There are films that actors proudly discuss, and then there’s Cats. Well, look at this. Judi Dench has admitted that she cannot bear thinking about the 2019 musical, despite playing Old Deuteronomy in it. So, if you watched the film and wondered whether the cast understood what was happening, we finally have part of the answer.
Dench discusses the film in her upcoming memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run For It? That title already feels rather appropriate.
“Oh God, I can’t bear it,” she wrote.
Dench described the film as a waste of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s goodwill and talent, especially because he had waited so long for his musical to reach the big screen. Variety
And what a journey that turned out to be.
Tom Hooper directed the film after previously making The King’s Speech and Les Misérables. The cast included Dench, Idris Elba, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, James Corden and Rebel Wilson. Quite the cast, with enough talent to protect almost any production Wouldn’t you say?
But then agin, we are talking about Cats.
The film used something called digital fur technology to transform the actors into human-shaped cats. How interesting! But the result was less interesting and difficult to explain. They had fur, but also human faces, hands and feet. Sometimes they appeared to be the size of ordinary cats. At other times, the furniture made them look like they had wandered into a house built for giants.
For heaven’s sakes, nobody knew where to look.
The first trailer received such a negative reaction that the visual effects team had to redesign the characters before the film reached cinemas. And even then, an updated version was reportedly sent to cinemas after its release to improve some of the effects. Surely that served as an indication of something off-kilter. I know I would have been upset if I bought a ticket for something only to discover it was still under going repairs.
Dench revealed that she never watched the final cut, so she does not believe she can judge the completed film. I suppose that makes her one of the fortunate ones. She did, however, acknowledge that critics were hostile towards it.
That may be putting it gently.
The film received terrible reviews, struggled at the box office and earned Dench a Razzie nomination. But she does not blame the cast or crew. According to Dench, nobody sets out to give a bad performance or make a poor film. Which is a fair assumption, given that everyone offers their best work and hopes audiences will join them. Unfortunately, in this instance, audiences looked at the invitation and decided to make plans they would have otherwise avoided.
But jokes aside, Dench makes an important point. Films contain hundreds of moving parts. A talented cast does not automatically produce a good movie and neither does an accomplished director, a famous musical or an enormous budget. Everything needs to work together, and sometimes it simply does not.
She explains that the timing can be off, there could be personal clashes with the cast or the different elements could simply fail to come together. Dench also mentioned that there were no villains involved in making Cats.. All of which makes sense.
I guess sometimes you do not need a villain. All you need is digital fur technology and several people who were too far into the production to ask whether the cats should have human teeth. Now, for the life of me, I cannot understand why a movie like Cats has not completely disappeared. People still watch it, discuss it and organise screenings where audiences can laugh together. In a way, the film found another life. Just not the one anyone making it probably imagined.
Dench’s comments do not sound like an actor attempting to distance herself from an embarrassing project. She accepts that everyone tried. It just did not work. That might be the most honest explanation one can get.
Cats had the music, money and talent. But unfortunately, it also had the cats.
