Hollywood thought it had a slam dunk. You take the most successful musical in history, hire an Oscar-winning director, and then pack the cast of Cats movie with literally every famous person you can find. It sounds like a license to print money.
Instead, we got a fever dream.
Honestly, looking back at that 2019 roster is kind of surreal. You've got Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, and Idris Elba all sharing the same digital litter box. It’s one of the weirdest collections of talent ever assembled. But if you actually look past the "digital fur technology" and the weirdly human hands, there’s some fascinating stuff happening with these performances.
The Faces You Recognize (Under All That Fur)
The movie basically centers on Victoria, played by Francesca Hayward. She’s actually a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, and honestly, she’s one of the few people who comes out of this looking great. Her movement is fluid and feline in a way that the actors couldn't quite mimic. She’s our "eyes" into the world of the Jellicles.
Then you have the heavy hitters.
Jennifer Hudson plays Grizabella. Now, this was the "Oscars bait" role. She spends the whole movie looking like she’s about to have a breakdown, which, to be fair, is Grizabella's whole vibe. Her rendition of "Memory" is a powerhouse vocal performance, even if her face is partially obscured by CGI whiskers that seem to vibrate.
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The A-List Weirdness
- Taylor Swift as Bombalurina: She’s only in it for about ten minutes, mostly to descend from a moon and sprinkle catnip everywhere. She also co-wrote a new song called "Beautiful Ghosts," though she doesn't sing it in the movie itself—Hayward does.
- Idris Elba as Macavity: It is genuinely wild to see the guy who played Stringer Bell and Heimdall teleporting around in a trench coat while meowing. He’s the villain, but mostly he just seems to be having a very strange time on set.
- Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy: This was actually a bit of a full-circle moment. She was supposed to be in the original 1981 stage show but had to drop out because of a snapped Achilles tendon. In the movie, she wears a massive fur coat that makes her look like a very expensive rug.
- Ian McKellen as Gus the Theatre Cat: He might be the only person who truly "got" the assignment. He acts the hell out of that role, licking milk out of a saucer and shaking with age. It’s weirdly touching.
Why the Comedy Cast Divided Everyone
If you want to talk about the most controversial parts of the cast of Cats movie, you have to talk about James Corden and Rebel Wilson.
Corden plays Bustopher Jones, the "fat cat" who spends his time eating at high-end London clubs. It’s very much a Corden performance—lots of physical comedy and food-related gags. Rebel Wilson plays Jennyanydots, and she basically leans into her usual slapstick routine.
There’s a scene with tap-dancing cockroaches that have human faces. It’s... a lot.
Some people loved the campiness of these two, but critics were brutal. The problem wasn't necessarily the acting; it was the tone. You have Jennifer Hudson crying her eyes out in one scene and then Rebel Wilson unzipping her own skin to reveal another cat suit underneath in the next. It’s jarring.
The Talent Behind the CGI
It’s easy to forget that the cast of Cats movie included some of the best dancers in the world.
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Robbie Fairchild (Munkustrap) is a New York City Ballet principal. Steven McRae (Skimbleshanks) is a Royal Ballet principal. When you watch the Skimbleshanks tap number, you’re seeing world-class talent. The tragedy of the film is that the CGI often smoothed over the muscles and movements that make these dancers so impressive.
You’ve also got Jason Derulo as the Rum Tum Tugger. He actually has a background in musical theater, and he brings a lot of energy to a role that’s basically "What if a cat was a pop star?" He’s one of the few people who seems to be enjoying the absurdity of the whole thing.
Making Sense of the Mess
So, what do we do with this?
The cast of Cats movie is a masterclass in how "star power" doesn't always translate to a cohesive film. Tom Hooper (the director) wanted to ground the musical in a more realistic world, which is a bizarre choice for a story about cats competing to be reborn in the "Heaviside Layer."
The actors were sent to "Cat School" to learn how to move. They wore motion-capture suits and performed on oversized sets to make them look small. But at the end of the day, the "Uncanny Valley" effect was just too strong. When you see a human face on a furry body with no ears (or sometimes human ears?), the brain just short-circuits.
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How to Revisit It (If You Dare)
If you’re going to watch it now, don't go in expecting Les Misérables.
- Watch for the dance: Ignore the fur and watch the footwork of Fairchild and Hayward. It’s actually incredible.
- Listen to the vocals: Jennifer Hudson and Jason Derulo genuinely kill it on the soundtrack.
- Embrace the camp: If you treat it like a surrealist art piece or a midnight "so-bad-it's-good" movie, it’s actually kind of fun.
The cast of Cats movie did exactly what they were asked to do. They showed up, they meowed, and they gave 100% to a project that was, frankly, impossible to pull off. It’s a fascinating time capsule of a moment when Hollywood thought CGI could do anything, including making us believe Dame Judi Dench was a cat.
If you're looking to dive deeper into the world of movie musicals, start by comparing this version to the 1998 filmed stage production. You'll see immediately why the "human" costumes of the stage often work better than the "realistic" fur of the movie. Sometimes, the imagination does a better job than a $95 million budget.
Take a look at the "Beautiful Ghosts" music video to see the difference between the film's aesthetic and a more traditional music video style—it's a great example of how different lighting can change the entire feel of these character designs.