The Cats Trailer Has Everyone Talking About Newcomer Francesca Hayward

From Oprah Magazine

• The first trailer for Cats was released last week and it drew mixed reactions from fans who were unnerved by its CGI.

• Ballerina-turned-actress Francesca Hayward, who is front and center in the trailer, is a woman of color whose character has entirely white fur, which has sparked controversy among some fans.

• Below, a few key facts to know about Hayward.

Let's be honest: days after its release, we're all still processing our feelings about that Cats trailer, which offered up the first glimpse of the star-studded Andrew Lloyd Webber adaptation. Thanks to its surreal CGI renderings of furry half-human, half-feline characters, the footage has been variously described as "terrifying," "cursed," and "an abomination." But another troubling aspect was pointed out by some fans, who noted that Black actress Francesca Hayward is playing a character who has entirely white fur. Unlike other cast members, her real skin tone in the film goes unrecognizable.

"How come you can clearly see this is taylor swift/the entire bottom half of her face is visible, but you wouldn’t know the black lead was black unless you knew her already?" asked one fan. While we've yet to hear from the folks behind the movie, everyone wants to know more about Hayward, who's definitely a star on the rise.

Francesca Hayward is big deal in the ballet world.

As the trailer's "Introducing..." credit implies, Hayward is a newcomer to the screen, but she's a very established name in the world of ballet. She enrolled at London's prestigious Royal Ballet School at the age of 11, and trained there for many years before being invited to join the company after graduating in 2010.

During her last years as a student, Hayward was already being asked to cover for dancers in Royal Ballet productions, and made such a strong impression that she was offered a full-time contract midway through her final year. “I never graduated!" Hayward told Pointe magazine in 2016. "The next morning, I was in company class. Nobody there knew for a while that I'd joined."

Hayward's ascent in the Royal Ballet was rapid: she was promoted to First Artist in 2013, Soloist in 2014, First Soloist in 2015 and finally a Principal Dancer in 2016, which is the highest rank in the company. She has drawn rave reviews from critics throughout her career. When she made her debut as first soloist in Romeo & Juliet, British critic Luke Jennings tweeted, “Francesca Hayward dances Juliet and British ballet is remade."

She was born in Kenya.

Hayward was born in Nariobi, Kenya in 1992, to a British father and Kenyan mother. At the age of two, she moved to West Sussex in the U.K. and was raised by her grandparents, who inspired her love of ballet by showing her a video of The Nutcracker at a young age. “I loved it," she told The Guardian. "I just wanted to be part of it. In my head I was on stage and I could hear the applause. I dragged out an armchair into the middle of the room to be my partner.”

Speaking to Pointe in 2016, Hayward said that though she is a minority as a biracial ballerina in Britain, it has never held her back. "It's only when people ask me what it's like to be a mixed-race dancer that I realize that I am," she said. "I've never been made to feel different, or like I shouldn't be doing it."

She plays one of the most important characters in Cats.

Hayward plays Victoria the White Cat, which is one of the most prominent dance roles in the musical. Victoria has no solo singing parts, but requires an actress with extensive ballet training as the character opens with a ballet solo entitled "White Cat Solo." She is also featured in a pas de deux (paired dance), and leads most of the show's ensemble dance numbers—all of which makes Hayward an ideal choice for the technically challenging role.

For more stories like this, sign up for our newsletter.