VIDEO: CATS Star Francesca Hayward Used to Pretend to be Victoria as a Child

Francesca Hayward was a guest on Thursday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel LIVE to talk about starring in the highly-anticipated Cats movie. During the interview, Hayward talks being a Principal Dancer for the Royal Ballet, being in the movie Cats, the most surreal day of her life with Taylor Swift, and having a cat behavioral coach.

Hayward talks about what made her decide to audition, and she tells Kimmel that, "When I was younger, in my living room, I used to put Cats the stage musical video on and I used to copy Victoria. So when I heard that I could potentially be her in the new movie, I'm just going to go for it."

Hayward goes on to tell Kimmel about the film's "cat lessons," and that the cast "literally did Cat School every day."

She goes on to talk about one of the most surreal moments for her on the set of Cats. when Taylor Swift taught her the song "Beautiful Ghosts." Hayward said, "She gave me a private concert of the song for the first time. Just me, her, and a pianist." She continued, "So she sang me the whole song, just to me in a room, and it was really just surreal."

Watch the full interview below!

The film stars James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and Royal Ballet principal dancer Francesca Hayward, in her feature film debut.

Featuring Lloyd Webber's iconic music and a world-class cast of dancers under the guidance of Tony-winning choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton, In the Heights), the film reimagines the musical for a new generation with spectacular production design, state-of-the-art technology, and dance styles ranging from ballet to contemporary, hip-hop to jazz, street to tap.

Universal Pictures presents a Working Title Films and Amblin Entertainment production, in association with Monumental Pictures and The Really Useful Group. Cats is produced by Debra Hayward, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Tom Hooper. The screenplay is by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, Rocketman) and Hooper, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot and the stage musical by Lloyd Webber. Cats is executive produced by Lloyd Webber, Steven Spielberg, Angela Morrison and Jo Burn.