Viewers of “The Real Housewives” have grown accustomed to watching stars of the popular Bravo franchise battle it out over a range of topics — from the superficial (questionable leather pants, tipping off paparazzi at Disneyland) to the serious (alleged embezzlement, mortgage fraud). But it’s rarer to get cast members’ unfiltered stances on political or social issues.
Garcelle Beauvais, however, has something to say.
The Haitian actor and producer, whose tell-it-like-it-is approach has made her a standout on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” is having some of her most strikingly real moments this year after the cameras stopped rolling on the show’s 14th season.
When we speak, it’s just hours after former President Trump is declared the winner of the 2024 election, and Beauvais is audibly shaken by the news.
“I know it sounds so simple and naive, but I don’t understand how the bad guy keeps winning,” she says, choking up, her soft voice tinged with disbelief. “He told us exactly who he is, what he’s going to do, and we still vote for him. I don’t understand.”
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Beauvais’ reaction is political and personal: In the wake of Trump amplifying false claims about Haitian immigrants during his lone debate with his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, Beauvais posted a video to social media condemning his comments.
“Staying silent in the face of racism and hate is something that I refuse to do,” she said in the video, speaking in both English and Haitian Creole, which has been viewed more than 1.1 million times on Instagram. “The lies that have been spewed about the Haitian community — about my community — have been disgusting, deeply hurtful and dangerous.”
She sat on the video for a week, wary of the risk in posting it. “But how could I not stand up for my people?” she says when I first visit her Porter Ranch home in late September.
“I looked over my shoulder for the two days afterward, honestly. I would drive to pick up the boys or drive to go run errands, and I would look over my shoulder.”
Would she have been open to the idea of cameras capturing moments like these?
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“I think it’s real,” she says. “You can’t have a reality show and not see what my reality as a Black woman is.”
She adds: “I get it — it’s entertainment. We’re glamorous, and we fight about stupid stuff. I understand that. But I also think that if it’s reality, you have to show what’s really happening.”
Garcelle Beauvais, left, with Jamie Foxx and Rhona Bennett on “The Jamie Foxx Show.” Beauvais started out as a model before becoming an actor.
(Time-Life Photo Lab )
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They are never easy, but for Beauvais, public conversations about sensitive subjects have become par for the course. Although she built a career as a model and actor in such projects as “Coming to America,” “The Jamie Foxx Show” and “NYPD Blue,” it’s on “The Real Housewives” that the 57-year-old has found her widest audience — “White women now love me,” she says. On the show, she’s brought frank, provocative discussions about race and privilege to the often shallow waters of reality TV.
“The reach of this show is so different and across the board. I didn’t realize the scope of it, of how the fans are invested. I remember my friend texted me [during my first season]. She’s like ‘You’re trending.’ For what? I’ve done so many things, I’ve worked with incredible people in the industry. But it wasn’t until this show that everything blew up.”
That being herself would become her biggest role yet wasn’t obvious at first. While she was a casual viewer of “Beverly Hills,” and she knew, to varying degrees, members of its cast, she hadn’t ever considered being a part of it. But in the lead-up to the show’s 10th season, producers approached Beauvais’ manager. He advised her not to do it, adamant that it would kill her career.
“There was still some taboo about it,” Beauvais says of actors pivoting to unscripted projects. “But when I transitioned into acting, they didn’t think models could walk and talk either.”
Garcelle Beauvais became the first black woman cast on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” “I remember before my first season aired, I freaked out. I called my friend to walk me off the ledge. It was feeling the pressure of being the first black woman — am I supposed to be a certain black woman that people want to see?”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Beauvais embraced the idea. Most of her acting jobs took her out of L.A., and she wanted a gig that would keep her around as her twin sons, Jax and Jaid, began middle school. She ran it by then-cast member Lisa Rinna and Rinna’s husband, actor Harry Hamlin, while at a party hosted by producer Mark Burnett. “I saw Harry, and I was like, ‘What do you think?’ And he goes, ‘You know, I didn’t think it was good for Rinna either, but it does what it does.’”
She joined in 2020, becoming the first Black woman to be cast on the show, and she made her debut during a trip to New York City for cast member Kyle Richards’ fashion show. Over drinks with Teddi Mellencamp, Erika Girardi and Denise Richards, a friend since their time working together on a failed ’90s TV pilot, Beauvais quickly shed any inhibitions when she revealed a dating snafu as a single parent: “Once, one of my kids found my vibrator in my bed,” she said.
