FRK_R23:
For a year and half, Williams and Gracey had been sending messages back and forth, discussing a possible film musical based on his life.
"There have been a lot of musical biopics," says Gracey. "I wanted to come at this with a different lens.
"Quite often Rob will say, 'I'm just like a performing monkey' or 'I'm up the back like a performing monkey'.
"It just sparked this idea of, we've got this chance to tell this story, not from the perspective of how we see Rob, but how he sees himself.
"And so I pitched the idea to Rob. I said, 'You know, if you were to be an animal, how would you see yourself?'"
Williams takes up the story: "I was looking for some self-worth at the time and I was like, 'I am a lion'. And he just cocked his head and went, 'Mmmm.'
"I went, 'Monkey?'
"And he went, 'Yeah, so here's the idea.' And before the end of the sentence was out of his mouth, I'm like, 'Yes, that, that, that, please'."
Robbie Williams explains why he's a monkey in his new movie https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7r21egd82o