Just what has been occurrin’ for James?
CORDEN ON GAV & STACEY AND LA LIFE
which he plays Bustopher Jones alongside a very starry cast.
James said: “When I look at the names I think, ‘This is ridiculous.’
“We had one day, which was me, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, Idris Elba, Sir Ian McKellen and Judi Dench, all shooting a scene together.
“Now, that in itself is quite extraordinary. Then when you add the layer of everybody pretending to be a cat, you really can’t help but feel you’re on some kind of hallucinogenic.”
Despite his success, James – raised in Buckinghamshire by social worker mum Margaret and musician dad Malcolm – has kept his feet firmly on the ground. His parents have helped – as has his love of West Ham.
Because of the time difference he gets up at 4am on Saturdays to watch games on television. He said: “We usually get beaten but I’m used to it.
“I’m a big sports fan and will watch anything – I’ll even watch curling for a day. Baseball is the only one I can’t get into because I feel like I’m watching a group of people I don’t know having a picnic. But everything else, I’m all into.”
James lives in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles with wife Julia and their three children.
It has been his home for five years – but he knows he may not stay there forever.
“I’ve got two and a bit years left on my contract and I don’t know how long we will stay,” he added.
“We’re a long way from home and we are a long way from people that are getting older and who I miss greatly, so we will see what happens.
“But it’s been the most joyous and unexpected ride and I’m excited to see what will come after this.”
■ The Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special, BBC1, Christmas Day, 8.30pm.
I think people will like the surprises in there
JAMES CORDEN ON GAVIN & STACEY SPECIAL
LIVING the dream in California, Late Late Show host James Corden can’t get his head around just how big a deal the return of Gavin & Stacey has been back home.
The 41-year-old, who co-wrote the much-loved sitcom with Ruth Jones, was amazed to be told it had made the TV news on this side of the Atlantic.
Gavin, Stacey, Smithy, Nessa and co will make their much-anticipated comeback in a Christmas special after nearly a decade away from our screens.
James, who plays Essex lad Smithy, said: “When we announced we were going to do it, I remember my dad calling me and going, ‘Mate, it’s on the news’.
“It’s bizarre to me that bringing back a BBC comedy show would be on the news but we’re immensely proud of it.”
We are talking at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. He has come straight from rehearsing a dance number with Nicole Kidman for upcoming film The Prom.
Later, he is going on to a creative conference to discuss future Late Late Shows before filming that night’s programme with Jamie Lee Curtis.
But somehow the dad-of-three found time in his busy seven-days-a-week schedule to team up with Ruth – who plays Nessa – to create a highlight of the festive schedule. He said: “We always talked about maybe doing a special for Christmas one year, then we decided, ‘Let’s just hunker down and do it and see if there’s a story there’.
“After a few arduous weeks of writing it while I was doing the Late Late Show, we came up with what we thought was a good story and we were taken aback by the reaction to it. I really hope that people like it on Christmas Day, because we really gave it everything.
“The show will be 10 years on from where we last saw them – and there are a few surprises in there that I think people will like.”
When James went to the US for the Late Late Show, friends told him that hosting a chat show would put an end to his thriving acting career.
“They said, ‘Well, that’s it. You’ll be done as an actor’,” revealed James – who, as well as playing Smithy in Gavin & Stacey, had starred in the TV series Fat Friends and The Wrong Mans, and on stage in The History Boys and One Man, Two Guvnors.
“They said I wouldn’t be able to act in anything anymore,” he added. “But I thought that if I could build a different talk show as a performer, and not as a broadcaster, I would have a chance.”
That is exactly what he did.
His Carpool Karaoke, in which he drives around Los Angeles with a celebrity while singing pop songs, has made him a star around the world. And
This is a picnic of an existence, I’m painfully aware this won’t always be my life
JAMES CORDEN ON HIS CHARMED LIFE IN CALIFORNIA
far from losing out on other jobs, he has appeared in Into the Woods, Ocean’s Eight and Peter Rabbit, and hosted the Grammys twice. He said: “It was inconceivable to me that it would be so sort of … easy is the wrong word, but that it wouldn’t be an issue. But I’m very, very grateful that it isn’t. This is an absolute picnic of an existence and I am painfully aware that this won’t always be my life. “So, the worst thing that could happen is that I’ll look back on this phase of my life and think, ‘Oh, I wish I’d enjoyed it more’.” In musical comedy The Prom, which also stars Meryl Streep, he plays an American for the first time. He also stars in the critically mauled Cats, in