Maggie Gyllenhaal’s second directorial feature, The Bride!, bombed at the box office in its opening weekend. The film stars Jessie Buckley as The Bride (of Frankenstein), with Christian Bale as Frankenstein and supporting roles filled by people close to Maggie, including Peter Sarsgaard and Jake Gyllenhaal. Well, The Bride(!) limped into third place at the weekend box office, making only $7.3 million domestically (and only $6.3 million internationally). The Bride had an $80 million production budget before marketing. Yiiikes.
It could be that people were really turned off by the idea of supporting another film starring avowed cat-hater Jessie Buckley though. In recent days/weeks, there has been a revival in interest for a podcast interview Buckley did last November. She came across as bragging about forcing her then-boyfriend (and now-husband) to give up his cats. She gave her man an ultimatum after his cats became territorial: it’s me or the cats, and Jessie proudly stated, “I won.” Well, last week, she tried to take it all back.
If Jessie Buckley fails to win the Oscar for best actress next week it will be a sign that cat lovers have got their claws out. The Irish actor is the runaway favourite for her performance in Hamnet, but in recent days has stumbled into a controversy over a stated antipathy to cats.
She has said she once gave her husband an ultimatum to banish his two cats because they would defecate on pillows, telling a podcast: “I was like, ‘it’s me or the cats.’”
Cat-lovers have responded with indignation and condemnation, sparking a wave of headlines and warnings that “kitty karma” could deny Buckley, 36, her first Academy award.
She attempted to repair the damage on Jimmy Fallon’s chatshow on Thursday, saying it was a “misconception” that she loathed cats. “I am a lover of cats. I woke up this morning [thinking]: does the world think that I really don’t love cats? And it’s really weighed on me all day. I felt sick.”
Buckley said she had auditioned in vain for the 2019 musical Cats. “I gave the worst audition of my life. It was so hot. I was sweating. I was like, licking my paws, like trying to leap. I was just like a hoof of an Irish woman leaping across and licking her paws.”
“Does the world think that I really don’t love cats?” Girl, yes. You said you hated cats! You proudly told a story about making your boyfriend rehome his cats! She’s actually lucky that this cat issue was picked up so late in the awards season – she’s going into the Oscars as the only sure thing in the acting categories. But cat-lovers showed their lack of amusement when it came to supporting The Bride(!). Methinks it will take a lot more to get the cat community to forgive her bullsh-t and support her future projects.
Jessie Buckley clears up the rumor that she doesn’t like cats 🤣 #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/PfBkVOfO2C
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) March 6, 2026
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Jessie Buckley attends “The Bride” World Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, England. UK. Thursday 26th February 2026.,Image: 1078570985, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: The Bride – World Premiere, Credit line: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon
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- Jessie Buckley attending The Bride! Global Premiere at the Cineworld in Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom,Image: 1079322427, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley/Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 01: Jessie Buckley poses in the press room at the 32nd Annual Actor Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on March 01, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 1079867715, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jessie Buckley, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon
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- Arrivals for the New York premiere of ‘The Bride!’ Featuring: Jessie Buckley Where: New York, New York, United States When: 03 Mar 2026 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
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- Arrivals for the New York premiere of ‘The Bride!’ Featuring: Jessie Buckley Where: New York, United States When: 03 Mar 2026 Credit: Darla Khazei/INSTARimages
Maybe two is too many for Frankenstein movies in one year.
She should have been like – I won! Well we all won. We worked with a cat behaviorist and now we are all happy! Or they went to live with a close family friend and are spoiled over the moon. Or something.
Also if anyone has more than one cat and they don’t know about non recognition aggression – look into it! It’s so easy to avoid and such a thing when it happens. Love to all the cat lovers!
Or “We closed the bedroom door and, presto, no more pooping on the pillows!” Problem solved.
I’m a dog person. But rehoming any animal because you caused/were the impetus for behavior problems, and then you failed to even try to help the animal through the problems, is just reprehensible.
Lol, I’m confused now – does she love cats or Cats?
Whatever the damage control wants her to say.
Must be in the very small minority that likes Cats…
Which is equally as horrifying!
@Eurydice good one 🙂
Just own it. You said you hated cats. Rather than walk it back, just shut down the conversation by saying, “I’m a dog person.” God knows what she paid a PR team for that bad advice.
Had tickets for the Bride, cancelled them and went to see Hoppers/Jumpers instead.
Was there a lot of promotion for this film though? Bc I feel like I just heard about it this past week. It looks wild and out there which isn’t a bad thing so I wish it had done better. Female director and female lead role. I do want more of those.
I don’t watch a ton of TV with commercials and they’ve been running ads since late January. I’ve not seen Bale, Buckley or Gyllenhall make the talk show rounds necessarily but the ad buy was certainly there.
Huh. Okay then. My HR fugue state has me out of the loop. But I do wish it had done better or might find an audience. At the end of the day, Marty Supreme made money for their studio. I think it’s been the biggest money maker for the studio. But I’d rather see out there takes of Frankenstein with the female character centered than more films about an obnoxious ping pong. That’s just me.
