Key Points
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Judi Dench still hasn’t seen 2019’s Cats, in which she played Old Deuteronomy.
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She called the movie “a waste of all that goodwill and talent.”
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Still, she has some fond memories of the production, including meeting Taylor Swift.
Judi Dench is speaking out about her involvement in Cats.
The 91-year-old Oscar winner looks back at the panned 2019 film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which she recalls with dismay in her upcoming memoir Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, out Nov. 3 in the U.S.
“Oh God, I can’t bear it and [Lloyd Webber] had waited so long for it to be made,” she writes in the book, according to an excerpt published in The Guardian on Tuesday. “What a waste of all that goodwill and talent.”
Dench, who played the wise Old Deuteronomy, also confesses that she still has not seen the movie, although she did see the “hostile” reviews.
“All I’ll say is nobody sets out to give a poor performance or make a bad film. You do your best, offer something up and hope that people will get on board and join the party,” she continues.
Yet, she says she “didn’t feel right in the role,” which caused her to feel “ill at ease” on set. Still, Dench has some fond memories, including learning that she could still lift her leg in the air, playing Bananagrams, and meeting costar Taylor Swift, who played Bombalurina.
“There were no villains in the making of Cats,” Dench says. “And if something isn’t a success, then there are always things you can say you’ve learned.”
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As a showbiz veteran with a career that spans nearly seven decades, the Shakespeare in Love actress chalked up the failure of Cats to the unpredictability of chemistry.
“Sometimes things just don’t work out: the timing’s wrong, the cast don’t gel, the elements don’t coalesce. But people’s intentions are mostly honorable,” she writes.
Even Lloyd Webber has admitted that Cats was a flop, quipping earlier this year that the film’s poor reception led him to get a therapy dog.
“After the appalling Cats movie, I went out and bought myself a little Havanese puppy,” he told CBS Sunday Morningin March. “It’s my therapy dog on planes. I just write a note to the airline saying, you know, reason for dog on plane and put Cats movie. And they always come back saying, ‘No doctor’s certificate required.'”
Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?comes out Nov. 3 in the U.S.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
