We may not know what Taylor Swift will announcing tonight at midnight, however, we do know that she loves cats, and that she is playing a cat in the brand new movie Cats (specifically, Bombalurina.)
In a video interview with Time, Swift, who is a serious Method actor and student of the craft if ever there was one, explained that she took the role “for the ladies” (i.e., her cats), and that to prepare, “I went to cat school, which they have on set readily available for us.” Swift did not elaborate on what exactly “cat school” might be, but said she “learned how to be as much like a cat as I possibly could.”
One might imagine there are movement classes on catlike poses, or perhaps an intense dive into the psychology of cat-ness. Maybe there are Meisner-esque mirror-technique cat exercises, or perhaps a Viewpoints-influenced study of cat movement. If you were to push Taylor Swift off a table at this point, might even land on all fours, like a cat.
Did Idris Elba also have to go to this cat school and Did Jennifer Hudson? Did Dame Judi Dench also need to? This, unfortunately, we do not know. What we do know about Cats, however, is that Tom Hooper is directing Cats and that Andy Blankenbuehler is choreographing Cats and that the cats in Cats will be the size of actual cats. To paraphrase the musical Cats itself: Jellicle cats develop slowly, Jellicle cats are not too big, Jellicle cats are roly-poly and Jellicle cats are well-educated.
