Hugh Jackman has at last admitted that director Tom Hooper offered him a role in the "jarring fever dream" that was 2019's Cats. Asked directly by The Daily Beast's Marlow Stern if he turned down a role, Jackman replied: "Umm … yep."
Although Jackson earned an Academy Award nomination for his work with Hooper on Les Misérables in 2012, it apparently wasn't enough to sell him on Hooper's follow-up musical, which has since been described as "the worst thing to happen to cats since dogs." When pressed on what role he was offered, Jackman said, "there were a couple of options there based on availability and time, and I really … yeah, I just wasn't available at the time."
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