UK pop sensation Robbie Williams is the topic of a brand new biopic, however numerous Individuals have completely no concept who he’s.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The biopic “Higher Man” opens in theaters throughout the nation this weekend.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “BETTER MAN”)
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: I am Robbie Williams. I am one of many greatest pop stars on the earth.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROBBIE WILLIAMS SONG, “ROCK DJ”)
WILLIAMS: That is my story.
SIMON: The movie launched right here in restricted launch final month, and critics appreciated it, but it surely grossed lower than $92,000. Paramount, which acquired “Higher Man” for $25 million tells Selection they hope for two million from this weekend’s wider launch. However this may simply be a biopic for a bio not so well-known.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIKTOK VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Y’all, we’re not attempting to place a wool over your eyes. We actually do not know who Robbie Williams is.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIKTOK VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I preserve coming throughout movies about Robbie Williams. Who’s Robbie Williams? Why does it matter?
(SOUNDBITE OF ROBBIE WILLIAMS SONG, “ROCK DJ”)
SIMON: Now, Robbie Williams is without doubt one of the greatest pop stars on the earth. He is bought greater than 75 million information and holds 40 No.1 albums. However right here within the U.S., he could also be much less well-known than B. J. Leiderman, who writes our theme music.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIKTOK VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: There is a purpose Robbie Williams by no means made it large in America. It is ‘trigger we do not like him. The music is just not good, and the music, y’all preserve enjoying to inform us that he is good, we do not prefer it.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIKTOK VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: The U.Ok. is mad at us Individuals for not realizing who Robbie Williams is. Am I the one one which thought they had been talking about Robin Williams for a second?
SIMON: When Robin Williams starred in “Awakenings,” Robbie Williams simply began his profession within the boy band Take That when he was 16.
(SOUNDBITE OF TAKE THAT SONG, “COULD IT BE MAGIC”)
SIMON: He left the band in the course of a 1995 world tour, simply in regards to the time Robin Williams was filming “The Birdcage.”
DAISY JONES: They really initially turned well-known for being type of barely homoerotic. There was one thing a bit tacky about them.
SIMON: That is tradition author Daisy Jones, who’s acquired a chunk on this month’s British Vogue – “America Would not Want To Get Robbie Williams.”
JONES: He would not conceal his Britishisms. I do know numerous U.Ok. artists attraction to U.S. viewers. I really feel like Harry Types is an ideal instance of that. He might be American. He would not, like, sing with a extremely sturdy accent. He would not actually use, like, British slang and his music, and Robbie Williams positively does. He says issues that simply would not make sense within the U.S. In one in every of his songs, “Children” – his duet with Kylie Minogue – he says he would not need some hen that appears like Billy Connolly. I do not assume Individuals use the phrase hen, perhaps.
SIMON: Yeah, besides to speak about, you realize, a hen like a pigeon or an eagle. Even a terrific thoughts like Ted Lasso would not learn about Robbie Williams.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “TED LASSO”)
JEREMY SWIFT: (As Leslie Higgins) Good afternoon. Now we have an enormous drawback – our musical visitor, Robbie Williams, has canceled.
HANNAH WADDINGHAM: (As Rebecca Welton) God.
JASON SUDEIKIS: (As Ted Lasso) Oh, no. Who’s that?
JONES: I feel there’s a feeling that simply ‘trigger somebody’s not well-known within the U.S. does not imply he isn’t well-known worldwide.
SIMON: And Robbie Williams is legendary worldwide. He is had No. 1 songs in Argentina, Brazil and Australia. His tune “Angels” has been in comparison with “Piano Man” and “Candy Caroline.” Individuals everywhere in the world simply realize it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ANGELS”)
WILLIAMS: (Singing) There’s an angel…
JONES: He is all the time been all over the place to such a level that you do not even discover if his tune comes on. I can assure that when you enter any karaoke evening within the U.Ok. on any given evening, somebody could be singing “Angels.”
SIMON: Robbie Williams has struggled overtly with dependancy. He is had very public feuds. He is suffered from nervousness onstage, and all of that’s captured in “Higher Man,” and all of that has endeared him to his followers.
JONES: We have grown up with him, and he is grown up with us. He is virtually, like, the nation’s brother or one thing or, like, the nation’s son or…
SIMON: However not but America’s son, like, say, Prince Harry has turn out to be, which is not misplaced on Robbie Williams, who was requested to handle his American followers when “Higher Man” was proven to the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant in September.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WILLIAMS: Yeah, I am going to converse to that one fan. Hello, Linda. You all proper? Good to see you. Sorry I have not been again to America because the final century, but it surely’s good that you just, you realize, nonetheless take a look at my stuff on-line. And the way are the household? Are they good?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ANGELS”)
WILLIAMS: (Singing) And thru all of it, she presents me safety.
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