Marty maybe made money. It had a $60–70 million budget which means it needed between $150-175 million to break even. It made $162.3 million which is a lot for an original drama with an over 2 hr runtime. But that budget was really high for a movie like that.
I don’t understand why this budget had to be so large…especially the marketing part…I mean…they already had “Poor Things” (similar vibe) to compare to in terms of audience anticipation & you had greater actor/director recognition with that one…
And no…Buckley did NOT help😮
Agree about the budget. Salaries for Bale and Gyllenhal maybe? That’s just a guess. Maybe they took pay cuts?
I am reminded of a behind the scenes featurette I saw of that recent Star Trek tv show centered on Picard…they were showing off some metal starship figurine props, saying that they were plated with real gold. They were on screen for maaaaaaaybe a few minutes?
I am thinking that maybe a few too many stupid production decisions are being made that are inflating the budgets of these films in stupid ways.
And Poor Things, which looked *great*, had a budget of about $35-40 million.
Oh dear the backlash must be something for her to do a 360 on cats but does she really believe people are believing what she says of cats now? I for one don’t believe the girl who forced her boyfriend now husband to re-home his cats!!! Karma’s a feline bitch sometimes!!
Those are mega stars directing and leading the production. They should have been out there hustling like Teyana Taylor.
That said, I love cats and have a house panther who is absolutely in charge of this household. But if she had literally attacked my partner and shit on his pillow repeatedly… After many failed attempts at behavioral correction, I too would have rehomed my cats.
I was interested in seeing The Bride before I heard there was SA in it. Why do we need this? I don’t need a style over substance horror movie to tell me the world is awful to women, so just shock value? Titillation for the worst possible people? Pass
Ohhh. I didn’t know that.
Oh what a disappointment!
Christian Bale plays the MONSTER created by Dr. Frankenstein. Many people don’t realize that Frankenstein refers to the doctor, not his creation.
It is popular to refer to the creature as Frankenstein and to his creator as Doctor Frankenstein, but properly speaking the creature never claims any name other than perhaps ‘Adam’, and Victor Frankenstein was a first year medical school student who dropped out.
But both the creature and Victor do seem to acknowledge something of a parent-child relationship between them at certain points, so the creature COULD be considered to be A Frankenstein, just not THE Frankenstein.
Someone should sit her down and watch that Netflix documentary “Don’t F*** with Cats.”
Fuck her, basically. 🤷🏾♀️
She was fantastic in Fargo in my opinion, in a season of fantastic actors betrayed by a poor script and edit. But nah, I dont trust people who make partners get rid of pets. Pets deserve to be with you their whole lives, they shouldnt be thrown away when they are inconvenient.
Lies make you ugly, dear.
She isn’t just backtracking, she’s lying in hopes that people didn’t look at the full story and this new statement will make the other report of her own statements look like “gossip”. It isn’t gossip, she said what she said.. and she isn’t even saying it was situational, she’s diverting attention and I would call it a desperate lie.
Her comments and face did not look she was being serious. I think she was actually mocking the cat community that was upset with her. Which is her right. If that was her attempt to pacify the cat community it was piss poor. (and yes sort of punny there). I think she’s making light of the uproar. She’s smiling as she discusses the issue. I’ve not seen hamnet but I’m told her performance is great, so the way she acted during the fallon show is not a good sign of her ability to act sincere which to me means she’s not really and just doesn’t care. As a cat lover, I’m not inviting her to my house and think she handled the situation with her ex badly, but I’m not the one married to her.
I agree, I believe she was mocking the cat community and so was Jimmy Fallon. I heard the snotty way he said “one hundred percent dog.”
she may be a generational talent, but after that interview she is dead to me.
Thank you for the heads up – I’m sick of women being attacked in movies for shock value.
Not interested in seeing this film or anything else with her in it, ever. I’m just over it. No need to spend my money supporting “artists” who are horrible people.
I think it’s wild that a particular audience can verbalize “you’re dead to me” or “I’m not watching this anymore” etc. because an actor doesn’t like cats and told this anecdotal but yet countless people jumped on Black Americans for being upset about hearing/seeing slurs hurled at Black actors during an award ceremony and called ignorant for not wanting to see the film associated with the offender. It’s fascinating in a mind that is boggled sort of way.
@ IMARATOTHA219, AAudience” is a large group of people acting in concert.
We as individuals attend events or not.
Individuals support someone’s work or avoid them.
The same people who don’t want to see Jessie Buckley’s work may also avoid the Bafta’s or anything or anyone else, they aren’t mutually exclusive decisions.
This conversation is around Jessie Buckley so it’s a stretch to conflate this as anything else
The reactions to Jessie saying she hates cats are grossly disproportionate! I’m going to be extremely unpopular here, but why is this so triggering for people? I’m sure you all have things you ‘hate’!!! You wouldn’t expect to be completely thrown out of your circles, work place! Be derided and cast out as a despicable person!!
