Taylor Swift: CATS, Jennifer Hudson, and Getting Into Character | Apple Music

I was just like this is so phenomenal and I love musical theater and I started out doing musical theater as a kid It's what got me and like it's what made me fall in love with performing as a as a medium right, the situation just kept getting more interesting because You know, I accepted the role they showed they show us this demo of this digital fur that they're adding to us and I was like Yes, it's amazing. I have whiskers And a swishy tail. Yeah, and they have this behavioral Studies class called cat school. And so basically you go in you watch these videos of cats You watch them walking you watch them sensing things you learn facts about them anatomically biologically How do they sense things? How do they like what's their gaze like so I get called to rehearsal at Andrew Lloyd Webber's house And I'm like, this is amazing I cannot wait to meet him He's one of my favorite people just one of my favorite creators like just the career So it turns out when I meet him like he's the best he's got more cats than I have He's obsessed with them. He has the best gossip. I have ever heard right? We're just bros immediately and then we go in to rehearse my song the cavity and we sing it through once and he's like That's very good well done and then he just sits at the piano and he starts playing this melody that I've never heard before and I know it's not in the original film of cat and are you thinking at this point? I'm like, this is the one this is the one and this is my moment I'm running through all the score of cats and I'm like, this is not in the original musical And when at what point do you start to think like just as a backup melody and words themes melody As soon as he starts playing Wow, as soon as he starts playing it, there's no top line So what he has got is this beautiful instrumental piece as soon as he starts playing it. I start singing the top line Just like I knew exactly What this character would say if she was going to sing a song I knew where in the in the movie They were going to put her song. Were you prepared? Did you have this in your head or just come to you kind of instinctively? Well, I'd been kind of gathering data But I had no idea I had no idea what this song was like I didn't have music I didn't have any that's why you're you Cuz you're thinking the back of your mind just in case while I'm watching this thing in rehearsal I'm gonna be gathering a few I knew I knew I knew I knew that it would be after memory So it'd be right after Jennifer Hudson sings memory. I thought wouldn't it be interesting if you had this little young kitten Reflect off of what she just heard because memory is Grizabella singing about how she had all these beautiful Incredible moments in her past. She had these glittering occasions and she felt beautiful and she felt wanted and now she doesn't feel that way anymore And I was just thinking okay. So what if you've got this little kitten that's been you know Deserted and kind of tossed out by her owners and she's had to wander around the streets of London wondering where she's gonna find a home Wouldn't she be thinking? At least you had those amazing memories What's the ending line of the song? Basically, the first line that came to me was like and the memories were lost long ago, but at least you have beautiful ghosts You know, I wanted to get in the head of the character and think you know If she was hearing somebody lamenting about wonderful miraculous Majestic incredible times having this extraordinary life behind her I could see this young person thinking like what if I never have any of that in my whole life? What if that's lost on me? What if I don't get that ever like at least you have that to cling to Wow You know, the first line is follow me home if you dare to I wouldn't know where to lead you Should I take chances when no one took chances on me and it goes so I watch from the dark wait for my life to Start with no beauty in my memory. Oh That's good Thanks, I Learned later that they had they had this beautiful piece of music, but they didn't know what they wanted the cat to say I was like gotcha got you. Yeah, like I know what that cat would say now You've got an Andrew Lloyd Webber cut that doesn't sound real