“I’ll never forget her first scene [on ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’] — I never called them scenes because a scene is where they say ‘action,’” says Richards, who was in her second season on the show when Beauvais joined. “So we were about to be filming a moment. And she didn’t know that she was supposed to start. I told her, ‘They don’t say “action.” And she goes, ‘I don’t know when to go.’ I go, ‘Well, I’ve learned when you have that mic on, you go.’ It was a learning curve for us.”
Beauvais has settled in since then, opening up about the end of her nine-year marriage to agent Michael Nilon (and her revenge on her cheating ex), and calling out cast members, like when she confronted Dorit Kemsley last season for exhibiting, in her view, “unconscious Karen behavior.” It’s played to mix results with viewers. But Beauvais has learned “you just gotta keep doing you.”
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“I remember before my first season aired, I freaked out. I called my friend to walk me off the ledge,” says Beauvais, who also became a co-host on the now-defunct daytime talk show “The Real” around that time. “It was feeling the pressure of being the first Black woman — am I supposed to be a certain Black woman that people want to see? I just want to be me. I don’t want to pretend.”
Sutton Stracke, left, Garcelle Beauvais and Dorit Kemsley in Season 11 of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
(Erik Voake / Bravo)
Beauvais says an unexpected bright spot has been her friendship with Sutton Stracke, a wealthy divorced woman and West Hollywood boutique owner who also joined the show in Season 10. It initially seemed like Beauvais, Rinna and Richards were poised to be a Hollywood trio to be reckoned with on the show, but then Rinna and Richards left the series. Stracke and Beauvais, who connected over their experience as newbies and single mothers, became a fan-favorite duo.
As Stracke describes it, their friendship is genuine, with the tenderness and hiccups of any dynamic. When Stracke had a medical emergency during last season’s reunion, Beauvais left the taping to be with her friend at the hospital until she was discharged, six hours later, at midnight. When Stracke was late for a recent lunch date, a peeved Beauvais stormed off upon her arrival. “I insulted her time,” Stracke says. “I understood that and I was wrong. I apologized profusely. Later, we had a laugh about [it].” And while the show has been known to end or strain friendships, Stracke is confident their bond can withstand it.
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“We have never worried one day that this show would get in the way of our friendship, and we talked about it after Denise left,” says Stracke, who recently helped plan a baby shower for Beauvais’ 33-year-old son Oliver. “I just remember saying, ‘You know what, Garcelle, no matter what, we are friends, and I see us being friends for life.’ And she said, ‘Absolutely, this is just a television show. Our friendship is worth so much more.’”
Andy Cohen, the Bravo talk show host and executive producer of the “Housewives” franchise, credits Beauvais for not approaching her time on the show as a character.
“She’s herself,” he says. “I think if it was as a role, she’d be throwing wine glasses around. And that’s not who she is.
“But also I really relate, as a viewer and as a parent, to what she shares about raising the boys. And in terms of a group dynamic, she is someone who absolutely does not break a sweat when sharing her feelings and opinions, and that is the hallmark of a great housewife.”
Garcelle Beauvais, center, with Kyle Richards in Season 14 of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
(Griffin Nagel / Bravo)
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Beauvais may not approach a new season the way she would an acting job, but it does require some preparation, like accruing outfits: “When I see things on sale, I grab them because I know we’re going to be doing a lot of things and you don’t have time during the season to really shop.” Still, she’s in a curious position as an actor who is taking a swim in the fish bowl at a time when the long-running reality franchise is confronting growing pains — cast members are sometimes criticized for performing for the cameras or for not having interesting storylines, a term Beauvais has come to despise.
“I hate that word,” she says. “You cannot predict what seven other women are gonna do. It’s almost like improv. You say, ‘Yes, and …’ Cameras are supposed to be following our lives. Whatever they get, that’s our story.”
With this season of “Housewives,” Beauvais’ fifth, she has had to contend with Jax’s decision to discontinue appearing in the series after experiencing online bullying. She says she struggled with how to honor his decision and guard his privacy while also making sure that it didn’t come across like he didn’t exist in her life.
“I felt guilty because I’m like, ‘I brought this onto him,’” she says. “If he wasn’t on the show, this wouldn’t have happened.”
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Garcelle Beauvais has leveraged her “Real Housewife” visibility to help advance her scripted pursuits, collaborating with Lifetime on several movies as a star and executive producer. “To be in a place where I’m working now at my age, it’s amazing,” she says. “I think it shows women not to give up. It shows women that you can do whatever.”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Asked if she would quit the show if her sons made the request, she says she would.
