Judi Dench has opened up about one of her most heavily panned films in her upcoming memoir. In a recent interview, the actress recalled a production that made her uneasy.
Judi Dench says critics were ‘hostile’ to 2019’s Cats
Dench played Old Deuteronomy in the 2019 adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical, Cats. Looking back in her book, she calls the film “a waste of all that goodwill and talent” and acknowledges that reviewers responded with “hostility.”
However, because she never saw the final cut, she says she “can’t judge.” Despite her reservations, Dench isn’t throwing the creative team under the bus. She believes most people in the movie business show up wanting to make something special, even if the finished product ultimately falls flat (via The Guardian).
The movie became a punching bag for its uncanny CGI cats, with the characters’ bizarre looks turning into an internet-wide roast after its release. However, the visual weirdness wasn’t Dench’s only gripe.
She says the job never sat right with her, particularly when she watched young dancers push through grueling takes and walk away without much recognition from the rest of the crew. “I just didn’t feel right in the role,” she said.
Not everything about the experience was catastrophic. Dench found reasons to smile between takes, from getting to know Taylor Swift to playing Bananagrams with Swift’s vocal coach. She even discovered a surprising bit of physical flexibility when she realized she could still kick her leg into the air. The shoot wrapped on a memorable note when Jason Derulo, who portrayed Rum Tum Tugger, presented her with 50 roses painted gold and designed to last forever.
Despite the film’s creative misfires, Dench has no interest in turning the people behind it into the bad guys. She maintains that everyone involved had “honourable” intentions, even if their ideas never quite clicked into a successful whole.
