Judi Dench Says Cats Was a ‘Waste’ of Talent

Judi Dench spared herself from the final version of the Cats movie. Does that mean she might’ve seen the unreleased butthole version in post-production? In her upcoming memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, Dench reflects on her time as Old Deuteronomy and seeing all of the negative reviews roll in. “Oh God, I can’t bear it, and [Frank Lloyd Webber] had waited so long for it to be made. What a waste of all that goodwill and talent,” she writes in an excerpt appearing on The Guardian. “I understand the critics were rather hostile to the film. I never saw the final cut so I can’t judge. 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 doesn’t believe there were any “villains” on set and believed that with every failure comes a learning lesson. She added, “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.”

Dench felt “ill at ease from the beginning” and “just didn’t feel right in the role.” Makes sense, as she wasn’t even fully cat in the final cut — you could see her wedding ring on her human hand (no paws). Maybe some extra lessons at cat school could’ve changed her mind.