A new live-action film version of “Cats” has caused a furor months before its expected release.
The film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s original musical was teased in a trailer released this week that set off an avalanche of criticism, with much of the attention focused on the supposed CGI “whitewashing” of its black lead actress.
(Video: YouTube/Universal Pictures)
Viewers of the trailer were aghast at the human-cat hybrid portrayed by Francesca Hayward, a former principal ballerina for the British Royal Ballet, who was born in Nairobi, Kenya. Outraged viewers claimed the 27-year-old making her acting debut was being “whitewashed” as a character with white fur and grey markings.
cats’ biggest crime was having to mask francesca hayward’s talent and beauty behind horrifying cgi pic.twitter.com/561VXXo7rf
— future mrs robin buckley (@erinpurna) July 18, 2019
Never mind the fact that Hayward’s feline character is named “Victoria the White” in Webber’s long-running Broadway show.
Fans saw that as an arbitrary point, however, arguing that it should have been changed to accommodate Hayward’s natural skin tone.
“So how come you can clearly see this is taylor swift/the entire bottom half of her face is visible, but you wouldn’t know the black lead was black unless you knew her already,” one Twitter user asked, referring to singer Taylor Swift who also appears in the movie.
so how come you can clearly see this is taylor swift/the entire bottom half of her face is visible, but you wouldn’t know the black lead was black unless you knew her already pic.twitter.com/q8ULl6U6CJ
— ? (@tr4shbabey) July 19, 2019
“she’s BLACK?!” responded another shocked Twitter user.
she’s BLACK?!
— nerdy and ✨fabulous✨ (@HooiWanV) July 19, 2019
YEP pic.twitter.com/fLtRq7jO5i
— ? (@tr4shbabey) July 19, 2019
Wow. You cannot tell. That’s deliberate and terrible
— badly drawn bee ? (@soapachu) July 19, 2019
“While furry versions of Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen and Idris Elba were instantly recognisable, a less familiar face in the trailer was that of Francesca Hayward, principal dancer with the Royal Ballet. She is one of Britain’s best-known ballerinas and this is her cinematic debut. But even ballet fans would struggle to recognise the mixed-race dancer in her feline reincarnation,” Biba King wrote for The Telegraph, noting that the trailer was met with “great unease” by viewers.
Just don’t white-wash people. Even if they’re playing cats. My latest for @TelegraphFilm.https://t.co/vHWEbYih5Q
— Biba Kang (@BibaKang) July 19, 2019
But the nonsense over the “race” of a cat, or the actress portraying a cat, was soon slammed on Twitter as many users protested the criticism.
Oh good grief. She’s playing a cat. Stop with this already.
— SteveRamsay (@SteveRamsay) July 20, 2019
it’s called acting.. and cats don’t have a race.
— maeryk (@maeryk) July 19, 2019
Character is Victoria the White cat. No white washing. Get over it.
— Astr0z0mb1e (@astr0z0mb1e) July 20, 2019
So even though the character from the play is a white cat, it should be changed to black because a black actress is playing it?
So then shouldn’t Ariel, 007, Wally West, Iris West and Jimmy Olsen all be white? Hmmmm.— Darmok (@Darmok10471) July 19, 2019
She is a woman of color playing a white cat and that’s great. Are you saying that only a white actress can play a white cat? That’s so racist.
— ShirtlessSuperheroes (@ShirtlessHeroes) July 20, 2019
A simultaneous outcry was over the trailer billing Hayward as a “newcomer,” which set off fans of the ballerina who took a temporary leave of absence from the Royal Ballet while filming her role for “Cats.”
Every #ballet fan watching the #CatsMovie trailer: “What do you mean, “introducing” Francesca Hayward?” ?
— Carly Chalmers (@carlyjchalmers) July 19, 2019
Yet one of the biggest takeaways seemed to be that the computerized graphics have rendered the upcoming film, due out in December, into a “creepy” and “horrifying” piece of work.
This is not a cat. This isn’t even human. This is an abomination ?? #CatsMovie pic.twitter.com/8jDIINtBeP
— Magnus Crawshaw (@MagnusCrawshaw) July 19, 2019
Because it’s a movie. You expect to see facial expressions, not big old furry masks.
— Amy Weber (@amy1weber) July 20, 2019
I don’t know what I expected from CATS’ “digital fur technology” but the short answer is NOT this.
My brain has melted. My eyes are bleeding. There is no god. pic.twitter.com/HMeM0ixal1
— Kristy Puchko (@KristyPuchko) July 18, 2019
The Cats trailer is definitely one of the signs the apocalypse is nigh, right? pic.twitter.com/YT1sUHd4xL
— Kristy Puchko (@KristyPuchko) July 18, 2019
it has been one full hour since I saw the CATS (2019) trailer and this is the image that will haunt me pic.twitter.com/98Ej35v8v5
— Christina Grace (@C_GraceT) July 18, 2019
weirdest bits of the cats trailer:
– face:head ratio is totally off. all the cats have faces too big for their heads. how did no one spot this
– they wanted to give girl cats sexy boobs AND keep it PG so have given them nipple-less hairy mounds??
– clothes or skin? no one knows— anna leszkiewicz (@annaleszkie) July 19, 2019
horrifying
— anna leszkiewicz (@annaleszkie) July 19, 2019
You all keep saying the names of people who are in this film. How were they convinced to do this and how is it possible even they couldn’t… make this less weird?
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) July 18, 2019
I can live with the fluffy catsuits. The… nonfluffy digital skin of the cats in the trailer is… something else.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) July 18, 2019
They apparently took classes to learn how to be like cats. Exactly zero of them passed the class.
— elmtree (@elmtree916) July 18, 2019
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