Hugh Jackman was offered a role in 2019’s greatest meme, Cats, but turned it down. The film was certainly unique in its style and vision, being ravaged by critics and the internet alike. But would have Jackman being in it been an improvement? Probably not, but at least know why he didn’t take the role.
The film’s director, Tom Hooper, who also directed the Jackman-led Les Miserables, so it wouldn’t be a surprise at all if the director had reached out to Jackman for a role. Turns out, that’s exactly what happened:
“You know, Tom rang me early on because we did Les Mis together, and there were a couple of options there based on availability and time, and I really… yeah, I just wasn’t available at the time.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1brLo_cA8g
Jackman is an avid love of theater, especially musicals having been in Les Mis and The Greatest Showman, so much so that it would be crazy for a director to not consider Jackman if they were to tackle one of Broadway’s classic.
It appears he was offered a couple of options for roles to play in the film, but no specific details on what those roles are has been given. Perhaps it could have been Idris Elba’s Macavity, which is one of the more prominent male roles. It could have also been a smaller role to try and accommodate Jackman’s schedule.
Either way, Jackman wasn’t able to do the film, and that may be for the best for his sake. Cats was certainly a failure before it even came out, but Jackman, being the true gentleman that he is, won’t badmouth any of it.
“I’m in the theater, man, and I don’t want to be in the business of bashing people—or jumping on bandwagons. I haven’t seen it, and Tom Hooper’s one of the great filmmakers we have.”
We aren’t sure if Jackman would have been enough to save the film, but we won’t ever say we don’t like seeing him. We will never know what the film could have been with Jackman in it, but we are fairly confident it still would be in the same place it is in now.
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