Bette Midler is rabid for Cats & Dogs:The Revenge Of Kitty Galore Special

In this homage to Bond movies (and 007 fave Pussy Galore), The Divine Bette gives a voice to the film's feline villain. The press-shy Midler also speaks out on aging, the films she passed on, why she dislikes the internet and her real thoughts on Meryl.

In her four decade-plus career, Bette Midler, The Divine Miss M, has done it all. From a chanteuse with a bestselling recording career – with several gold-plated albums – to an unstoppable dual career as a film (The Rose), stage (Ol' Red Hair Is Back) and television (Gypsy) actress who has appeared in everything from hit dramas (Beaches) to comedies (The First Wives Club). This month, in Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore, she's the voice of a Bond-like mad, maniacal Sphinx cat (Kitty Galore, in a nod to the 007 icon Pussy Galore). However, Midler is one cat you don't want to mess with. “This time around I have claws, and I'm not afraid to use them,” jokes Midler about her real-life, feline alter-ego. “I love playing villains, because they are so over-the-top and usually the silliest. With Kitty Galore you have a wonderful mix of evil and absolute ridiculousness – it was an irresistible role I couldn't pass up.” Directed by self-professed James Bond fan Brad Peyton, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore (a sequel to 2001's Cats & Dogs) is a clever blend of live action with real dogs and cats, state-of-the-art puppetry and computer animation for the 3D effects that the whole family should enjoy. Joining Midler, who was an ex-MEOWS agent, the cast includes Christina Applegate, Neil Patrick Harris, Sean Hayes, James Marsden, Nick Nolte, Joe Pantoliano, Katt Williams, Jack McBrayer, Fred Armisen and Paul Rodriquez are the voices of the various DOG and MEOWS agents who reluctantly join together to stop Kitty Galore's global cat-astrophe that could rid the world of all human's and their four-legged friends.”Kitty was obviously once a star,” Midler explains, "but her stardom was snatched away from her, so now she's quite bitter, and as the title says, wants revenge.” When she wasn't busy playing to sold-out houses at The Coliseum inside Las Vegas' Caesar's Palace for an unprecedented two-year stint in her critically-acclaimed stage show “The Showgirl Must Go On,” Bette would spend time recording in Las Vegas and Los Angeles sound studios to record her lines as Kitty Galore. “I had the greatest time giving Kitty a voice.” the 55-year-old multi-award-winner admits. “They gave me a sketch of what she was going to look like. “As time went on, the sketch became more life-like and fleshed out right in front of me, and I just knew what she needed to sound like.” However, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore wasn't the only thing on her mind this day. The usually tight-lipped Midler decided to open up about some of personal concerns during an intimate press interview at a mid-July get-together in a Los Angeles hotel – and what The Divine Miss M had to say was both surprising and funny. In the Cats & Dogs press notes, you were saying that Kitty Galore is a misunderstood character. What do you mean by that? “Well, she’s had an accident. She’s been rejected by her family. Of course any kind of rejection always hurts and turns people into something that – it leaves a wound. In her case, I think an open wound. She decides she’s going to take over the world. The back story is the excuse for all of it. She’s really just the mover. She’s the initiator of the plot but really, she’s just a very small part of the movie. I’ve never seen a movie like it. I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe I’m not going to the right movies but I never saw anything like it. The last time I saw an animal talk was Mister Ed and he was horrible. So these animals talking, I thought, 'What am I going to see?' They actually really are believable aren’t they? That’s shocking to me.” Have you had fun watching adults and children react to your performance as Kitty Galore? There are a lot of funny scenes in it, aren't there? “Lots of really funny sequences in it. I laughed out loud. It’s a picture that has something not just for families, or not just for children but for grown ups, too. I mean, I know the kids are going to be wide-eyed because it’s so – it plays into everything they believe. They believe that animals can talk. I mean, I certainly did when I was a kid.”

Atlantic Records

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Probably they talk. “Yeah, of course, they talk their own way, their own language. It’s just a language you don’t understand. And then there is all these kind of funny references to movies that they, you know, it’s a send up. It’s a parody of parodies, so it’s great. I think it works on every level.” I hear that the real “cat-tress” that portrayed Kitty Galore is a very special cat. “She’s very special.” Did you meet her? “Did I meet her? Yes, I met her on several occasions. Did you meet her? She's here, somewhere. Her name is Lisa. Isn’t she fabulous? First of all, she feels wonderful. She’s creepy and wonderful at the same time. I think they’re related to snakes. She looks like a snake. You know that longish face and the big eyes? She is an Egyptian. They are Egyptians. They’re called the Sphinx cat. That is the breed.” Could you relate to them? “Completely. I think they’re very elegant, very, very elegant.” You just returned from a trip to the Middle East. Are you planning to do a show there? “I’m not planning to do a show there. I think that a show from me is the last thing they need. I mean, they’ve got so much on their – all of them, every nation there has so much on its plate and so much fear and despair. My husband says I’m a cheerful soul, so maybe I can bring some cheer, which is good.” Do you think you’re not a cheerful soul? “Well, I’m really not very cheerful. He’s making a joke. I’m not very cheerful at all. Most comics are really, really sour. I’m a little bit sour. I don’t seek world domination. At one time I did but not anymore. I’ve given that up.”