“One thousand percent, if the boys said something like that, I would honor that,” Beauvais says. “They haven’t. When Jax said how he felt, I respected that, and didn’t push him … And it’s not always up to us. Bravo has a say in who comes back and who doesn’t.”
For now, she’s got a job to do. She says she’s on better terms with Kyle Richards and Kemsley this season. “I feel that I showed up and I was engaging. I said how I felt,” she says. “Was I maybe too nosy about Kyle’s relationship? Sure, but who isn’t?
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“I really came in with this idea that I was going to meet people where they’re at. With Dorit, I felt like last season, she was living in a bubble. So I met her where she’s at, and I felt like she surprised me when she came in — you haven’t seen this — and apologized to me.”
And she has continued to leverage her “Real Housewife” visibility to help advance her scripted pursuits, which this season’s premiere episode captures. She’s been involved with several Lifetime movies as a star and executive producer, including “Terry McMillan Presents: Tempted by Love,” playing a chef who strikes up a romance when she returns home to care for an ailing aunt, and “Black Girl Missing,” as a mother who turns to a community of amateur internet sleuths to find her missing daughter.
“Garcelle straddles the perfect intersection between being accessible and aspirational,” says Lifetime movie executive Karen Kaufman Wilson, who has appeared on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” when cameras document Beauvais’ Hollywood ventures. “So as a person who watches her on television, there’s a part of you thinks, ‘I can go to Zara and buy that sparkly outfit and try to find the right guy like Garcelle does.’ In terms of ‘The Real Housewives’ and Lifetime, Garcelle is very pointed about using her platform for good, talking about issues that matter to her — the Black girl missing, fighting to try to get Kamala voted into office. We get an opportunity to have conversations about creative storytelling that still stays on message for her.”
Regardless, she’s grateful about the path she’s on. As someone born in Saint-Marc, Haiti, who moved to the U.S. when she was 7, her platform now — and its potential for good, whether it’s escapism or speaking out — is a bright spot.
“When I first got into this industry, they said women over 40 are considered irrelevant or they won’t work, especially if you’re a Black woman,” she says. “So to be in a place where I’m working now at my age, it’s amazing. I think it shows women not to give up. It shows women that you can do whatever. And I also think it’s important for my kids to see that I’m realizing my dreams too.”
Babygirl Director: Halina Reijn 2AM, Man Up Films In Theaters: 12.25
I’m going to take a slight risk here and perhaps shatter the image that so many of my friends and readers have of me as a smoldering volcano of virile manhood. I’m not a widely acknowledged expert on the subject of female sexuality, and as such, I couldn’t quite relate to Babygirl, but I’m pretty sure that’s a big part of the point of it.
The film follows Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman, The Hours), a successful career woman who has seemingly achieved everything: she’s the CEO of a Manhattan robotics company, she’s happily married to a loving husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas, Evita, The Mask of Zorro), and has two teenage daughters, Isabel (Esther McGregor, Bleeding Love, The Room Next Door) and Nora (Vaughan Reilly, The Hunger Games:The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes). There’s an area of Romy’s life that has always been lacking, however: she’s never felt satisfied sexually or been able to explore her need to be submissively dominated, as Jacob refuses to indulge in such sexual behavior. Enter Samuel (Harris Dickinson, Triangle of Sadness, Where The Crawdads Sing), a perceptive young intern who follows a vibe he’s sensing from Romy and starts subtly challenging her boundaries. It’s not long before the electricity between them ignites into a torrid secret relationship, as the controlling Samuel nicknames her “Babygirl” — a name he uses only when she’s met his approval — and Romy, at last, unbridles her long suppressed desires.
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It would be very easy to dismiss Babygirl as another tawdry affair movie, and frankly, if it had been made by a man, it very likely would be. But writer-director Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) is going for something deeper. This is a sex-positive feminist look at the way society teaches women to approach their “role” in the act of sex, and it’s a story of self discovery. Similar themes were explored in the 2022 Sundance hit Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, which was also directed by a woman, and unless you’re our next Vice President, it’s hard to argue that female filmmakers being supported in telling such stories that lead to open discussion is overdue. It’s also a provocative and intriguing choice to explore more complex and taboo sexual dynamics in a non-judgemental, thoughtful way that just possibly may not have been definitively captured in Fifty Shades of Grey. It may not be comfortable for everyone — it certainly wasn’t for me — and yet, that doesn’t mean it should be dismissed.
