Bill Hader Is the Cat in the Hat — This Time a “Much Different Version” Than He Played on ‘SNL’

The comedian voices the titular cat in the new animated movie The Cat in the Hat, an adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ 1957 children’s book. It’s the second time Hader has played the character, as he portrayed a more adult iteration of the Cat in the Hat in a Saturday Night Live sketch in 2014.

At the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Sunday, Hader confirmed that his SNL take “was a much different version of Cat in the Hat” than this family-friendly version, which he was “very flattered” to be asked to play. He also didn’t draw from Mike Myers’ 2003 live-action version, which he admitted to having never seen.

Writer/directors Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni gushed over Hader on the carpet, with both having worked with him on previous projects and knowing he would be right to lead the film. “He’s the funniest, best voice actor ever. He’s also a really good emotional actor and was able to hit the heartfelt parts very well,” Rivinoja said, as Carloni added, “Bill Hader is not just brilliant at comedy but the cat needed to be someone that every now and then would slow down and make you wonder, wait, is he really just a buffoon and a clown or could it be that deep down this guy knows exactly what he’s doing? And Bill Hader has got the acting chops to deliver on that as well.”

But the high-energy voice acting almost wiped it’s star out, with Hader admitting, “People think it’s real fun and easy; really it’s exhausting. After every session I would need a nap because I’m just old.”

The film also features a star-studded voice cast of Quinta Brunson, America Ferrera, Matt Berry, Bowen Yang, Xochitl Gomez, Giancarlo Esposito and Tituss Burgess and goes beyond Dr. Seuss’ classic, with Rivinoja noting that the book’s plot line makes up just the first few minutes of the movie and then follows “where does the cat go after this is over.”

Brunson saw the finished film for the first time with a screening full of kids, and said “as an adult, as a showrunner, writer, all of those things, I’m always in my head about editing and notes and things like that. What was fun was looking around and seeing this crowd of kids — the movie wasn’t even finished yet… but the kids were having a ball,” serving as a “reminder that this is a movie for kids and families to have a good time.”