Robbie Williams has recalled receiving texts from a number of famous faces following Better Man hitting cinemas.
The singer shared the news during a recent interview with Nicki Chapman on Magic Radio, recalling the ways that his life has changed since sharing the biopic.
The project, directed by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman), sees Williams depicted as a CGI monkey and tells his life story – from his early days in childhood to his first taste of success with boyband Take That.
During the interview, Williams recalled the huge response he has seen since the film hit cinemas last month, and said that a number of famous faces have reached out to congratulate him about the release.
“I wake up every day to a slew of emails and texts, and they’re not short texts,” he began, going on to drop some specific examples.
“Because of the length of these things that I’m getting, I know that it’s doing something incredibly special. And I will name drop… texts came from Joey McIntyre from New Kids on the Block and Jon Bon Jovi,” he added. “I have been receiving texts and emails from people every day. And it’s truly special.”
Robbie Williams. CREDIT: Antoine Flament/Getty Images
He also explained what it has felt like to see so many people go to view the depiction of his life story, and admitted that he has learned to watch the film with more acceptance than before.
“I think that the first few times I watched it [I was] getting over the fact that it is the greatest hits of my trauma,” he said. “Then, because I’ve had to watch it over and over again at screenings and premieres, most of the time I just get to sit there [with a] healthy ego, and enjoy people enjoying a story about me.
“I think that’s where I’m at with the film. I can sit there with an audience and just go ‘This is magic. It’s special’.”
Last month, NME gave Better Man a three-star review, writing: “This is ‘Rudebox’ on film: some of it good, some of it very bad, all of it a bit of a mess.
“Still, the monkey musical is a big swing that no-one else would have taken. You can’t fault the chutzpah or the ambition. If it makes back its reported budget, we’ll eat $110m worth of bananas.”
Ahead of the release, Williams released a reflective single called ‘Forbidden Road’, and later shared his thoughts on the song being disqualified from the Oscars 2025 shortlist.
Later this year, he is set to embark on a huge tour across the UK, Ireland and Europe. The announcement came shortly after he’d hinted to fans that he would be hitting the road again “soon”. Find any remaining tickets here.
The singer also spoke to NME as part of a new interview last month, and responded to reports that Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi would be appearing on a track from his new “guitar rock” record. Check out the video interview above.
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