James Corden has truly found his niche as an American late-night television host, hasn’t he?
Earlier this week, it was announced that CBS has extended his contract for “The Late Late Show” all the way through 2020. The English presenter’s previous salary was between the $4 million-$5 million range. Variety reports that his pay cheque has since climbed thanks to the success of his show.
In the interview transcript provided by Blue Ant Entertainment, Corden talks about his work, rubbing shoulders with Hollywood celebrities, and the fan-favourite “Carpool Karaoke”.
Q: Why are these UK broadcasts so special to you?
James: Well, they’re special for many reasons, obviously for myself and a lot of the crew that work on the show in Los Angeles, we get to come home and that’s a glorious feeling in itself. You know, getting to come home is lovely. It’s particularly special to come back with this show that I think we all feel very proud of, and to come back to London and see it being received so well and for it to play in prime time on Sky and in America, and across the world, and to come back and really showcase that kind of what I think is, for me, the greatest city in the world is a really lovely thing to do.
Q: Tell us who you have lined up to take part in dodgeball?
James: In dodgeball, it’s kind of crazy! It’s Michelle Obama, Harry Styles, Melissa McCarthy, Alison Janney, Lena Waithe, Benedict Cumberbatch, it goes on and on… As days go, I don’t know, it’s quite surreal really.
Q: More on Michelle Obama’s participation in the dodgeball sketch.
James: They all came from her, from the first lady, she was like, “I’d love to do something fun on the show, can we do something fun?” And we were like “Yes, of course. What would you like to do?” And she said “Well, I don’t know. What do you want to do?” And then we came up with this sort of stupid idea of a dodgeball game, which in itself is a ridiculous sport. Made even more crazy played with, you know, Michelle Obama and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Q: Does Harry Styles have any idea what he’s in for playing dodgeball?
James: Harry’s pretty good, Harry’s pretty good at it! I was terrible. Lots of us were bad, but it’s the whole notion of it being a sport is madness. I don’t know, that’s kind of what we like doing on our show really. It’s going “well here’s a silly idea; how do we make it even more ridiculous?” And that’s sort of what we sort of like doing, you know.
Q: You have a restaurant sketch with Chris Hemsworth. What was that like?
James: Myself and Chris were both waiters, as many performers are before either of us ever got a job. So we thought we’d go back to a restaurant and see who still had what it takes and what I realized is if you look like Chris Hemsworth, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve got what it takes. People will forgive you of anything. That’s what I realized. It’s an outrage.
Q: You’re heading to Paris for a special “Crosswalk the Musical”. What was that like?
James: This ‘Crosswalk the Musical’ thing is, I don’t know, I’m constantly amazed that we’re still doing it or allowed to do it. And we’ve done it in Los Angeles, we’ve done it in London, we’ve done it in New York, and then we thought, well, we’re coming to Europe, maybe while Britain is still part of the European Union, we should try and to go and do something. Then we thought what about doing ‘Les Misérables’ in Paris, and when you sort of have this idea, if they said no one’s going to allow us to do that. And then, you know, you just do lots and lots of talking on the phone, begging people to get a permit and before you know it, you’ve got one! And then you stood in front of angry Parisian drivers, you have no idea what was going on, they were screaming at you out of the window and you’re not entirely sure what they’re saying, but you’re sure it’s not good.
Q: You must be very proud about the popularity of The Late Late Show. Did you have any idea it would be so well received?
James: No one could have ever thought that it would be like this sort of scale. You know, you just couldn’t really; it would be incredibly arrogant to think that it might, you know.
<>
<>
<>
<>
<>
<>
<>View this post on Instagram<>
<>
<><>
<>
<>
<><>
<>
<><>
<>
<>
<>
<>22/08 – Happy 41st birthday James Kimberley Corden! ?? #James #JamesCorden #Corden
<>
Q: More on the popularity of the Late Late Show.
James: I find myself thinking all the time, I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve such memories. I don’t know how lucky you can be, you know? And it certainly feels like that. I think all your choices are half luck and now that we’e got this show to the place where it is today, we just want to carry on and see how long, see how long we could, we could potentially go with it.
Q: What is your favourite segment on the show?
James: I will always be grateful to ‘Carpool Karaoke’. None of us take it for granted; that was just a thing that happened that no one could have really predicted. You can really spend a long time trying to think of an idea that might cross over and become something you never think it will be. I’ll always be grateful to that segment that it just landed in our brains at the right time, in the right place.
“The Late Late Show with James Corden” – Special London episodes premiering
on Blue Ant Entertainment (Unifi TV Ch 473) on 20th-23rd August at 11:30pm.