HBO

The Divine Miss M - live and in concert!

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What changed? “I got older. My hormones dried up. Once those hormones go that world domination is like, 'Oh, just forget it.'” What was your meaning? What was your plan? “I achieved my plan but I got tired. I got bored. What’s the point? Who really wants to be chased by the paparazzi? Is it really that much fun?” Don’t you have any plans for a new show? “No I have no plans. Isn’t that fabulous? I have no plans.” Fabulous? “For me, it’s fabulous because I worked really, really hard. I got very tired. I just want to see what else is out there in the world. I’d like to be inspired. Everyone wants inspiration. I’m no different. I went a long time on the same inspiration. I was inspired by the same things for a long, long – inspire you anymore you’ve reached your goal. Then you have to find another mountain to climb and sometimes you don’t really feel like climbing the mountain, sometimes you just want to sit…” So, traveling inspires you? “I cannot say that I was inspired by my travel, no. I was interested and curious and some questions that I had were answered but I can’t really say I was inspired. Things that I find inspiring are usually things that are – music inspires me, nature inspires me. What’s going on in the world at this particular point is so hard to deal with that it’s very hard to get inspired. There is no room for inspiration because everyone is trying to make some sense out of what’s going on, I think.” One magazine reported that you said that only Meryl Streep gets… “I didn’t say that. They said, all those women over 40 are saying Meryl Streep gets all the jobs. But I do say to Meryl, 'Meryl, you’ve got to turn some things down.' (laughs) But she loves to work and fortunately, she’s a genius. She puts the people in the seats and that’s what the people at the front office want. That’s what they need.” What do you feel about it? “What do I feel about it? You know what, I don’t know? If there were more roles for women, then Meryl wouldn’t get every job, but there aren’t. There are only a few. They don’t make that many movies starring women. It’s kind of a conundrum.” Hasn’t she, in a sense, opened things up for older women? “Would you like to name the older women that she’s opened up for?” No, but your Cats & Dogs costar, Christina Applegate, just said how hard this job is for most actors and only a few are very lucky in this business. “I would say she was right. I have to say that she is right although the internet seems to make a big difference in a lot of people’s lives. I’m not sure that people care about being movie stars anymore. I think they don’t care about that. You know, in the old days, when you had to have a talent to play a character to act or to sing or to dance or do whatever, a real skill and your fame came out of your talent. You had a different class of people. Now, the talent element is mostly gone, often gone and the fame element has taken over from that. So you have people who act out and who are notorious rather than famous. They’re notorious for certain kinds of bad behavior or certain behavior outside the pail or behavior that’s shocking or outrageous. It’s very crowded. The field is very crowded so it’s hard for people with talent to elbow their way to the front and say, I’m here, too. All of the standards for what people want to see have changed and it changes every 20 years anyway. You know, the standards of beauty, the standards of talent whether it’s going to be men centric or whether it’s going to be female centric. It’s all influx all the time. We happen to be in a very bleak time.” What is your best and finest advice to avoid all the traps of Hollywood? “Don’t believe anything you read about yourself. Don’t read your press.” Did you never read any of yours? “I made the mistake, very early on, of reading my press and it made me very sick for a long time. So I never read it anymore. I never read the good but I never read the bad. If you read the good, you have to read the bad. And if you read the bad, you won’t survive because you’ll get sick from it. It’s meant to injure and hurt and destroy. It’s cruel. It’s unsurvivable. I know people who follow all that crap and who follow what people say about them on the internet. They get so ill from it. They get so frantic from it. I got to do something about this. I have to answer this. You know what, if what you don’t know is not going to hurt you unfortunately, what you do know will. So I never read it. I don’t participate. In my home, I only have one picture of anything that I ever did in my whole career on the wall, only one.”

Atlantic Records

A promo photo for 'The Divine Miss M' album in the early-1970s.

