It’s complicated.
Kristen Roupenian’s short story Cat Person boasts the unusual distinction of having created not just one major viral moment but two.
When it was first published in The New Yorker in 2017, it almost instantly led to a wealth of online discourse, with the story’s themes having particularly resonated with young women.
But then, almost four years later, it became a talking point again for a very different reason.
A writer named Alexis Nowicki penned an essay in Slate that claimed sections of Cat Person had been taken wholesale from her own life and her relationship with a former partner, leading to a lengthy online discussion about the nature of fiction and the ethics of using real people as inspiration.
So with a film adaptation now arriving in UK cinemas, we spoke to director Susanna Fogel all about that original short story and the subsequent backlash – read on for everything you need to know.
Is Cat Person based on a book?
As alluded to above, the film is not based on a book per se, but a short story that was written by Kristen Roupenian and published in The New Yorker in 2017.
Fogel read the short story at the time when it was first making a splash and said her initial reactions were: “This is an incredible short story, why is everyone so angry about it?
“I think a lot about the fact that it was the medium in which it was published,” she told RadioTimes.com during an exclusive interview. “The New Yorker is not known for publishing stories about 20-year-old women dating. Those stories are usually dismissed, or at least relegated to the chick-lit canon section of the bookstore.”
She added: “So I think the fact that it was written in this precise literary way but it was about something that was so emotionally astute to women, but then literary enough to be in The New Yorker, sort of forced the female experience into the airspace of a lot of men and older people that then caused a lot of drama.”
Is Cat Person based on a true story?
Now, this is where things get a little more complicated.
Although Cat Person the short story was not explicitly based on true events, Alexis Nowicki noted several consistencies with her own life and a previous relationship – one which she had claimed was actually largely a positive experience.
Roupenian later admitted that she had been aware of Nowicki and details she’d learned about her on social media had served as a “jumping-off point” for the story, but maintained that it was largely a work of fiction.
This is even more so the case in the film, which further alters and expands details from the short story.
As Fogel puts it: “Kristen’s story is a piece of fiction that is inspired by experiences she had, like any piece of fiction. Then Michelle [Ashford, screenwriter] adapted Kristen’s story and then I adapted Michelle’s script of Kristen’s story. So there’s like many, many levels of distance.
“So I’m sure that this fifth-generation adaptation has very little to do with anything Kristen experienced or [Nowicki] experienced. It’s like a whole other thing at this point.”
Speaking more generally about the debate that ensued following the publication of Nowicki’s article, she added: “I mean, to me that was like a meditation on the nature of fiction writing. I think that people really saw Cat Person as… it’s almost like people had a block about seeing it as a piece of fiction.
“Like they saw it as the writer just writing. People still refer to the story as an ‘article’ all the time, constantly. I’ve even done it. I just forget. Everybody calls it an article because they think it’s just kind of a woman’s blog post, not a piece of fiction by a woman in her mid-30s who is culling some experiences from her young life.
“So the notion that it’s just an expose on one person is sort of not what it ever was. And so it’s interesting to me that that sort of became the narrative afterward, and I think that’s why it sort of actually just raised questions about where fiction writers draw inspiration from.
“And as someone who’s written a book, I’m taking little bits and pieces from people, things, the world, Instagram, Google, you know – that’s kind of like the process. But I think because this story is so triggering for people when there’s someone else who sort of crossed on the Venn diagram a little bit, it just felt like there was a sense of ownership.”
How different is Cat Person from the original short story?
As with any film adaptation, the new movie differs from the original short story in a number of ways – adding some characters, expanding some details and even creating a whole new third act that continues after the point at which the short story ends.
Speaking – without spoilers – about the decision to add a new ending, Fogel explained: “The section that we added was a moment where you sort of get a window into Robert’s side of the story, and it sort of shines a light on how different that story was from her story.
“But by then it’s escalated in a way that I think it’s a cautionary tale about what can come with not communicating, but also what can come of not understanding the other person’s side of the story from a gender perspective. Like, men not understanding the fear that women carry into every situation is a problem, men not understanding their own strength in a way can be a problem.
“Women not fully being in command of their own agency or sexuality is not their fault, but it is a factor that can, like, stoke the anger of men. It just all kind of feeds on itself. And so when it’s dysfunctional, it can get really explicit and dangerous, and you know, so it can be awkward at best and dangerous at worst.”
Meanwhile, Fogel said that by adding this ending and expanding other sections, she hoped the film can move the discussion on from the original discourse that followed the publication of Roupenian’s story.
“I think people kind of exhausted themselves having that debate – and part of wanting to change the story or build on it and add another chapter to it was that I think the same debate that we had already doesn’t need to be had again, we need to have a different debate.
“And if this film like invites men into the conversation by offering them a different lens on one of the characters in that conversation and a more humane lens that they can invite them into seeing things about him that we want them to see and seeing themselves in him, that’s good.”
Cat Person is out now in cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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