Judi Dench has called the 2019 film adaptation of “Cats” “a waste of all that goodwill and talent,” while insisting its makers acted in good faith. The Oscar-winning actress, 91, delivers the verdict in her forthcoming memoir, “Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?” The Guardian first reported the passage. Dench played the elderly leader Old Deuteronomy in Tom Hooper’s film, and she writes that she cannot bear to think about it, noting that Andrew Lloyd Webber had waited years to see his stage musical reach the screen.
She stops short of a full indictment. Dench says she never watched the final cut, so she cannot judge it, though she knows critics reacted with hostility. She argues that nobody sets out to deliver a poor performance or make a bad film. Projects sometimes fail, she writes, because the timing is wrong or the cast and other elements fail to come together. The film industry has so many moving parts, she adds, that any production reaching the screen amounts to a miracle. Her own summary rejects blame: there were “no villains” in the making of “Cats.”
The film’s reception gives her reflections an edge. “Cats” arrived in December 2019 to a wave of derision and lost money. Critics singled out its digital effects, which gave actors fur and cat features and left Dench with a human hand and wedding ring visible in her scenes. The film collected nine Razzie nominations and won six, including worst picture. Dench herself earned a worst supporting actress nomination, though Rebel Wilson took the prize.
Lloyd Webber has been blunter. He called the movie “ridiculous” and said Hooper failed to consult the creative team behind the original West End production. Hooper co-wrote the screenplay with Lee Hall, and the cast also included James Corden, Idris Elba, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson and Ian McKellen. Dench has rarely discussed the project, and her memoir marks her first public comment on it, according to several outlets. The book comes out as she continues to work and write at 91.