Kidman’s fearless performance is spellbinding and impossible to look away from as it is often awkward to watch, and it may nab her a second Oscar. Dickinson, a magnetic and interesting young actor, is quite a presence here, definitely commanding the screen and making his character far more believable than I expected him to be. I must admit that I found myself tangentially distracted by some of the casting: for example, the choice to have Ewan McGregor’s daughter play Kidman’s daughter made my mind jump frequently jump to Moulin Rouge! Whenever I considered that Kidman spent 11 years married to Tom Cruise, I found it easy to buy that submission was her thing, and also that she’d never been properly satisfied, but where the movie lost me was in the casting of Banderas as Jacob. I can remember when 80% of the women and at least 20% of the men I hung out with were instantly brought to orgasm simply by his accent, much less by sharing a bed with him for decades, but I digress. The ensemble is stellar all around, but there’s no question that it’s Kidman’s show all the way through.
Babygirl may fall more into the category of a movie I admired than one I thoroughly enjoyed, yet there’s no denying that it provoked a response, a lot of thinking and some fascinating conversations I’ll eventually have as soon as I find someone I’m not terrified to talk about it with. It’s a bold and penetrating price of art (I regretted the choice of that word even before I typed it), and one of the most daring films I’ve seen in some time. –Patrick Gibbs
Read more film reviews: Film Review: Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Film Review: Nosferatu
The behind-the-scenes machinery of modern Hollywood burst into the open over the weekend as actor Blake Lively filed a legal complaint accusing her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni of harassment and creating a hostile on-set working environment. Also included in the complaint are allegations that Baldoni hired crisis PR operatives to wage a sophisticated online smear campaign against Lively as the movie was being released last summer.
As detailed in exhibits accompanying the legal filing, crisis management expert Melissa Nathan responded to a request from Baldoni by saying, “You know we can bury anyone.”
An adaptation of the popular novel by Colleen Hoover, the romantic drama “It Ends With Us,” details an abusive relationship. Released by Sony Pictures, the film has grossed more than $350 million worldwide.
Below is a primer on the key figures involved in the scandal.
Blake Lively
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Lively had her first breakout role in 2005’s “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and its 2008 sequel. She reached a new level of stardom thanks to her leading role in the hit television series “Gossip Girl,” running from 2007 to 2012. Since then she has appeared in films such as “The Age of Adeline,” “The Shallows” and “A Simple Favor.”
In 2012, Lively married actor and producer Ryan Reynolds, which has increased her visibility and fame, as has her close friendship with superstar musician Taylor Swift. Lively made a cameo appearance in Reynolds’ 2024 hit “Deadpool & Wolverine” and said in an interview that her husband had rewritten a scene in “It Ends With Us.” Lively has more than 45 million followers on Instagram.
In a statement, Lively said of the complaint, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Justin Baldoni
Baldoni is an actor, director and producer who first gained broader attention by appearing on the CW series “Jane the Virgin” from 2014 to 2019. He previously directed the 2019 romantic drama “Five Feet Apart” and the 2020 biographical drama “Clouds.”
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Baldoni married actress Emily Foxler in 2013. He is also the co-host of the podcast “Man Enough,” described as exploring “what it means to be a man today and how rigid gender roles have affected all people.” Baldoni has nearly 4 million followers on Instagram.
Among the allegations against Baldoni are comments about Lively’s weight, including reaching out to her personal trainer, as well as physical touching and sexual remarks without consent. Lively requested that no more “sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing” be added outside of what was already in the script.
In the filming of a scene in which her character gives birth, Lively alleges that she was pressured into being mostly nude from the chest down and that many non-essential crew members were on set as she was left exposed in a vulnerable position. Additionally, Baldoni cast a personal friend to play the OB-GYN in the scene, which Lively described as “invasive and humiliating.”
In a statement, Bryan Freedman, an attorney who represents Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, called Lively’s allegations “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film. … These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
Of the alleged smear campaign Freedman added, “What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
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On Saturday, after the allegations were made public, Baldoni was dropped by talent agency WME, which also represents Lively.
Wayfarer Studios
After his five-year stint on “Jane the Virgin,” Baldoni launched his own production company in 2019. He has cited his Baha’i faith as one of the inspirations behind launching the company, whose stated mission is to “champion inspirational stories that act as true agents of social change.” Its first project, Baldoni’s directorial debut “Five Feet Apart,” a romantic drama about two cystic fibrosis patients, was released that year. It was his work on the film that Baldoni said convinced Colleen Hoover, author of “It Ends With Us,” to grant his company the rights to her book.
