One of the best things a big-budget movie can be is utterly unaware of what it’s doing. Then you might get camp magic. From the looks of its trailer, Cats may be headed there. I mean, it was always headed there since it’s a film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ridiculous musical about how singing can get you (a cat) to heaven (like American Idol with actual stakes) studded with stars as varied as Taylor Swift and Judi Dench. And yet, it somehow looks even worse than its concept. A true thrill!
And now we have further indication that a certain lack of awareness is steering this car right into a tire fire. In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Rebel Wilson has shared her thoughts on why people said, “Oh my god,” after the trailer dropped earlier this month. And I can say with confidence… this is not why people said, “Oh my god.”
Says Rebs:
“When the trailer came out, the response was pretty massive. There’s some people who were like ‘Oh my god’ because it is brand-new technology that’s CGI. I think people get confused because it’s essentially a dance movie in a lot of ways. So it really is all our own bodies. And yes, they’re covered in fur. I think some people found it a bit creepy ’cause we’re people but we look a bit like cats dancing around.
“I loved the reaction. I think it was a bit polarizing and people will be super curious to see the finished product. What you got in that trailer was just some small samples of it, but it’s going to be such a big movie. And the cast is obviously incredible.”
People said, “Oh my god,” because their eyes were burning. People said, “Oh my god,” because they found themselves trapped in an uncanny valley. People said, “Oh my god,” because they immediately contracted toxoplasmosis upon hitting “play.” People said, “Oh my god,” because the cats were misshapen!!! People said, “Oh my god,” because the tail looked like a dick. (At least that’s why I said it.) People said, “Oh my god,” because “these cats look like the horse people in Sorry To Bother You… these cats limp over to you in a big laboratory and whisper, ‘Kill me.’” People said, “Oh my god,” because it is brand-new technology that’s CGI and yet it it still looked like that.
Well, at least Wilson has a good sense of kitty positivity. When Cosmo asked her if she liked the way she looked as a cat, she said, “Yes.” She continued:
To me, it looked like how I thought it would look. What’s so brilliant about the movie is the dancing. It’s got some of the world’s best dancers, from ballet dancers to hip-hop dancers…oh, and tap dancers! It’s incredible. I can’t wait for people to see those big numbers on the big screen.
Same.
Regarding what she talked about with co-star Taylor Swift on set, Wilson revealed, “More that came up was us pretending to be cats and the challenges with that. That was more what we talked about.” Did they ever stop talking then?