JIMMY KIMMEL: Well it's very good to have you here.
Boy, what an interesting story you have.
It really is remarkable. FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Where are you from originally?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: I was born in Kenya,
but I've lived in England my whole life.
JIMMY KIMMEL: You've lived in England your whole life.
You are a principal dancer.
What does that mean?
What does that term mean, a principal dancer?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: So principal dancer--
when you join a ballet company, you usually start in, like,
the corps de ballet.
So you do the group pieces.
And then you hopefully get the opportunity
to work your way up to the top.
And then it means that I do the principal roles in the show
now.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Are there assistant
principal dancers before?
[LAUGHTER]
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Um, there are, yeah, like soloists.
JIMMY KIMMEL: OK.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: So you start corps de ballet,
and then soloists, and then eventually you get the chance
to be a principal, hopefully.
JIMMY KIMMEL: And you did a show last night in London.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yes.
JIMMY KIMMEL: So then you got on--
I assume you flew? FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah.
JIMMY KIMMEL: You got on a plane and came right here.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah, I am pretty spaced out right now.
Like last night, I was doing onstage at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden.
And then I went home, finished my packing,
had two hours sleep, and then I got in the car
and got on the plane, and now I'm here.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Unbelievable.
[CHEERING]
It's gotta be like a weird dream or something.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah.
JIMMY KIMMEL: And you how long are you,
like, actually on stage dancing during a show like the one
you did last night?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Last night is usually about three hours.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Three hours?
You're dancing for three hours?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: I mean, with intervals.
But obviously, the intervals were not chilling.
We're-- I'm, like, changing hair and makeup, you know,
like putting on another costume, like changing my pointe shoes.
Yeah, everything.
JIMMY KIMMEL: This sounds absolutely exhausting.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: It is, yeah.
It's tiring. JIMMY KIMMEL: Is it fun though?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah, it's super fun.
Yeah.
JIMMY KIMMEL: And now you've made this transition,
or you've dipped your toe, I guess, in--
[LAUGHTER]
--in acting.
And was that always your plan?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: No, I think this
came about-- really, I heard about the opportunity
to audition.
And you know, I felt like I had nothing to lose.
Like, I love my job, but I thought,
what an amazing opportunity.
And also, when I was younger, I used to-- in my living room,
I used to dance around as--
JIMMY KIMMEL: Me too.
[LAUGHTER]
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: I used to put "Cats" the video on,
the stage musical video.
And I used to copy Victoria.
So it was when I heard that I could
potentially be her in the new--
JIMMY KIMMEL: You thought, hey, I got experience in this area
here. FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Yeah, for sure.
And how many months did it take to shoot this movie?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: I took about six, seven months off
from the Royal Ballet.
JIMMY KIMMEL: When you take that much time off, do you--
is it bad for ballet?
Do you have to dance every single day
to stay in shape or whatever?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yes, the unfortunate thing
is we train our whole life.
And even if you take more than two days off,
you start to feel a difference.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Really?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: So I would actually get two sets--
well, I would get to the filming studios,
like, two hours before the rest of the cast.
And I would go into makeup.
And then I would do ballet class before everyone had
even got to the makeup chair.
So sometimes I was doing ballet class at 6:30 in the morning.
JIMMY KIMMEL: So you're still taking classes?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah, I had to do my training every day
on top of the filming as well.
JIMMY KIMMEL: And do you have a coach there that helps you,
or you do it all by yourself?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: No, I ask someone to come in and, you
know, whip me into shape.
JIMMY KIMMEL: So these other actors
are coming in drinking their coffee,
like, oh, I'm exhausted.
And you're like, yeah, I did two hours of ballet.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah, pretty much.
Yeah
JIMMY KIMMEL: And then too, the cast is-- you know,
you've got this very high profile cast.
James Corden was here the other night.
Dame Judi Dench is in the-- who else is in this cast with you?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Taylor Swift, yes.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Idris Elba.
JIMMY KIMMEL: And you all took cat lessons?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yes.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Now, this is where you learn.
Who teaches you to be a cat?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: So we had a cat
behavioral specialist on set.
JIMMY KIMMEL: And that's a thing?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yes, that's a real job.
Yeah. JIMMY KIMMEL: OK.