Wayfarer is also behind Baldoni’s weekly podcast, “Man Enough,” which aims to explore gender roles and avoid “polarizing and demonizing men and masculinity.” The studio also produced “Will & Harper,” the Netflix documentary about Will Ferrell’s road trip with his transgender best friend Harper Steele, which recently made the shortlist for a potential Academy Award nomination.
Jamey Heath
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Heath, who is named as one of the defendants in Lively’s legal complaint, is Baldoni’s close friend and colleague. In addition to serving as the chief executive officer of Wayfarer Studios and as producer on “It Ends With Us,” he is a co-host of the “Man Enough” podcast. Like Baldoni, the father of four is also a member of the Baha’i faith.
According to Lively’s complaint, on Jan. 4, 2024, Heath was part of a small meeting of “It Ends With Us” collaborators where Lively alleged that the producer and Baldoni had engaged in “inappropriate conduct” on set. Lively claimed that Heath pressured her to “simulate full nudity” in a birth scene and showed her a video of his wife in labor “fully nude … with her legs spread apart.” When Lively expressed alarm, she said, Heath replied that his wife “isn’t weird about this stuff.”
Heath insisted on taking a meeting with Lively while she was “topless and having body makeup removed,” according to the legal document. Though he agreed to keep his back turned to her, she said, he instead stared directly at her.
Steve Sarowitz
Sarowitz, the billionaire co-chairman of Wayfarer Studios, is one of the primary financiers of Baldoni’s production company, investing at least $125 million in the venture. He amassed his fortune after taking his payroll firm, Paylocity, public in 2014; he is now worth a reported $2.7 billion. Sarowitz is also a member of the Baha’i community.
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Lively’s complaint alleges that at the New York premiere of “It Ends With Us” in August, Sarowitz said he was “prepared to spend $100 million to ruin the lives of Ms. Lively and her family.” Further, the document says, Sarowitz “flew in for one of his few set visits” on the day that Lively was filming the birth scene where she only had a “small piece of fabric covering her genitalia.”
Jennifer Abel
Abel, founder and CEO of RWA Communications, is the publicist for Baldoni and Wayfarer. In July, she founded her own public relations company after serving as a partner at the communications firm Jonesworks. Her client roster is relatively small; Baldoni and actor Jameela Jamil are the most well known names she represents.
Lively’s legal complaint includes dozens of private text messages and emails between Abel, Baldoni and other communications experts that the actor claims show intent to destroy her reputation. According to those messages, Baldoni first expressed concern to Abel in May that Lively’s on-set allegations could go public. That was when Baldoni noticed that Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, had blocked him on social media, the complaint says.
“HE BLOCKED YOU?! Is he a 12 year old girl?!” Abel texted Baldoni, per the document. “We can put the plan down on paper … to make sure we have all of the documentation needed of what happened on set, who witnessed what and who would be our Allies to go on background if needed to shut down her claims.”
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By then, the complaint alleges that Abel was already in touch with a crisis communications expert, Melissa Nathan, relaying that Baldoni “wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried.”
Melissa Nathan
Nathan, co-owner and CEO of the Agency Group, was officially brought in by Abel in July to work for Baldoni, according to Lively’s complaint. The document says Nathan quoted the actor a fee of up to $175,000 for three to four months of her work.
The Agency Group then created a “scenario planning” document for Wayfarer to be implemented if Lively were to make her “grievances” public. According to this document, which was cited in Lively’s complaint, one idea was to float the narrative that Lively involved Reynolds in the filmmaking to “create an ilmalance [sic] of power between her” and Baldoni. The PR firm also suggested reminding reporters that Lively has a “less than favorable reputation in the industry” and has “issues” working with Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick and Ben Affleck.
A month before starting her work with Wayfarer, Nathan in June announced the launch of her own public relations firm after departing Hiltzik Strategies, the crisis PR firm where she was executive vice president.
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Nathan’s new company is partially owned by Ithaca Media Ventures, according to corporate registration records filed in California. Ithaca is owned by HYBE America, whose CEO is entrepreneur and former talent manager Scooter Braun. HYBE America is one of the Agency Group’s clients, along with Johnny Depp, Logan Paul and Drake.
