The Cat’s Whiskers

The human stars of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone may be jumping through hoops to complete filming on next year’s hottest project, but the film’s four-legged stars seem to have landed a far sweeter deal. “Nothing was too good for them on set, we spoiled them rotten,” Potter’s animal trainer Sue Wood told The Mirror. In fact the troupe of feline thesps seem to be enjoying the luxuries of Hollywood every bit as much as their A-list human colleagues, “Warner Brothers built a special cat hotel on site. Each cat got their own room, whatever food they wanted, fur-lined baskets – the lot.” While it may seem as though Robbie Coltrane, replete with beard and shaggy locks as groundskeeper Hagrid, is the Harry Potter cast member most in need of grooming, the cats were forced to spend their fair share of time in the make-up chair. Taking roles from creepy caretaker’s cat Mrs Norris to Maggie Smith in feline form as a transfigured Professor McGonagall, the cats really had to look the part, “The Professor is a very interesting part, and very scruffy, so we had to transform this beautiful cat into a messy thing. They used specialist animal make-up to alter face-markings, then we spent hours cleaning it off every night. But the cats don’t mind.” Unlike the human cast of the film, the cats spend a minimum amount of time hanging around between takes, “If we start at 9:30am, they’ll be finished by 11am. They don’t keep the animals hanging around longer than necessary.” With flexible hours on a major motion picture and a lucrative sideline in Whiskas adverts, the furry stars have an arrangement many actors would happily trade places for.