Andrew Lloyd Webber was so ’emotionally damaged’ by Cats film he had to get a ‘therapy dog’
Andrew Lloyd Webber (left) and Judi Dench in Cats (right). (Getty and Universal)
Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed that he was so “emotionally damaged” by the terrifying film adaptation of his musical Cats that he bought a therapy dog.
From the moment the trailer was released, the “live action” Cats movie united the world in terror.
The 2019 film starred a host of big names, including James Cordon, Judie Dench, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba and Ian McKellen, all unnervingly enhanced with “digital fur technology” to create CGI cat-human hybrids.
If this wasn’t bad enough, the cats also appeared to be shape-shifters, shown alternately throughout the film as the size of a dinner knife, big enough to sit in a dustbin lid, and half as tall as the 20-foot lion statues at the base of the Nelson’s Column.
While it was widely accepted at the time of its release that Cats the movie was a “cursed abomination”, now Lloyd Webber, the composer of the original musical, has described how it left him “emotionally damaged”.
He told Variety: “Cats was off-the-scale all wrong. There wasn’t really any understanding of why the music ticked at all.
“I saw it and I just thought: ‘Oh God, no.’ It was the first time in my 70-odd years on this planet that I went out and bought a dog.”
The “one good thing to come out of” the terrifying film, Lloyd Webber said, was his Havanese puppy named Mojito.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber had to register Mojito as a therapy dog
Andrew Lloyd Webber has become so attached to his pup Mojito during the pandemic that he said he needed to figure out how they could be together always, even on the plane when he travels to America.
He said: “I wrote off and said I needed him with me at all times because I’m emotionally damaged and I must have this therapy dog.
“The airline wrote back and said, ‘Can you prove that you really need him?’
“And I said ‘Yes, just see what Hollywood did to my musical Cats.’
“Then the approval came back with a note saying, ‘No doctor’s report required.’”