Jed Wallace
According to Lively’s complaint, Wallace is a public relations contractor from Austin, Texas, whom the Agency Group hired to “seed and influence” negative social media discussion about the actor.
In an Aug. 9 text message referenced in the complaint, Nathan relays to Abel that Wallace said “we are crushing it on Reddit.” A day later, the alleged messages show, Abel compliments Wallace “and his team’s efforts to shift the narrative” about Baldoni.
Scooter Braun
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Braun, the former manager of Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, now runs the U.S. arm of the South Korean entertainment company HYBE. HYBE America is a co-founder of Nathan’s company, the Agency Group, and one of its clients.
Braun has also been engaged in a years-long public dispute with Swift, who is one of Lively’s best friends. The battle between the singer and the executive began in 2019, when Braun acquired the record label Big Machine, which held the rights to the master recordings for Swift’s music from her 2006 self-titled debut to 2017’s “Reputation.” Swift responded by launching the “Taylor’s Version” series of rerecordings and rereleases of those albums.
In Lively’s complaint, Nathan sends a June text message telling the Wayfarer team that she is aware the actor “does have some of the TS fanbase so we will be taking it extremely seriously.”
Later, in the Agency Group’s “scenario planning” document, the company says its team could explore “planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people in BL’s circle like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want.”
Times staff writer Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.
You really can’t make a traditional biopic anymore. If there’s not something different about your film, audiences just won’t accept it these days. Cradle to the grave just doesn’t work. You either need to zoom in on a specific period in your subject’s life or tackle the genre in a different manner. With Better Man, the story of Robbie Williams has a hell of a hook, one I know most people were not expecting. It sounds bonkers, and it is, but somehow, it works.
Better Man is able to distinguish itself by taking the piss out of how traditional this biopic would otherwise be. Williams is a superstar singer, sure, but the rise, fall, and redemption angle has been done so many times before. What makes it so unique here? Well, if you’re somehow not aware, Williams is depicted at all times as a CGI chimpanzee. No one calls attention to it, ever. To everyone else, it’s just Williams. To us, and to the man himself, it’s a chimp telling his tale. Readers, it livens things up in a way that damn near stunned me.
Paramount Pictures
We meet Robbie Williams (Jonno Davies for motion capture, Williams himself for the voice) as a boy (or as a young chimp) trying to impress his performer father Peter (Steve Pemberton). That will be a through line for his whole life, especially when Peter leaves to seek his own success. Left with his mother and grandmother, he’s not much of a student, but he is a showman. Eventually, that sheer force of personality makes him a part of a boy band that blows up, managed by the dismissive Nigel Martin Smith (Damon Herriman), beginning his rise to stardom.
As he becomes more and more famous, Williams becomes a drunk and drug addict, romances Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), and gets into all sorts of trouble, all the while having Peter come in and out of his life. It’s all the sort of thing you’d get bored by, if not for the man himself having so much charisma, plus…yeah, he’s a monkey the whole time. In addition, there’s a sneakily emotional ending that works way better than you’re expecting, too.
Paramount Pictures
Having Robbie Williams voice his CGI self while Jonno Davies plays him through motion capture works so much better than you’d expect it to. Truly it does. They combine to never call attention to the gimmick or to their work, instead capturing the cinematic portrait of the man. It’s real strong teamwork. That’s important, too, since the other performances more or less fade into the background. Steve Pemberton is solid, but he’s in and out of the narrative. In addition to Raechelle Banno and Damon Herriman, supporting players here include Tom Budge, Frazer Hadfield, Anthony Hayes, Kate Mulvaney, Alison Steadman, and more.
Director/co-writer Michael Gracey is emboldened by the ape aspect, which puts the film’s tongue firmly in cheek, even when covering all the expected territory. Along with co-writers Oliver Cole and Simon Gleeson, Gracey does the greatest hits, both in terms of the life story and the music. The script is nothing to get too excited about, but Gracey’s direction, which manages to never call extra attention to the chimp, is a highlight. I was not a fan of The Greatest Showman, but Gracey has won me over here. Plus, Williams himself has such personality, that shines through, helping to keep the flick from ever seeming plodding.
Better Man works because it dares to be different in one sense. The biopic aspect is more or less standard issue, but the CGI chimp, alongside Williams’ charisma, is undeniable. Plus, while the original song Forbidden Road is no longer Oscar eligible, it’s a lovely tune at the end. If you’re a Robbie Williams fan, this is a must see. Everyone else? Prepare for something more fun than you might be expecting.
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