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Summary
- The trailer for Cat Person reveals a souring relationship between a 20-year-old woman named Margot and an older man named Robert.
- Initially enchanted by Robert, Margot soon realizes he is a terrible kisser and sexual partner, leading her to question their entire relationship.
- The film adaptation of Cat Person explores the horrors of dating in a more drastic and suspenseful way compared to the original 2017 New Yorker story by Kristen Roupenian.
The just released trailer for Cat Person, starring Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun, shows a relationship quickly turn sour. The dark comedy thriller, based on the viral 2017 New Yorker Story of the same name, follows the tale of 20-year-old Margot (Jones) and an older man named Robert (Braun). As the trailer shows, the two embark on a romantic journey when Robert asks Margot for her phone number while she’s working at the local cinema. At first, Margot seems enchanted by her suitor, telling her best friend Taylor (Geraldine Viswanathan) that “he has cats and his eyes are nice.” But Taylor isn’t falling for it and begins to question how much Margot actually knows about him.
At one point, Margot admits she thinks she really likes Robert, but that’s before their relationship reaches a more intimate level and Margot realizes she’s not attracted to him, turns out Robert is a terrible kisser and sexual partner, and… does he even have cats? What started off with a harmless bad kiss ends with Margot proclaiming “one of us has to die” as she fears for her own safety as Robert always seems to be looming around.
Jones, who is best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in 2021’s Academy Award-winning CODA, Succession star Braun and Viswanathan (Bad Education) star alongside Hope Davis, Michael Gandolfini, Liza Koshy, Fred Melamed, Isaac Powell, Isabella Rossellini and Donald Elise Watkins.
How Cat Person Strays from the Original Short Story
The upcoming film adaptation takes a more drastic approach in exploring the horrors of dating than the 2017 New Yorker story by Kristen Roupenian (who said the short story was inspired by a “a small but nasty encounter” she had with someone she met online). In that story, Robert presents as controlling and condescending but never stalks Margot. The screenplay for Cat Person was written by Michelle Ashford (Masters of Sex) with Susanna Fogel (The Spy Who Dumped Me) directing.
During an interview with Collider following the film’s Sundance premiere, Roupenian praised Ashford’s script, saying: “But it was really when I read Michelle’s script, which kind of took some of those internal experiences that Margot has, and the fears and projections that she has, and made [externalized them], whether they’re flashes of fear that she has or projections, or just those thriller and suspense elements that are, some of them, psychological for Margot, was sort of Michele’s vision for how to adapt this very internal story. I was like, ‘Oh okay, this can borrow some genre elements while still having the relatable cringe humor of the story.’ And hopefully, all of that makes it feel bigger than the sum of its parts as a movie, not just a direct adaptation. So that was exciting.”
Cat Person is produced by Jeremy Steckler and Condé Nast Entertainment/The New Yorker Studios’ Helen Estabrook, with Fogel, Ashford and Daniel Hank serving as executive producers. It is distributed by StudioCanal and Rialto Pictures.
Cat Person hits theaters October 6.
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