Alan Cumming Believes the JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS Movie Was Ahead of Its Time
Josie and the Pussycats was a great freakin’ film. I don’t care what anyone says, I enjoyed that movie and I saw what it was trying to do, it just didn’t click with audiences when it was released, and it only made $15 million at the box office.
While the movie could be considered to look stupid to a lot of people, it was actually a smart film, and over the years it has gained a cult following.
I’ve always believed that Josie and the Pussy Cats was ahead of its time. This is something that other stars of the film have said before, and now Alan Cumming is saying it.
20 years ago, Josie and the Pussycats helped pave the way for what Barbie recently did with its film. There is a similarity between them, but I actually like Josie and the Pussycats better.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly Cumming said: "I had a phase in the early 2000s of doing these bonkers films on the queer scale. Some of them were more coded than others, but, again, about the idea of being manipulated in the media, being used...it was so ahead of its time, in terms of the subliminal messages and the product placement.”
He went on to explain that the studios didn’t quite know how to market the film: “I just think they didn't quite know how to sell it. They sold it as a kind of kids film, and it really is quite adult and also hilarious. And I was actually in that film doing an impersonation of Richard E. Grant in Spice World. I just copied him."
Cumming previously said: "I think the problem was that it was marketed really badly. I think it was marketed to young kids sort of as a tween movie, when actually it's quite a sophisticated script, and it's about the gags that are for meant for sophisticated older consumers.
“I think they didn't know quite what to do with it, and it was marketed wrongly. And so basically the [part] of the populace it was aimed at didn't kind of, weren't made aware of it when it came out."
Rosario Dawson once talked about the movie saying: “I think it was way ahead of its time. You watch it now and it so resonates with the moment we’re in but at the time I think it was hard for people to really appreciate the satire that it was.”
Dawson went on to say: “There’s scene after scene after scene that was not about how men were in our lives. It wasn’t about all these other things. It was about us and our dreams and our passions. And seeing these men being being super supportive of these women and wanting to see them shine.
“And watching them grow in front of you and being amazed by that. It’s just there are so many levels in it that are just really profound looking back on it through the lens of now.”
In the film, Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook), Melody (Tara Reid), and Val (Rosario Dawson) are three small-town girl musicians determined to take their rock band out of their garage and straight to the top, while remaining true to their look, style and sound.
They get a record deal which brings fame and fortune but soon realize they are pawns of two people who want to control the youth of America. They must clear their names, even if it means losing fame and fortune.