Tony Nominee Robbie Fairchild on 'Tapping Noses' with Ian McKellen in the Movie Version of Cats

According to Robbie Fairchild, it was easy to get intimately close with stars like Judi Dench and Ian McKellen on the set of the movie Cats. In a recent #LiveAtFive interview with Broadway.com’s Paul Wontorek, Fairchild talked about how he became fast friends with the legendary British actors on the first day of filming.

“The three people who weren’t used were Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench and myself,” Fairchild recalled. Sitting on the sidelines, the three of them ended up bonding over the course of three hours. “We were doing word games. We were passing around sweets—Judi wouldn’t have any of them—but then they brought around the ribs, and she just devoured the ribs, baby back ribs.”

The Tony-nominated Fairchild, who Broadway fans may remember as Jerry Mulligan in An American in Paris, makes his feature film debut as Munkustrap in Tom Hooper’s big screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical. To prepare to play felines, the actors had to go through kitty bootcamp. “My first time doing cat school was next to Sir Ian McKellen,” Fairchild explained. “The way cats greet each other is they get four inches away from each other’s faces and just smell and gather all this information. So, I’m four inches away from Gandalf [McKellen’s character from The Lord of the Rings]. And then it’s been 15 seconds of sniffing, so I decide, ‘OK, now’s the time when we’re gonna go tap noses, because you tap noses if you like each other.” 

But McKellen, who plays Gus the theater cat, wasn’t so quick to warm up to Fairchild. “So, I got to tap noses with Gandalf, and he goes, ‘No, no, no, I’m not ready yet,’" Fairchild said with a laugh, impressed by McKellen’s dedication to inhabiting a cat. “I go back to smelling his face, and eventually he liked me and we tapped noses, and then we started rubbing up. But it was funny because he was the only person who would actually hiss at somebody if he didn’t like them.”

Cats opens in theaters on December 20.

Watch the rest of Fairchild's #LiveAtFive interview below, where he shared more anecdotes from Cats.