Robbie Williams delighted by the actor behind the monkey: "I love his arse"

“I love his arse," he said during an exclusive interview. "And also because, like... my torso is kind of big here [gestures at his upper body], and then a weird bottom. I'm six foot one, which people don't know about me.

"But his bum and legs are now my bum and legs. And I'm, like, very happy with that. Very happy. Sexy fella!"

Of course, there were other reasons too that made Davies a good fit for the role, not least the fact that he was himself a long-term fan of Robbie.

“Jonno's first show that he ever went to was one of mine at Milton Keynes Bowl," Williams explained. "And, you know, he's said his words were, 'I want do that when I'm older'. So I think he's always had me as somebody that he knows stuff about. And he's an actor, and so he did acting stuff, and he acted it dead, dead good!"

He added: “Existing outside of the movie world, when I see people do interviews about movies and people talk about 'his performance in the role of...' I'm like 'ugh', you know? Now I'm in movies. I'm like, it's true! These people do magic stuff. He's dead, dead good!"

In terms of actually playing Robbie as an ape, Davies explained to RadioTimes.com that he and director Michael Gracey were keen to avoid adopting any mannerisms that were too self-consciously ape-like, instead going for a more naturalistic approach.

"We tried having a few monkeyisms in there [and] it just felt too gimmicky," Davies said. "It felt like it was breaking the fourth wall and kind of devaluing everything we were trying to tell in terms of the story of this is how Rob sees himself, not like 'wink-wink to the audience'.

"So instead, we just wanted to explore what things that a human does that, if you were then to put the mask of a monkey on top, you suddenly go, 'Oh, that's a very primal movement.' And so I found Rob's kind of safe space was on his haunches. It was something that when the world felt too heavy, I just kind of go into a crouch. And then when I saw that kind of transition to a monkey, it really, really worked and it felt like someone that was kind of primitive but also endangered."

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That said, there were other movement challenges for Davies – specifically getting all the dancing choreography mastered for the musical numbers so that Robbie's unique stage presence came across even through the monkey.

"It was moving like Rob when he performs, you know, how does he command a stage?" he explained. "And then also just learning choreography, like learning how to do the running man and things like that. And just having the flamboyance and that frenetic energy that Robbie has when he performs. It's not clean and tidy, it's messy. And that was kind of the training that I did for that."

Better Man is now showing in UK cinemas.

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