
happens to be I'm at the other end of the arc.
I'm at the other end of the story. I'm talking
(10:35):
about what was and not what is, and I think
that helps.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You're talking the film about how you lost yourself. And
I'm quite intrigued talking to people about this, because fame
is a mystery to most of us. How does that happen?
What is it about? Is it about that you're suddenly
treated differently, that people expect you to perform a certain
(11:02):
way or be a certain way, or how do you
what does it feel like to kind of lose yourself?
Speaker 4 (11:11):
I I I do you know what, I'm as baffled.
I'm as baffled. I wrote this thing the other day.
I'm as baffled about what fame is myself. Suppose I'm
going to be asked what it is that makes the
boys in the band sick?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Or maybe I won't.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I guess we all think, well, it's all the things,
isn't it, without understanding what the things are. To be honest,
I'm not sure I totally understand what it is either,
and I was there. I'd really like a scientific breakdown
for the layman. Why do we become fractured when introduced
to fame? We all have these theories based on presumptions
(11:51):
that we don't really know are true. Overbearing workload, that's
a given. No one there to say no for you,
and no one to fully understand when no should be
the answer. Also a given, no one asking if you're okay,
and often no one listening when you're trying to say
you're not okay, and you yourself not recognizing you are
not okay. But what about all the other things? What
(12:13):
about friends, family, and the people locally have become accustomed
to you not being something big on the tally? And
then I go on and on and on. I don't
understand what it is myself. I just know that you
it's Look, I took acid when I was fifteen. I
shouldn't have taken acid when I was fifteen. Fame is
(12:34):
very much like acid. It's like a drug.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
And I don't mean addictive, like ooh, I've got to
have more.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I mean like a psychedelic experience without the.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Good bits. It is a psychedelic.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Experience that you don't know that you're having because you
haven't ingested anything or snorted anything.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
You're just on the tally.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
No, it's fascinating, isn't it. I think you do some
of that beautifully. I just want to touch on something
else that was in the film which I was intrigued by,
Guy Chambers, is that films sorry, that songs are only
valuable if they cost you something. What did he mean
by that?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
It's just a line in the movie.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
It's a good one, no way, it really is.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
It really is.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And yeah, I can only speak from experience of what
I want to do when I when I'm trying to
write a song, I guess I'm exercising demons or was
and I wanted to explain myself. Michael Gracie says, you know,
(13:48):
in musicals we sing when words won't suffice. And I
guess that I needed to sing because words had stopped
having meaning and they weren't fixing anything. So I guess,
you know, my songs have cost me something. I guess
(14:10):
the adage is right. But it's just a it's just
a great line in the movie.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
It's a good line, Robbie. Just to finish up, this
is very much a family drama as well that documents
the beautiful relationship you head with your grandmother and your mother,
and the complex relationship you head with your father. Has
it been easy to share that, has it been quite
a cathartic experience having this sort of portraying in a film.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
No, not really, because I think my dad gets a
rough ride in the movie, and in many ways I
don't think that's fair, But I can't argue with the
film as a piece. I'd like him to not watch it.
He hasn't yet. It's uncomfortable because there's lots of bits
(14:56):
of our history that we haven't talked about that and
right now, you know, with him having Parkinson's and not
being very well, it's all good my dad, I have no.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
I just love my dad.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
I have no ill feeling towards him, and he was
a better father than how he's depicted in the film.
But you know, feelings are how they felt, and it's
not his fault that, you know, his partner gave birth
to a son that was dramatically oversensitive.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Thank you so much for your time and for the movie.
Is in absolute blast. I loved it.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Thank you, Francesca.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
That was the one and only Robbie Williams the movie is,
I see it fantastic. You can catch Bitter Man in
cinemas from December the twenty sixth.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
For more from the Sunday session, with Francesca Rudken. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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