Sweet, naive angel Jason Derulo has once again defended Cats, the 2019 clusterfuck of a film that was his debut acting role, saying that he legitimately thought the movie was going to “change the world”. Oh, bless this man’s cotton socks, he truly has so much faith in that chaotic piece of cinema you have no choice but to chuckle softly and want to pat him on the head.
In an interview with The Telegraph in the UK, Derulo (which must always be said like Jasooooon Deruuulooooo) said that even when watching the trailer of the movie he got chills up his spine. Yes, we’re talking about the same movie which has a one-star and 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was reviewed as a “confusing litter box of intentions” by the Wall Street Journal.
“Even when I saw the trailer, I got chills down my spine!” he said.
“I thought it was gonna change the world.”
Oh, Jason.
Oh, honey no.
Cats was Derulo’s first foray into feature film acting, and you gotta hand it to him – the man did his research. He didn’t want to step onto the silver screen in any old flick that in another time would have gone straight to DVD – though the 1999 adaptation did go direct-to-video.
And for all intents and purposes, this movie had all the bells and whistles (read: cast, director, and cash) to actually do well, and he knew it.
“You can’t get a more star-studded cast, you don’t get a more respected director than an Oscar winner,” he said.
“Rum Tum Tugger is a legacy role, a standout character in a classic musical.”
Yes, sure, it’s a legacy role for the musical theatre community. But trying to bring that legacy into the realm of cinema as a whole task in itself, and let’s be real – Cats is just so insane as a stage musical that it was never really going to translate well as a movie.
But I digress, if Cats brought Jason Derulo (Jasooooon Deruuuulooooo) happiness and renewed attention to his junk, let him have it. And probably the fat cat paycheck he got at the end of the day. Now he’s forging his path to royalty status on TikTok while loving every second of the pandemic shutdown (good for him.) I’m sure that’s going to go well, considering it’s probably gonna be banned in the US soon.
