SINGAPORE – Shortly after his departure from British boy band Take That in the mid-1990s, the press began labelling Robbie Williams a “bad boy”, based on reports of wild parties, substance abuse and stormy relationships with former band members and management.

The pop singer says being viewed as debauched pleased him, because the rock stars he admired lived dissolute lives.

“I wanted to be a bad boy. I jumped onto the hedonism train. All of my heroes were very, very naughty,” says Williams. He was speaking to journalists at a virtual interview in December 2024, ahead of the release of Better Man, a musical biopic based on his life. It opens in Singapore cinemas on Jan 9.

After he hit rock bottom and sought therapy, he saw that, like many who turn to drugs and other addictions, he sought pleasure to dull the inner pain.

“If you boil it down, being very naughty is just mental illness escaping. It’s people reacting to the trauma of childhood and the trauma of the world,” says the 50-year-old.

Pleasure-seeking rock stars are stereotypically gaunt and glamorous. In one of several self-mocking moments during the interview, he says that before he went into recovery, out-of-control behaviour gave him a body no rock star would want.

“Hedonism just made me fat, which was really unfortunate, because all the best hedonists are skinny. They wore leather jackets, grew their hair long, smoked cigarettes and looked interesting. I just looked like a darts player, so I got it completely wrong,” he says.

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In Better Man, Williams is depicted as a photorealistic computer-generated chimpanzee, while the rest of the cast look as they would in real life. Australian film-maker Michael Gracey, who directed the Hugh Jackman musical film The Greatest Showman (2017), gave his reasons for doing so in previous interviews. They include having fun with Williams’ description of himself as a “performing monkey” during the early stages of his career, and using the power of cute animals to generate audience sympathy.

Robbie Williams, depicted as a photorealistic computer-generated chimp in Better Man, voices himself as an adult and sings the songs.PHOTO: SHAW ORGANISATION

English actor Jonno Davies voices the young Robbie and performs as the chimp using motion capture. Williams voices himself as an adult and sings the songs.

The film covers his life from boyhood to the Take That years, to his solo career and downward spiral, and ends with his recovery and a triumphant return. It features fresh performances of his hits, such as She’s The One, Angels and Let Me Entertain You.

While some of the blame for his addictions can be laid on childhood trauma, Williams believes that it takes a high-pressure environment – such as the one Take That found themselves in – to bring self-destructive behaviour to the surface.

“Most bands, whether they’re boy bands or girl bands, when they get on that ride, they are worked so hard. You’re going to be exhausted, and in that exhaustion, you are emotionally defective, and there’s nobody there to say no to you,” he says.

“Also, if you’re in a boy band, your frontal lobe isn’t connected yet. You’re under 25 and still an idiot. And idiots are expected to navigate all of this s*** thrown at them.”

Now that he is aware of the fragility of mental health, he says he sees the same pressures in more places than bands striving to be No. 1.

“You don’t recognise that you’re burnt out. But let’s not say this is a boy band phenomenon because this happens with chefs. Chefs famously get burnt out and go mental,” he adds.

At this stage in his career, he says he has made peace with the fact that, while he can fill stadiums in Britain and continental Europe and has topped the charts in Australia, he is relatively unknown in the United States.

He is not hoping for Better Man to be the battering ram that knocks down the barriers keeping him from the American market, he says.

“If the film makes me popular there, great. If it doesn’t, that’s great too. I think it might scratch an itch to have some success in America, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. I have a lot on my plate that I’m very grateful for.”

British pop star Robbie Williams and his wife, American actress Ayda Field, at the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan 5. PHOTO: AFP

He has been married to American actress Ayda Field, 45, since 2010 and the couple have four children aged four to 12.

“I am now 50, with four kids, and I’m happy. And where I once was intensely mentally ill, I am now healed, or in the process of being in the positive space of healing, and I’m enjoying my job. I love my life. I love my family,” he says.

Better Man opens in Singapore cinemas on Jan 9.