'How I became Robbie Williams' chimpanzee'

It's 2001 and nine-year-old Jonno Davies is standing in the crowd as Robbie Williams entertains 65,000 people at the Milton Keynes Bowl.

"He was just this symbol of cool, and that stuck with me for a long time... He was like the rock star of the day for me," he recalls.

Now 32, Davies is appearing in cinemas around the world in Better Man, a musical biopic in which he plays his childhood hero.

But he is far from recognisable, partly because of his hard work studying and recreating William's voice and mannerisms, but mostly because he's represented on screen as a computer-generated chimpanzee.

"I am the lead. I am Rob. Rob is me. Just with a monkey layering on top," he explains.

Director Michael Gracey, who previously made The Greatest Showman, says the decision was inspired by conversations with Robbie Williams where he described himself as a performing monkey.

On set, Davies was dressed in a performance capture suit, and later he was transformed into a primate by Weta FX - the same company behind Gollum in Lord of the Rings.

Davies says: "I play Rob from the age of 15 right the way through to the end of the film... It's full body, voice, dancing - the whole shebang."

He adds: "I feel the audience aren't watching it going: Do I believe that's him? Does that look enough like Robbie? Does that sound like Robbie? Because there's a monkey, we've already gone beyond that idea of comparison.

"It meant I didn't have to be vain. I wasn't looking at the monitor going 'Oh god, the double chin'... It was just about being truthful to the storyline."

That said the actor says his face can be seen for a "tiny split second" at the very end of the film: "Kudos to anyone that actually sees that."

The Chesterfield-born actor was cast as the Angels singer about a week before production was due to begin.

Actor Kate Mulvany, who plays Williams' mother Jane, suggested Davies after having worked with him on the Amazon Prime series Hunters.

When The Greatest Showman director phoned Davies inviting him to audition, the actor was working a "side hustle" performing at children's parties as PT Barnum - Hugh Jackman's character from the film.

He recalls: "I was kind of going 'Okay, this is a weird but wonderful turn of events'".

Auditions took place in Australia, where he ran scenes with Raechelle Banno who plays All Saints singer Nicole Appleton in the film.

He recalls: "I thought I mucked it up. Then a few hours later [Gracey] called me into his office and he said 'look we'd love you to play Robbie'.

"You know, you dream of these roles. You dream to lead productions like this, to be in such huge scale films. But as soon as that penny drops, and you know that you are actually the one to do it, there's a sense of pressure.

"They're gonna actually find out that I'm rubbish. And all this time I've just been sort of lucking through it. And that's actually something that Rob feels a lot. And so, it was a really useful connection for me to have."

In 2022, Davies is rehearsing for a scene on stage at the Royal Albert Hall when Williams, who he has not met yet, is in the audience.

"I was about to sing and in he steps, plonks himself in the middle of the front row," the actor says.

"Wow that's Robbie Williams, that's who I'm playing, don't mess it up. I probably did because voice was going and knees were buckling."

He didn't mess it up. Not according to Williams himself who describes the performer as a "fantastic human being".

The musician says: "He's such a lovely person, and he's immensely talented. Watching him do his thing – which is my thing – was very interesting, confusing, wonderful, and a weird thing to watch. He's amazing."

Davies, who grew up in Milton Keynes, attended Bedford School between 2001 and 2010.

While attending he took part in musical productions of Bugsy Malone, Fiddler on the Roof and History Boys.

He says: "If it wasn't for Bedford School, I don't think I would've become an actor.

"I was applying for university and our head of drama approached me and said 'I don't think this is what you want to be, you want to be an actor'.

"Having somebody say that really made me think it might be a possibility... I think a lot of people had that support, it wasn't just a one off."

Now the actor's name is on one of the seats at the school's theatre and he likes to return to visit the pupils.

"Anything I feel that I can learn I'd love to pass on to them," he says.

"Maybe we can do like a motion capture day somehow. Do some animal studies, as it were."

In the same year he started at Bedford School he went with his parents to watch Robbie Williams play at Milton Keynes Bowl.

"I was just looking at the epitome of cool strutting about, giving it large," he recalls.

"I just thought that is someone that exudes confidence and I kind of want to be a bit like that.

"So, then meeting him, working with him on this piece, and then being the one to have the privilege of playing him- it's nuts how life can kind of come around in weird circles."

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