Robbie Williams has revealed that he toned down his portrayal of Gary Barlow in his biopic Better Man following his former bandmate’s reaction to the script.

During a Deadline preview screening in Los Angeles, the Angels hitmaker revealed that he sent his former Take That bandmate the script for Better Man and Gary felt he was painted as a supervillain along the lines of Darth Vader from Star Wars.

“We had a fractious relationship. And in the script, I speak how I spoke and I think how I thought back then, which wasn’t complimentary to Gaz, and we sent him the script,” Robbie said, reports Mail Online.

“And he rang me and he’s a grown-up and there was no effing or pointing fingers, and he’s like, ‘Rob, I come off worse than Darth Vader in the first half.'”

As a result of the phone call, the musician decided to tone down his portrayal of Gary, who is portrayed by Jake Simmance in the unconventional biopic alongside Robbie as a CGI monkey.

In the film, a young Robbie expresses frustration with Take That revolving around Gary, who was the only one who was allowed to write songs and therefore had more money than the others. This resentment was part of the reason why he left the band in 1995 to pursue a solo career. However, they ended their feud around 15 years ago and Robbie briefly rejoined Take That in 2010.

The Feel hitmaker also noted that the antagonists in his life got off easy in the film – such as his first manager Nigel Martin-Smith – and the main villain of the piece is himself.

“I’m quite happy to be the main villain in this movie. There were many villains in this movie until we legally couldn’t have many villains in this movie. And now the only villain in this movie is me,” he stated.

Better Man will be released in cinemas from Christmas Day.

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