The day "Garfield" fans have held their breath for is almost here ­ the lazy, lovable feline is about to claw up the big screen. And the film's leading lady, Jennifer Love Hewitt, is thrilled to be in on the action.

It was a feline frenzy in Hollywood at the "Garfield" premiere, as tons of little tikes joined Hewitt and co-star Breckin Meyer to celebrate Garfield's big screen debut.

Later, Jennifer sat down with us to talk about being a part of the cat action.

"I'm particularly proud of this one; I just think it's really adorable," Love told us. "I was really excited at the fact that little kids were going to go to the movie and throw popcorn, and scream ‘Garfield, don't do that.'"

Hewitt insisted that it was easy signing up for a movie that also included the voices of Brad Garrett, Debra Messing and Jimmy Kimmel. But she admitted that it wasn't easy playing the movie's "hot vet," because she couldn't see her co-star (this Garfield is computer animated and was added into his scenes after the humans were filmed).

"What I was really afraid of was that Garfield was going to be here, and I was going to be (looking in the wrong direction, saying), ‘Hey Garfield, you're so cute, cootchie-cootchie,'" Hewitt said.

Garfield creator Jim Davis said that when it came to choosing whose voice would play the comic star of the movie, only one name came to mind: "Garfield and Bill Murray are like kindred spirits. He has that rare delivery."

You can check out the fat cat in action for yourself, starting this Friday.