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What is the photo of? “It’s my picture with the last night with Johnny Carson. That’s all. That’s the only one I have.” Most actresses of you stature get to see all the good and bad scripts. Did you ever made the wrong decision of passing on a movie that might have changed your career? “I’ve made so many. Oh my God, it’s all so tragic. But it’s best to forget those. It’s best to just put them behind me. Unfortunately, my husband never lets me forget them. There was Sister Act which was written for me. My friend who was in charge of the music, Mark Shayman and he said, 'You got to.' I said, 'My fans don’t want to see me in a wimple.' I don’t know where I got that from because why would say such a thing. Where did I get that from? So I didn’t do that movie and Whoopi did it instead and, of course, she made a fortune. Then she went on and did Sister Act 2 so that’s like two pictures. I also didn’t do Misery. Kathy Bates won an Oscar for it. That’s not to say I would have. It was so violent and I had no relation to it. And instead of saying, 'You’re an actor and you’ll put this coat and then you’ll take it off.' Instead of going to that place, because I come from another world. Really, I come from music. I was afraid. I thought I was thinking about do that, instead of being a committed actor which I regret. That’s something that I struggle with all the time. I think that committed actors who only act, you know who I mean, they’re different. They don’t think about the things. They don’t put obstacles in their own way. I think they look at every role as their life’s work. They’re unafraid to look ugly or to be vile because that their job. That wasn’t my job. My job was basically as an entertainer. When I was asked to do something that was so outside my purview, I couldn’t do it. That’s why my husband says – he says that was a big mistake.” Do you think that there is a difference between the loneliness of the young musicians and singers today than when you started out in the early-'70s? What happened in the past to a lot of singers and musicians? “I think the whole game has changed. It’s a completely different world. I see young musicians, a lot of them get into a lot of trouble that they don’t really need to get in, and actors, too. I see a lot of people in the limelight get into a lot of trouble when they don’t need to. I think if you can find some joy in your work, I don’t think you need – I don’t know. I’m just talking for my half. I have no idea. I’m starting to fade. Oh my God, I’ve been at this since ten. I saw some of them go off the deep end. You know, like Lindsey (Lohan) and Britney (Spears) and people like that -- girls. Most of the women not the men so much. I mean, you see the men too. Now because of the cameras and the ubiquity of the internet and everything, everyone knows they’re failures. You can’t have your failures or your meltdowns in private anymore. In a funny way, you don’t know why it’s so hard for them not be reasonable. But maybe the thing that makes them creative is the thing that makes them unreasonable. I sort of sometimes wish I were less reasonable so that I could know that craziness and that complete dementedness that people somehow are allowed. I feel like maybe that would make things better. Maybe that would make my work better if I were crazier but then I think, well what will I do? Can you imagine my mug shot? I’m so old.”

HBO

The Divine Miss M

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What crazy stuff would you do? “I don’t know. I don’t know I’ve never been that stoned.” How do you keep yourself looking so amazing? “Thank you. I do it all. I do a little bit of everything. I do it all. I have a great makeup artist and a great hairdresser. I really try not to pig out. The booze really packs it on. I should not drink. Small people should have half a drink. I’m sticking to it. Small people should drink proportionately. I small person, I remember I used to go out with one of the people from – I used to go out with a musician. He was a tall guy and he was like a beefy tall guy. He was European and he really drank. I was his girlfriend and I would go and try to keep up with him. At the end of the evening, I was like so ill and he was wide eyed. I would be sick as a dog because I was trying to keep up with him. Well you can’t. You should never even try and that’s a mistake that people make. Sometimes when they get sad, when people get sad, they tend to, you know and a lot of people give up. A lot of women give up. You see it in the Midwest all the time. They just give up. It’s like, 'I’m married now. I have four kids. I don’t have to do anything.' Well you know what, you have to do it for yourself. You just have to. I do it all. I do the facials. I do the Pilates. I do the Yoga and I like it. That’s the thing. I really like it and I run. I really like to sweat. I’m one of those people that likes to sweat.” Do believe in plastic surgery? “I think that if you want it and you need it, you should go for it. The techniques are really great now. Do I do Botox? I’ve done Botox. I haven’t done Botox in a while as you can see {laughs}. But I think it’s interesting. I mean, you know, it’s a big world.” Since you are such an incredible singer. Is there a singer that you really love today with a new voice? “There is a lot of voices out there that are very beautiful voices; more beautiful voices than ever before. The men are good. The men are wonderful singers and the women. I mean, there is so many of them. The real test is whether they sing live because in the studio now, a lot of voices could be created. But there’s lots of wonderful records being made. I don’t call anybody names. I still like my old friends when I was coming up, you know the old – the ones I grew up with. The Arethas and the Chakas and the Donnas and the Dianas and the Sam Cooks and the Marvin Gayes. You’ll notice they’re all black. And the Eagles and the Stones and the Bruces and the Springsteens. I still love all those people. I bought Lady Gaga. I like that record a lot. I love Beyonce.” What about from American Idol? “No – well, Kelly Clarkson, I adore. She’s fabulous and she’s the real deal. There is half a dozen other people that I keep track of. I try to keep track. But you know what, it’s a different – like I said, it’s like this, it’s like a moving walkway and you start here and you end here. Actually, you have to get off the walk but while you’re here, you can have chats with everybody that’s on it. And experience everyone that’s on the walk with you and until it’s time for you to jump off the walk, you know, as long as you’re interested." Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore opens throughout North America on July 30, 2010 in 3D and 2D