A verdict in the memoir

Dame Judi Dench, 91, has described the 2019 film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats as a waste of talent. The remarks appear in her forthcoming memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, which she wrote with the actor Brendan O'Hea. Excerpts published by The Guardian on 20 October 2026 show her writing that Lloyd Webber, 78, had waited a long time for a screen version, and that the film squandered the goodwill and talent behind it. The articles give no publication date for the full book, which they describe only as forthcoming.

The film and its reception

The film, directed by Tom Hooper and released in cinemas on 25 December 2019, was panned by critics and won six Golden Raspberry awards, according to Der Tagesspiegel. One scene became notorious for showing Dench's human hand, complete with a wedding ring, where a cat's paw should have been. Hooper, who won an Oscar for The King's Speech, has not made another film since Cats, according to the Guardian excerpts. The timeline below traces the film's release and the public verdicts that followed.

Dench on the set

Dench writes that she felt uneasy in the role of Old Deuteronomy from the start. She says she never saw the final cut and therefore cannot judge the finished film, though she is clear that the people involved meant well.

“I understand the critics were rather hostile to the film. I never saw the final cut so I can't judge.”

She adds that nobody sets out to make a bad film, and that the timing, the casting and the elements of the project failed to come together. Her account also includes lighter moments. She met Taylor Swift on set, and on the last shooting day she received 50 gold-sprayed roses from her colleague Jason Derulo, according to Spiegel Online.

“There were no villains in the making of Cats.”

Lloyd Webber's reaction

Lloyd Webber, 78, has been more openly critical of the film. In 2021 he called it "off-the-scale all wrong" and said the experience left him so emotionally damaged that he bought a dog to recover. He has also said that Hooper did not consult the people behind the original West End production, and that the whole thing was ridiculous. He has described his Havanese puppy as the one good thing to come out of the project.

What comes next

The memoir is still forthcoming, so Dench's account of the film is available so far only through the excerpts. Her new material is her own description of the shoot, including her discomfort in the role. Her remarks repeat the verdict critics and awards voters delivered after the 2019 release, but they come from someone who was on the cast list.