Jennifer Hudson is a powerhouse of talent who is highly recognized for her work in music, film, television, and theater. Known for many notable projects, she has bagged major awards in all four categories. But just like many celebrities, she too, has one worst project in her filmography that was heavily panned from critics and audiences alike.
The project in question is Cats (2019), which featured a stellar cast including Judi Dench, who didn’t have fond memories of it. However, the former thinks otherwise as she has a positive outlook on her experience.
Jennifer Hudson Made a Positive Remark on Her Cats Experience
Hudson played a significant role in the 2019 movie, Cats, in which she played the role of Grizabella, a former glamour cat who gets shunned by the other cats.
While the movie received heavy criticism from audiences and critics alike, particularly for its visual effects and adaptation choices, Hudson’s performance was one of the few aspects that garnered praise.
It looks like her experience was rather positive with the project as she loved when the interviewer asked about the movie. She told TotalFilm via Games Radar that the movie was “misunderstood” as she got candid that audiences might change their perception despite how that movie performed at the time.
You know what? I think it was a bit overwhelming. It’s unfortunate that it was misunderstood. I think later down the line, people will see it differently. But it is something I am still very proud of and grateful to have been a part of. Yeah, I got to be Grizabella the Glamour Cat!
Regardless of the overall negative reception, she felt positive about her association with the project. In fact, she even decided to become parents to two feline animals. Talking about her cats, she stated, “They are the best thing I’ve ever had. I love them so much.”
One cat has been named after her character meanwhile the other one has been named after Idris Elba’s character, Macavity. It very much explains that the actress is proud of what she worked on however this experience is not the same for everyone.
Judi Dench Reflected on Her Cats’ Experience
Unlike Jennifer Hudson, Dench had mixed feelings about her work in the 2019 movie. The actress played the role of Old Deuteronomy, whom she hoped would look rather elegant but what turned out left her in awe. In an interview with Vogue, she expressed her thoughts on “The cloak I was made to wear!”
For the actress, it felt “Like five foxes f**king on my back” as she hoped for a different look than what we saw on screen. Since her look was a wonder of visual effects, she wore a simple motion-capture suit to leave the main magic on the post-production team. However, she was disappointed when she got “a battered, mangy old cat.”
Even her Blithe Spirit co-star, Dan Stevens spilled the tea that the actress’s reaction to her feline movie’s backlash was “full of expletives.” He told Yahoo Movies UK that she “was slightly in rehab from her experience with Cats, so it was just very, very funny listening to her de-brief from all of that.”
He continued,
I don’t think I can repeat it. It was full of expletives! There’s not much that gets her going like that, but she was pretty mad about the fur, I think.
The movie was surely a box-office disaster, earning over $75.3 million worldwide via The Numbers with a production budget of $100 million. Due to such underwhelming figures, it ended up cementing its place among the biggest box-office bombs of all time.
Cats is available to watch on Apple TV.
