Dame Judi Dench Says Her 'Cats' Character Is Trans

BY Josiah HughesPublished Dec 23, 2019

Tom Hooper's disastrous Cats is undoubtedly the worst movie of the year, but it's also one of the most interesting. The film has had Jason Derulo's dick edited out with CGI and new and improved graphics shipped out to theatres days after its release. It's even drawn comparisons to medieval paintings. Now, adding to the Cats news cycle, Dame Judi Dench has suggested her feline character is trans.

In the film, Dench plays Old Deuteronomy — the wise older cat who is in charge of the Jellicle Ball. (Don't ask us what that is, because we have no fucking idea. No one does.)

In the original musical, Old Deuteronomy was a male cat, an the role is traditionally male. In the 1981 West End production of Cats, Dench was meant to play two different female cats but had to back out due to snapping her Achilles tendon. So now she's playing Old Deuteronomy, the traditionally male cat.

"It's glorious to have been included in it, I must say," she told Out during a press junket. "[It was] nerve wracking, because all I can hear is Brian Blessed all the time in the production that I wasn't able to be in." 

She added that it was "totally unexpected" to be cast as the character. "I kind of call it 'trans Deuteronomy,' is the part for me, you know," she said.

So there you have it — there's a trans subtext to Cats now, too. 

 

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