Almost three weeks on from its original UK release, Better Man is continuing to charm audiences with its unique take on Robbie Williams’ life story.
But there’s one sequence in particular that’s really got people talking.
Around the mid-point of the film, Jonno Davies (as a simian version of the Angels performer) kicks off a truly epic version of Robbie’s number one hit Rock DJ.
While Rock DJ is closely associated with its iconic music video – in which the singer tries his best to woo a bunch of roller-skating girls by performing a strip-tease that ends with him ripping off his skin and muscles – Better Man gives the track a whole new visual.
Instead, director Michael Gracey uses the song to take viewers through Take That’s meteoric rise to fame in the 90s, whizzing through some of their most memorable moments in the space of just three minutes, sewn together to look like one continuous shot.
The scene is a feast for the eyes that’s chock full of Easter eggs for fans of both Take That and Robbie’s solo work – and in a new social media clip, Jonno has taken viewers on a journey of exactly how it all came together.
In the video, posted on Tuesday, Jonno and his co-stars can be seen performing a straight-through rehearsal of the Rock DJ number, side-by-side with the finished product so fans can compare and contrast the two.
Check it out for yourself below…
The Rock DJ scene was really shot on Regent Street, one of London’s busiest roads, which was not easy to secure permission to film on.
“I always used to walk down Regent Street and think, ‘this is such a great street to do a dance number on, like, Why has no one done it?’,” filmmaker Michael previously told Hello! magazine .
“And then it became very clear why no one’s done it. Because shutting down that street for four nights – complete lock off – when it’s a bus route as well, so you need to redirect the buses, which apparently in London, is just a no go.”
But even once permission was acquired, filming on Regent Street didn’t exactly come easy.
“On the Friday we were feeling very buoyant, because the first night of filming was Sunday night,” Michael recalled. “And we got a call from the Crown Estate to tell us that the Queen had just died and we wouldn’t be shooting, because there’s 10 days of mourning. So we lost all of the money.”
“We lost millions of dollars, and it took another five months to get back on that street, and we had to raise the money again,” he continued.
“And every time I watch it, I think people have no idea how close we came to that not being in the film.”
Since Better Man’s release, Jonno has also been sharing a string of behind-the-scenes shots of himself on set, which offer a unique look at the making of the film, in which he is eventually replaced by the image of a CGI chimp.
Better Man is still in cinemas now.