Robbie Williams admits new film Better Man 'throws people under the bus'

Robbie Williams playfully admitted to throwing other people under the bus in his musical biopic Better Man — including himself.

Talking to Yahoo, he quipped: "If I'm throwing myself under the bus, you can guarantee that other people are coming with me. I'm not going into there by myself."

The music legend and Better Man director Michael Gracey — who directed The Greatest Showman — were discussing the musical biopic about his life in which he is visually portrayed as a CGI chimpanzee.

In Better Man, the former Take That manager Nigel Martin-Smith is introduced as a "first class c***".

"Why was it really important to throw him under the bus... To the best our abilities legally?" Williams asked Yahoo, putting his own cheeky spin on the question about capturing people how they truly were.

The pop star lifted the lid on why he chose to be so brutally honest about real people who had been in his life. He explained: "Look, I want to, and choose to try and represent myself in the most authentic way possible, in an industry that is constantly asking you to be an authentic more so these days, with the fear of being cancelled with anything that you say. So you vanilla yourself. I have been on the spectrum, have this ability to overshare."

In a cheeky moment, Williams added: "And if I'm throwing myself under the bus, you can guarantee that other people are coming with me."

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Gracey burst into laughter and said he can't agree more. "Really good answer," he said.

Williams added: "Not going under there by myself!"

The Better Man director has high praise for Williams choosing to be so vulnerable about how he told his life story in the biopic.

He said: "I think every aspect of this film is there's a level of honesty that usually in musical biopics, you get these sanitised versions of people's lives and they feel as an audience, you feel that they're dumbed down as a result. And I think this level of honesty is really refreshing and a much more relatable film as a result."

Robbie left 'uncomfortable' revisiting Gary Barlow feud

Williams did worry about how Gary Barlow would react to Better Man as their historic feud gets dragged back up again. As young men, they rocketed to fame as part of boyband Take That — alongside Howard Donald, Mark Owen and Jason Orange in 1990. "Yes, it's complicated," he said of worrying about what Barlow might think. "Because I love Gaz and we have healed an awful lot of the things that once were."

They may have one of the most talked about feuds in UK showbiz; yet Williams and Barlow are genuinely friends now and so his opinion really matters to him and he sent him the script in advance.

Williams admitted to being "uncomfortable" himself by scenes in Better Man that trigger his own personal "trauma" from the past.

He said: "Unfortunately, and fortunately — for me and him — to elongate our careers and to facilitate the wind that is needed for the sail for the third act of our career, we have to revisit the past and explain the past and in explaining the past, you trigger a trauma for me, but for him too, massively, and it's uncomfortable.

"But like I said, I'm choosing to live an authentic life and tell my story. And my story is not PG. My story is not Hallmark story. And I do feel uncomfortable about it, but I also in the core of me need to explain myself.

"This happened because of this. I was like this because of this, this bit is my fault. This is how I sorted it out and this is where I am now."

Read: Gary Barlow came off 'worse than Darth Vader' in early version of Robbie Williams' new biopic (Bang, 2-min read)

Desire for father's approval

Better Man is vulnerable in capturing Williams' family relationships. His loving bond with his mum Janet (Kate Mulvany) and grandmother Betty (Alison Steadman), as well as his complicated relationship with his dad Peter (Steve Pemberton) plays out on screen.

"If you ask any therapist, it's them what done it!" Williams said. "This is true, right?"

Gracey said, that by sharing this side of Williams, it allows the audience at home to relate. "Not every audience member knows what it's like to stand on stage in front of 125,000 people three nights in a row," he said.

"But I think all of those things, you just mentioned the unconditional love that you get from your grandparents, the dynamic you have with your mother or father and the desire particularly for males of wanting their father's approval.

"I think all of those things are incredibly relatable."

Does the music industry need to do more to protect young pop stars?

Better Man also opens up conversation about young pop stars and the struggles they face navigating fame; the biopic showcases Williams' drug addiction and anxiety he experiences as a young pop star rising to fame.

It comes out Boxing Day, in the wake of the tragic news about One Direction star Liam Payne's death at 31 years old but — out of respect for the late star's family — Williams doesn't speak about him directly.

Asked about does the music industry need to do more to protect young pop stars, Williams said: "I think that things are already changing for the positive. We were in the dark ages, when it comes to talking, thinking, representing mental health as a problem. Now we're not."

Williams, however, has expressed a desire to be a part of a positive change to come.

He added: "I want to be part of a change. What change that is I don't know yet but it's going to need creative people to get in a room and figure it out.

"Cos I have been asked that. 'What do I think the change should be?' I don't know man. But I can say something positive about this generation we're living through. Things have changed. What once was in the dark is now no longer in the dark. That is huge."

Better Man is in UK cinemas from 26 December. Watch the trailer below.