Jason Derulo thought ‘Cats’ would change the world

Jason Derulo had no idea that his first film would actually turn out to be a huge cat-astrophe. In fact, when he signed up to play the role of Rum Tum Tugger in the big screen version of Cats, he thought it was the purr-fect career choice.“For the longest time, I was trying to figure out what's the perfect first role?" Derulo told The Telegraph in a new profile. "Cats checked all the boxes. You can't get a more star-studded cast, you don't get a more respected director than an Oscar winner, and Rum Tum Tugger is a legacy role, a standout character in a classic musical.”[video_embed id='1923295']Before you go: 'Cats' sweeps 2020 Razzie Awards[/video_embed]What Derulo, director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), and the other cast members (including James Corden, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Idris Elba) didn’t count on was the public’s shocked reaction to the nightmare-inducing CGI happening in the film’s first trailer. Or that said CGI would be so bad in the first theatrical run that Dench’s human hand would be left in one scene. Still, Derulo believed in the Razzies-winning project even after the trailer was released. In fact, he was all for the early tease.

 

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“Even when I saw the trailer, I thought it looked unbelievable,” he told the publication. “Like, I know some people saw it and they were terrified, but I got chills down my spine! I thought it was gonna change the world.” Some fans could argue that it did change the world, just not in the way Derulo and his heavily edited penis originally believed it might.“It didn’t pan out. With all things that leftfield, it could either be considered genius or bats--t crazy. That’s the risk you take,” he said, realizing what Hugh Jackman might have known all along. “It taught me a lesson. You can’t wait for the perfect moment, cause that might not be your moment. So you’ve just got to go for gold. That’s how I’ll move forward.”When Cats hit theatres last December it definitely didn’t pan out. The project cost more than $100 million to make, yet it only pulled in $75.5 million US at the box office. It also seemed to be a film that people instantly loved to hate-watch, which celebrities like Seth Rogen did oh-so-publicly. Meanwhile, original Cats composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who based the Broadway musical on a series of poems by T.S. Eliot called Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, has also made it known he wasn’t a fan.“The problem with the film was that Tom Hooper decided that he didn’t want anybody involved in it who was involved in the original show,” Webber told the Sunday Times earlier this month. “The whole thing was ridiculous.”In the end, even though Cats wasn’t the world-changing film that Derulo hoped it would be, it seems like he’s moving on quite nicely. In the Telegraph interview he’s also super enthusiastic about some of the things quarantine has normalized (doing interviews from his house! Actually enjoying his home!) and he reveals that he’s discovered another big passion: TikTok. In fact, as those who follow the “Talk Dirty” singer already probably know (and as the Telegraph points out), he’s the second most popular established celebrity on the platform, right behind his toothless collaborator Will Smith. And although Derulo wouldn’t confirm rumours that he earns $75,000 per branded post that he shares with his 31-plus million subscribers, he did hint that his payday is actually even higher than that.“It just kind of happened with TikTok ‘cos I was having so much fun with it,” Derulo said. “It wasn’t until I went out into the street that I realised, holy shit, people know everything about me. You know what my room looks like, my girlfriend’s personality, the names of my nieces, my dogs, all of my interests. So now I’m having conversation with people I’ve never met before, we’re talking about all of these personal things.”Is he ever embarrassed by sharing some of those personal things? The publication definitely needed to know. “Uhm, yeah! Absolutely,” he added. “But I think you have to be willing to be embarrassed to do anything great. I’m literally putting myself on the line and letting it all hang out: the good, the bad and the ugly. I have to see it as entertainment first.”Or maybe just as a Jellicle cat.[video_embed id='2011378']RELATED: Will Smith’s TikTok run-in with Jason Derulo[/video_embed]