If you are fortunate enough to have watched the sadly overlooked Malpaso film The Stars Fell on Henrietta, you were treated to some wonderful performances by actors Robert Duvall and Aiden Quinn as well as actress Frances Fisher. But the performance that probably grabbed your attention the most was that of a leading cat named Matilda, the constant companion of Duvall’s character, who stole the show in every scene.

In the few reviews of the film that did appear in print, Matilda was sometimes singled out or at least mentioned. But what is surprising is the cat actor(s) were not credited in the film or in print. This is a grave oversight which we are now happy to correct.

We reached out to the head animal trainer on the film, Karin McElhatton, a veteran animal trainer with many credits to her name and co-owner of Studio Animal Services, one of the leading providers of animal actors for film, television and print. When Karin learned we were inquiring about this particular film and the cat actors involved, she very graciously offered to answer our questions.

“I am so pleased you became aware of our work on Henrietta,” Karin told Cinema Cats. “We thought the cats worked great and were disappointed the movie was not more successful. It was a huge undertaking and we put a great deal of time into training for every specific scene.”

The cat actors who worked on the film were an in-house Domestic Brown Tabby Shorthair cat team comprised of two males named Percy and Slick and a female named Holly. “This was a ‘hero’ cat team which we already had and were highly trained,” Karin explained. “However, we put much more training into them for everything which we would need to accomplish in this film. Slick and Percy were our ‘go with’ cats and did almost all the principal cat actions with Robert Duvall.”

Karin McElhatton started her career working at theme parks including Six Flags, Japanese Village and Deer Park and its later incarnation Enchanted Village, and has worked with animals throughout her career. “Training housecats is like training wild animals,” she explained, going on to say that love and positive reinforcement are by far the best tools to encourage cat actors to perform.

Karin worked on Henrietta with assistant animal trainer Megan Fogarty (Jim Dew was also credited but Karin and Megan were the trainers working on location). The project presented some interesting challenges since much of the action was filmed on location in Texas and the cats were meant to perform mostly in outdoor scenes with environments that included wind, crowds and transportation, not to mention the need for the cats to look comfortable traveling alongside the lead character in these situations.

“The cats worked in a multitude of exterior locations, in giant wind machines and dust, down streets and in antique cars,” Karin elaborated. “The part of Robert Duvall’s cat meant we had to have the cats walk along with him, jump on his suitcase, be carried by him, rub his legs, and accompany him in almost every scene. The cats did a lot of ‘go withs’ with Robert and had to look like his own devoted companion cat.” Karin explained how Duvall wore a buzzer which cued the cat actors to rub against his legs, all actions followed with positive reinforcement. “Robert Duvall and all the other actors who interacted with the cats were all great, very professional, as were Slick and Percy!”

“The scenes in the town, in which Slick is in a bar or cafe with Robert were exceptional in the cat training world,” Karin explained. The set was a recreation of the town in Texas where the story took place, and Karin commented on how people who lived in that area were impressed with how well the filmmakers recreated the place; that it was just as they had remembered. The problems with shooting in such a large and elaborate setting were many, some which couldn’t have been predicted. Karin told us how there were so many feral cats in the town that one of the cat actors would not perform because of the numerous male cat scents in the area.

It is exceptional when you realize that most film shoots involving cats are done indoors on closed sets with a limited number of people allowed on set. In many cases the cats are shot completely separately from the actors and main crew. This film involved a majority of outdoor settings, extreme situations (can you even imagine trying to get a cat actor to perform in a windstorm with the loud wind machines that are used?) and traveling shots in which the cats had to look comfortable and be at home with the lead actor at all times.

Much to the credit of the trainers, the cats’ performances in the film are outstanding. They seemed so at home and natural in these unusual conditions. And they performed wonderful bits, such as placing a paw on the steering wheel of a car and jumping onto actor Robert Duvall’s shoulder. “The scene in which Percy is on a tree branch and jumps onto Robert’s shoulder was very good,” Karin agreed.

Cinema Cats has already written up one film which starred this particular team and that was Moonlight Mile. We asked if there were any other performances by these specific cat actors. “Those cats Slick, Percy, and Holly were probably in other TV shows and films, but also did many many commercials,” Karin answered. “They were one of my all time beloved cat teams of Studio Animal Services. They were extremely special cats with amazing training.”

We are forever grateful that Karin McElhatton so graciously offered to answer our questions so we could make sure that this notable performance by one of the best cat acting teams of the 1990’s and their trainers would finally receive the recognition they deserve.