I know the world has gone mad and we’re all stressed but come on! The vitriol directed at her (and people who don’t like cats! CATS!) is wildly disproportionate! To the extent you decide you don’t want to see her new film! I’m not interested in seeing it either but it has nothing to do with her personal preferences regarding a cat!
Signed, person who doesn’t like cats either but hopes not to be cast out into the desert because I don’t like cats. I’m allergic to them and that makes them want to climb all over me.
I totally agree with this. People dislike cats. I dislike cats. And if I had a boyfriend who had two cats, I would leave my boyfriend. I cannot stand being around them; they give me the heebie jeebies. I can and will be nice to them if they bug me. But if I had a choice, I would not be anywhere near them. It is visceral for me. This is exactly correct. We all have things that we respond to viscerally. If we were being honest with ourselves and not judgy. No reason for the vitriol.
You sound like a straight up b****.
Welcome to social media – everything is disproportionate here.
@lola Thank you! The voice of reason. The response to this story is so wild to me. I’m a cat lover, have always had cats, but the vitriol being thrown her way is so ridiculous and OTT.
Many thoughts.
1. Cats do not defecate on pillows, or anywhere other than their litter box. When one of our cats gets sick from eating too fast, they do vomit on the floor. Never once has there been any kind of accident in our bedroom. Same with our dog.
2. This was a personal, non funny story, that didn’t need to be shared. It just makes her sound selfish and uncaring.
3. If the cats needed to be re-homed and it got found out, a little white lie of “it turns out I’m allergic to cats!” would have worked just fine.
4. Cats – and dogs – aren’t for everyone. But no need to talk about it in this instance.
5. I hope those cats are thriving in a happier environment.
Gotta disagree strongly with your first proclamation there.
Cats will in fact poop in a lot of odd areas – on beds, pillows, clothing, in shoes, cupboards, etc etc.
Often that means they a stressed out about something – like there’s a territorial dispute, jockeying for dominance or significant change going on. Or it could be a medical issue.
But it happens.
And yeah, its reality tv, but a casual viewing of even a handful of My Cat From Hell reruns will show some examples
Long ago my roommate had a small cat that liked to go outside but was the object of bullying from neighbor cats. She became very attached to me, and in her stress apparently urinated on some of my things. I discovered this when I went off to work one day and noticed an odd smell that I couldn’t pin down — which turned out (an hour later) to be coming from the beret on top of my head.
Poor little kitty
To be honest I thought the movie was about Lady Gaga recreating her role in a third installment of The Joker.
Cue to this actress donating money to a cat shelter to correct her faux pas.
I’m really not sure what to think about the disliking cats thing.
As long as she didn’t kill the cats (which is how it sounded at first), I guess I don’t feel one way or the other about her disliking cats.
Apparently she made her current partner give away his pets . He sucks more than she does, they’re his pets!
Dear Hollywood: Please stop remaking movies that we’ve all seen hundreds of times and don’rt require a remake.
Please and thank you!
But this isn’t Frankenstein. It’s about a bride of. It hasn’t been done to death. It could’ve been great and fresh but apparently isn’t.
You gonna learn today boo bear lmao
I’m curious about her not trying to explain at all. I can understand not being a cat person, I have an acquaintance with a phobia and because her body language is avoidant, it attracts cats. She had EMDR to cope.
I like cats in general and love my cat. I also loved Jessie Buckley’s performance in “Hamnet” as well as in that movie she did with Olivia Coleman. I don’t need my actors to share my opinion of cats. No, I don’t exactly approve of her making her partner re-home his pets. She hasn’t been diplomatic about it either. But it’s not like they abandoned the cats; they found them another home. And we don’t know what specific issues made it hard for them to all co-exist? Maybe they were making life really difficult.
At the end of the day, people are more important than pets. At least that’s what her now husband apparently decided.
And I still hope she wins.
Putting aside the cat thing, I haven’t been a fan of hers since I saw her on the Andrew Lloyd Webber thing back in the day when they were trying to find a new stage Nancy for his show Oliver. She was clearly his favourite and she came across as very arrogant because of that. I was very glad when she didn’t eventually win. It’s funny how your first impressions of a person stay with you. I just can’t take to her now because of it.
I had no idea this movie existed until today.
There’s something wrong with the way movies are advertised these days because if I know an actor like Christian Bale is in it, I’ll definitely want to see it. He doesn’t star in bad movies. This is likely a good movie that has accidentally bombed at the office due to bad promotion.
For months on end, all I’ve heard is about Gwyneth Paltrow making out with Timothe Chalamet and her kids’ reactions to this. And then I knew I didn’t want to see the ping-pong movie despite whatever Oscar buzz it might have.
did folk taek the whole thing seriously.. pathetic… no doupt most are Americans.. just don’t get it..