Robbie Williams in an interview "I still have a need to be loved"

Now Robbie Williams also has his movie biography. In "Better Man" he is embodied by a computer-generated monkey, in an interview he reveals why he never wants to be an actor and why he doesn't want his father to see the movie.

Robbie Williams, you are launching your musical biopic "Better Man" in 2025, in which you are embodied by a digitized monkey. Are you happy with the result?

Very, I'm overwhelmed. I thought the movie would never be made. When filming started, I thought the idea of the monkey was great, but I couldn't imagine what the director Michael Gracey ('The Geratest Showman') saw in his head. I just texted my wife that it's going great and to get the piña coladas and sundeck ready. She's wonderfully neurotic and I'm impulsive, so the opposite. She has her feet on the ground, while I just swing the bat and hope to hit something.

Is "Better Man" also a warning about the high price you pay as a pop star - sometimes even with your life, like Liam Payne from One Direction recently?

Sure, my story is not unique. No one who is in the omnipresent glare of the spotlight thinks they are still a perfectly balanced individual. The world bends towards you and you bend towards the world. Now, at 50 at the other end of the arc, I realize what all the glamour and applause should have meant. I am on my path to healing - full Namaste style. Now fame and fortune means what it always should have, but never does the first time around. 90 percent of people think that if they had this or that, they would be happy and whole, but fame and fortune doesn't fix anything, it creates an existential crisis!

How did you get out of it?

With a lot of self-analysis and external help. I was lucky. My managers Tim and David, who has since passed away, also helped me. Tim was the punch and David, who was ten years sober when I met him, was the hug. But when you're in the depths of alcohol and drug addiction, you don't always make the best decisions. And back then, mental health wasn't an issue. I would have been pulverized if I had asked for anti-depressants.

Do you need external reassurance less today than you used to?

I still have a dramatic need to be loved and I'm still hyper-sensitive. I'm not as fragile as I used to be. Does my fragility have anything to do with my mental illness? Yes, it does. Am I cured? Not completely. Will I ever be completely healed? No. Does my grounding, my new perspective and a purpose in life have anything to do with my marriage and my children? Yes - without them I don't know where I would be today - if I would even still be here. When my first daughter Teddy was born, I knew that it wasn't just about me anymore. As a full-blooded narcissist, that was a huge new realization for me.

What were the most difficult moments you had to relive for "Better Man"?

The worst thing for me was the relationship I had with my ex-fiancée Nicole Appleton (singer of the All Saints, editor's note). Everyone else in the movie had done something to me, but she was a good person and I was the bad guy. She got the worst version of me. I'm still ashamed of that.

And then the thing with my grandmother and the thing with my dad weren't easy either. In the movie, you see my mother's version of what happened back then. I'm sure my father has his own version. There are things I never discussed with him. I actually don't want him to see the movie. But I also want people to know that he's very charming and that everyone falls in love with him straight away.

And how do you think your fellow musicians, such as Liam Gallagher and Take That, will react?

Liam Gallagher is an 11 in life and comes off as a 10 in the movie. Gary Barlow from Take That got to read the script. He thought he was portrayed worse than Darth Vader in the first Star Wars movie. I love Gary and our relationship is as mended and healed as it can be. But in the movie, I just have to talk the way I did when I was 17, 18 and 19. I know that some people complained about Elton John and the movie "Rocket Man". I'll just bury my head in the sand for now.

If you could go back: Would you join Take That again?

Absolutely. Take That is still important in people's hearts. They and we have lasted longer than the rest of our contemporaries. Is Take That the perfect band for me? Yes. End of answer.

In "Better Man", an actor in a CGI suit took on their role. The rest was done by VFX specialists. Do you see yourself as an actor in the future?

Nope. As an actor, I would just want to shoot around and not have to open a door three times or walk down the corridor seven times until the scene is in the can. Now let's see how "Better Man" goes. It's a big challenge, especially in America, where people hardly know me. It would be great if they could spell my name correctly and knew that the song is called "Angels" and not "Angel". A big North American tour would be wonderful and would fulfill me completely. But if not, that's okay too.

What will make you an even "better man" in ten or twenty years' time?

I accept that I'm getting older. My life has changed a lot in the last five years. It took too long to get better, but it just takes as long as it takes. So if the last five years are any gauge, my future looks bright. Every day, every month, I am more grateful, more authentic and understand myself better.

"Better Man" has been showing in all blue Cinema theaters since January 1.