BWW Exclusive: CATS Stars Robbie Fairchild & Rebel Wilson Gush About Meeting Judi Dench, Finding Comedy in a Classic & More!

In just days, the jellicle moon will shine bright over CATS, the big screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's beloved musical. How did directer Tom Hooper manage to bring the feline favorite to life?

"The set was breathtaking," says Robbie Fairchild, who plays jellicle ringleader, Munkustrap. "Everything was two and a half to three times the size of us to make it cat-scale. We were playing around and I was sitting around on this chair that was probably as tall as this ceiling, just thinking to myself: 'If someone asks me what I did today, I would get to say that I pretended I was a cat, singing and dancing on wires, playing around with Rebel Wilson.' When is that ever your reality?! It was wild."

"I loved the freedom that we had to be inventive as well," added Rebel Wilson, who plays gumby cat Jennyanydots. "Obviously the stage story is so iconic, but when I saw the show, I never remembered my character. I loved that I got to put dialogue jokes in. To me, it was a real challenge to get some comedy out of the source material."

Broadway audiences already know Fairchild from his Tony-nominated run in An American in Paris (2015), but Wilson has yet to make her debut. "It's got to be the right thing," she explains. "A director came to me the other day and asked if I wanted to take over quite a good role that's on Broadway right now, but I was to originate! So I turned that one down. But hopefully I will [do Broadway] soon."

Below, watch Richard Ridge's exclusive interview with the duo and don't forget to catch Cats when it leaps to the big screen on Friday, December 20!