DECEMBER 27, 2019
Culture
48
Illustration by BRITT SPENCER
“working on this film was different than anything i had done before,”
says Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson about her work on the film adaptation
(opening this month) of the iconic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats. Hudson
plays Grizabella, the feline best known for the song “Memory,” originally made
famous by Betty Buckley in her 1983 Tony-winning Broadway performance. “Of
course it’s such an iconic song, I wanted to honor the original while also bringing
my own touch to it,” she says. Webber—who collaborated on the film—“was very
trusting and encouraged me to bring what I felt to the song.” The film, directed
by Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech and Les Misérables) and also starring Taylor
Swift, Idris Elba and Judi Dench, is so highly anticipated that the trailer went viral.
It’s the emotional intensity of characters like Hudson’s Grizabella that is largely
responsible for giving the story weight and heart. Hudson says she thought a lot
about her character’s “past” and how a rough life impacted her physically. “We
wanted people who saw her on-screen to think, ‘What happened to her?’”
Jennifer Hudson
How did you prepare for your role?
A huge part of her story is told through
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Your favorite song to perform?
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How was it working with Hooper?
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What will audiences take from Cats?
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Broadway musical?
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PARTING SHOT
“‘Memory’
carries so
much of the
emotion
and heart of
the movie as
a whole.”