Judi Dench comments on Cats movie
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench called the 2019 Cats film a waste of "goodwill and talent" in her memoir.
The remarks revive scrutiny of a big-budget musical flop with a star-studded cast.
Background
Judi Dench is a 91-year-old Oscar-winning actress who played Old Deuteronomy in the 2019 film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical Cats. The movie, directed by Tom Hooper, had a stacked cast including James Corden, Idris Elba, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson and Ian McKellen, but was a critical and commercial failure. Dench's comments appear in her forthcoming memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run For It?, and were reported ahead of its release.
How it unfolded
- Dec 2019The Cats film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical was released and was a critical and commercial failure.
- Oct 20, 2026Judi Dench's remarks on Cats, from her forthcoming memoir, were reported; she called it a waste of "goodwill and talent".
- Nov 3, 2026Dench's memoir Is It Too Late to Make a Run For It? is scheduled for release.
Who’s saying what
- Dench
- Dench said she can't bear the film and called it a waste of all the goodwill and talent behind it, though she added she never saw the final cut and can't judge the critics' hostility.
- Dench
- She also said there were no villains in the making of Cats and that nobody sets out to give a poor performance or make a bad film.
- Composer
- Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer of the stage musical, has called the movie adaptation "ridiculous" and "off-the-scale all wrong" in the press.