Jason Derulo said filming ‘CATS’ involved Rebel Wilson “licking me all day long”
Steven Ferdman/Getty ImagesTaylor Swift and Jennifer Hudson aren’t the only pop stars in CATS: Jason Derulo‘s in the film too, as the flirtatious Rum Tum Tugger. He says filming the movie brought him closer to Taylor, who he’s known for years and, well, a little too close to another co-star, Rebel Wilson.
Speaking to TIME, Jason says filming CATS was like “a four-month summer camp with some of your favorite people. An insane group. So much weird s***…Like Rebel Wilson licking me all day long. All day.”
“You just have to keep doing the scene. We’re cats. We’re sniffing each other. We were pretty much naked. Lycra. Just naked. So we got very close, to say the least,” he reveals.
Jason, who used to go to performing arts school, says he chose to appear in CATS because he kept on getting scripts but he was looking for what he calls a “legacy role” — and, he says, CATS was it.
“It’s a musical that we’ve needed for a long time. It’s very dance-centric, with all sorts of genres,” he says. “And different races; everyone can see themselves. It’s very inclusive.”
All that experience pretending to be a cat didn’t make him like cats, however.
“I’ve done like four cat [photo] shoots,” he says. “They want to put me with cats for some reason. I’m like, this is the worst idea! I’ve got on a fly outfit and you’re gonna put me with these dirty cats right now? Nah!”
As for what’s next, Jason says while on set, he picked co-star Idris Elba’s brain about how to break into action films. But he hasn’t given up on music — he’s got the second half of his two-part album coming in early 2020.
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