Thought film fans have yet to see the entire film, the brief trailers that have been released for “Cats” have provided plenty of proof that director Tom Hooper has a thoroughly strange film on his hands. And maybe one of the more odd choices that we’ve already seen is the inclusion of Taylor Swift’s feline character sprinkling magical catnip over a crowd of anthropomorphic cats. The fact that exists on film is just strange all by itself. However, in a new interview with Variety, Swift gives the backstory of the scene and honestly, it makes the whole ordeal even weirder.
Apparently, when Hooper was meeting with Swift, showing off some of the early footage of his human actors appearing as kitties, the popstar’s dad chimed in and gave the director a bit of inspiration that ended up in the final film.
READ MORE: ‘Cats’ Producer Says The Film’s Backlash Stems From “People Who Didn’t Know ‘Cats’”
Taylor Swift describes the interaction:
“And so in the middle of this meeting, Dad just pipes up and says, ‘Hey, I got an idea. What if you had a scene where they are all at the Jellicle Ball and they all get catnipped so they all just start going crazy?’
Tom Hooper goes, ‘What’s catnipped?’
All of us are like, ‘You don’t know what catnip is?’ We start pulling up all these YouTube videos of cats on catnip.
Tom looks at Dad and goes, ‘That’s going to be in the movie. That’s exactly what we’re going to do.’ So my dad walks around going, ‘Hey, I’m the reason there’s catnip in the scene.’”
So, there you have it — Tom Hooper, an Oscar-winning filmmaker, was in the middle of production on a film about felines and had no idea about catnip. Thankfully, T-Swift’s dad was there to set him straight.
While the designs of the cats, the casting, and the overall look of the film can probably be attributed to Hooper, if you’re upset with the catnip scene, you only have Taylor Swift’s dad to blame.
“Cats” arrives in theaters on Friday.