KC’s favorite feline, ‘Catrick Mahomes,’ got star treatment in Hallmark Chiefs movie
Let us paws and appreciate the Hollywood treatment that Kansas City’s favorite feline, Sly James the Cat, received for his star turn in the Hallmark Christmas movie about the Chiefs — an Oscar-worthy cameo, fans are saying.
He had his own trailer on the set. He got one of those Hollywood director’s chairs with his name on the back. He appeared in a scene with none other than Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman and the daughters of team CEO Clark Hunt.
The crew applauded for him when his scene wrapped at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
And on the day of the red carpet premiere last month for “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story,” Hallmark sent a driver in an SUV to ferry the 8-year-old Bengal-tabby mix from his home in KCK to the party at Crown Center where he was a big hit.
If cats really do get nine lives, Sly just lived his best one.
His new fans will get to see his big-screen premiere again when the extended-cut version of the movie debuts at 7 p.m. Friday. The film became Hallmark’s most-watched movie of the year when it debuted Thanksgiving weekend.
Sly has been a social media star for the last six years or so thanks to his cat mama, teacher Brandy Peed. She dresses him in homemade costumes every day for holidays, mostly obscure ones, and posts the photos on Instagram where Sly has nearly 12,000 followers.
He just wore a Detroit Tigers cap and a Tom Selleck glare for the recent Magnum P.I. Day.
“It’s crazy that just taking pictures of my cat and posting them on the Internet to make people happy got him into a Hallmark movie,” Peed told The Star. “Not just a regular movie but a Hallmark movie, which is a big deal in Kansas City.”
She named him after former Kansas City mayor Sly James. But in the movie Sly appeared as his famous alter ego, Catrick Mahomes, the cat-version of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. As Catrick he wears a curly little wig Peed made of delicate doll hair. He wore it in the movie.
Catrick was part of a major plot line. In the movie, the Chiefs’ fictional director of fan engagement Derrick (Tyler Hynes) falls in love with long-time fan Alana (Hunter King).
Catrick competes against Alana and her family for the honor of Chiefs fan of the year. By now, anyone who has seen the movie knows who wins, though Catrick’s fans want a do-over. (Maybe in a sequel?)
‘He’s not a trained actor’
Sly must have been on someone’s radar.
On June 24, an email showed up in the cat’s inbox — yes, he has his own email address — from someone at Hallmark offering him an “opportunity.” The email didn’t say what it was, Peed said, and Hallmark wouldn’t share any details unless she first signed a non-disclosure agreement.
“OK, this is kind of weird,” she thought.
“Then when I got the NDA. It says Hallmark, Chiefs, blah blah blah,” Peed said. “Oh. This is not fake. This is real.
“I think I might have Googled the person too who sent me the email — do they really work for Hallmark?”
They did.
She signed the NDA and found out her cat was being offered a “very big deal.”
Hallmark wanted to use photos from Sly’s Instagram in the movie and asked if he would be available for filming. “What do you think he can do?” the movie folks asked.
“I don’t know,” Peed told them. “He’s not a trained actor cat. We do pictures in my small office, just the two of us. I don’t know how he will react. All we can do is try.”
They spent five hours at Arrowhead on July 17. They filmed late in the afternoon into early evening, which coincided with Sly’s normal nap time.
Sorry, kitty.
Peed was at first concerned about the noisy set — ladders clanking, lighting being maneuvered. Lots of talking.
“There was a lot of noise, even between takes,” she said. “There were a lot of extras in that scene. It shocked me when they started bringing in all these people.
“So for him, i think the sound was overwhelming, hearing so many people talk and they’re yelling action and all that stuff. So he was a little freaked out. But he got used to it.”
Sly was in the scene of a gala party at Arrowhead for the fan of the year contestants. For his part, all Sly had to do was lie on top of a tall cocktail table. In their own cameo roles, Hardman and the Hunt daughters, Gracie and Ava, stood at the table.
“I told them as long as you keep your hand on him, (he’ll be OK),” Peed said. “I was mainly worried he would jump off the table.
“The Hunt daughters were just so wonderful. Even having their hand on him was just so comforting for him to stay.”
She said Hardman “was kind with the cat” but she couldn’t really tell if he’s a cat person. That wasn’t the first thing she noticed about the three-time Super Bowl champ who scored the winning touchdown in overtime in Las Vegas earlier this year.
“I think a lot of people were completely blinded by his Super Bowl rings. I know I was,” Peed said. “My gosh. How do you even move your hand with those?”
The scene was filmed in the stadium’s Hall of Fame area. “It was quite magical, to see it all decorated for Christmas. It was beautiful,” Peed said.
She said Sly started looking scowly after a while and she worried that he was “going to look really surly. But ... they made him look so good.”
Peed learned a thing or two about movie magic that day. All those extras seen happily chatting in that party scene? They were just pretending to talk. “They were mouthing full conversations,” she said.
In case Sly’s cameo didn’t work out, the movie folks were prepared to not show him and only reference him by name, Peed said.
She wasn’t keen on Plan B since his role “was a pretty integral part” of the plot and he was referenced so often. But Sly came through like a boss.
He just laid there looking cute in his fake Mahomes hair. “He was very loaf-shaped,” Peed said. “He looked like a loaf. He was perfect. Or should I say purrrrrfect?”
People keep asking her how much he got paid and are shocked when she tells them: “Not a dime. We didn’t get anything.
“At the same time, he is in a Hallmark movie. Not many people can say their ordinary house cat is in a Hallmark movie.”
Her late grandmother, who collected Hallmark ornaments, “would have loved every bit of this,” Peed said. “She would have loved the premiere. My grandmother loved to gawk at people and she would have loved this whole hubbub with the cat.”
She didn’t expect to be invited to the red carpet premiere at Crown Center. “I didn’t even know they were having one,” she said.
But Hallmark asked if she thought Sly could “do the red carpet.” She warned about flash photography that can make cat eyes look red. “He would look like a demon,” she cautioned.
Sly held court from his stroller. He was in rarefied company surrounded by Hallmark actors, members of the Hall (as in Hallmark) and Hunt families, coach Andy Reid and his wife, and Chiefs players.
Now that he’s made his big-screen debut he’s getting requests for personal appearances. His social media followings have grown.
People have asked about the Catrick Mahomes calendar shown in the movie but alas, it was just a prop, Peed tells them. “And of course people are like, ‘You should make a calendar.’ But I don’t know the legalities of it with him wearing Chiefs stuff,” she said.
“My suggestion is everybody tag Hallmark and maybe they can make it happen. I’m just a person in KCK. I’m not good at marketing my cat, that’s for sure.”
All of her friends now want to come and hang out with him and “whenever I see people I haven’t seen in a while, it’s ‘how’s Sly?’ That’s always the first question. It’s never, ‘How are you doing?’” she laughed.
There’s already talk of a sequel among some of the cast. They even have a name for it: “The Extra Point.”
“I told my mom they could have a part two where they get married, and I think Sly should be the ring bearer,” Peed said. “That would be hilarious.”
For now, he’s back to posing for those holidays in Peed’s home office.
On Monday he was a dog with a cape for National Underdog Day.
“He is unbothered and living his best life,” Sly’s mama said.
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