All right.
There's, by the way, no reason to applaud for that.
[LAUGHTER]
Not a career I approve of.
But go on.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: So that's a lady called Sarah Dowling,
and she's actually a choreographer
who I knew before.
And for this film, she just studied cat behavior
and taught us.
Like every time we'd do a scene, you
know she'd really help us make everything
we did a bit more feline.
But also, we literally did cat school like every day.
it was part of like getting into the zone.
JIMMY KIMMEL: So Judi Dench was in cat school?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah. [LAUGHTER]
JIMMY KIMMEL: And they're like, no,
you have to be more catty Judi.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah, literally.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Really? FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Did anyone cough up a hairball or anything
like that?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: No.
JIMMY KIMMEL: See a ball of yarn,
and suddenly you're running away?
And then did you feel like it made you more like a cat?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah, definitely.
I mean-- [LAUGHTER]
Yeah, no, seriously, at weekends when I had time off,
when I was with my friends, sometimes they
look at me weirdly, and then they'd say, Frankie,
you just picked that up like a cat.
Kind of-- I don't know, something feline about the way
I was doing things.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Frankie, why are you licking my face?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah!
[LAUGHTER]
JIMMY KIMMEL: Here, let me get you a saucer of milk.
Did you do that?
Did you drink milk like that out of the--
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: We did in the film, yeah.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Oh, you did in the movie?
Oh, OK.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Boy, Hollywood's dumb, isn't it?
It's really dumb.
I mean, you're a bunch of adults, highly successful
people acting like cats.
And some lady is like, no, you're not being a cat.
You're not.
You've gotta do it like this.
And you go, oh, well, she's right.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah, take it seriously.
Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
JIMMY KIMMEL: So then do you want to do more acting?
Is that the plan?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Definitely.
I love my job, and I want to keep doing ballet
as long as possible, 'cause it's-- you know,
it's a short career.
It doesn't last very long. JIMMY KIMMEL: Tell me about it.
Yeah. FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
JIMMY KIMMEL: I got bounced out when I turned 35.
[LAUGHTER]
And you sing in the movie as well.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: I do, yes.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Was that something that you've
done through your whole life?
No, it's not.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: No.
I sang at school a little bit, but this was completely out
of my comfort zone.
So yeah, I just remember doing my first audition
and being very terrified of singing
in front of, like, one person.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Oh.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: And then, obviously, just had
to keep doing it with more help until I was just singing
in front of a whole room of cast and crew and Andrew
Lloyd Webber and Taylor Swift.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Oh, really?
You had to sing in front of Andrew
Lloyd Webber and Taylor Swift? FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yes.
Well, they wrote my song, "Beautiful Ghosts."
JIMMY KIMMEL: Oh, they did? FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Yes.
Yeah, yeah. JIMMY KIMMEL: Wow.
And then does Taylor Swift teach you the song that she wrote?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Well, I think probably one of the most
surreal days of my life so far was when Taylor
asked to meet me, and she had written
the lyrics for Andrew's music.
And she called me into a room, and she basically
gave me a private concert of the song for the first time,
just me, her, and a pianist.
And Tom Cooper-- JIMMY KIMMEL: And a what?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: --the director--
[LAUGHTER] A pianist.
JIMMY KIMMEL: I see.
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: Is that my accent?
Did you not hear that?
JIMMY KIMMEL: Mm-hmm, yeah.
I'm just being dumb.
Sorry.
[LAUGHTER]
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: So she sang me the whole song--
JIMMY KIMMEL: I didn't go to cat school.
I don't have the manners.
[LAUGHTER]
So she sang this song to you?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: She sang the whole song, just to me,
in a room. And then--
JIMMY KIMMEL: Was that uncomfortable?
FRANCESCA HAYWARD: No, it was really just surreal.
And at the end of it, she said-- very, very sweetly
she said to me, is that OK?
Like, she'd written it for me. Is that all right for you?
And I was like, yeah, that's OK.
[LAUGHTER]
JIMMY KIMMEL: That was very nice of you to say that.
Well, it's great to meet you.
I look forward to seeing this movie.
It's called "Cats."
It opens December 20th.
Francesca Hayward, everybody!
I'll be right back with Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks!