Chat-show king JAMES CORDEN BOWS OUT IN STYLE
As James Corden’s US adventure comes to an end, Boyd Hilton was front row…
The finale of James Corden’s US chat show was quite an event. The President of the United States took time out of his fairly busy schedule to send a special goodbye video message, while Tom Cruise sang Can You Feel The Love Tonight? from The Lion King in a joyously camp duet with him. Plus, Adele gave him a lift to work and revealed to the world that her song I Drink Wine was inspired by a six-hour heart-to-heart with close friend James.
The show’s final guest Harry Styles welled up as he explained what a special friend and “safe space” James has been for him. And at the climax of this historic final show, Prince Harry snuck in to watch, and applauded wildly alongside the studio audience (and heat) as
James sang an emotional farewell song on the piano. So, yes, the last Late Late Show With James Corden was most definitely An Event. And we were lucky enough to be there to witness the whole mad, brilliant thing.
As the recording of his final show at the CBS Studios in West Hollywood gets underway, James, 44, does manage to keep it together – for the first few minutes at least. But as soon as the surprise message from President Joe Biden is shown, he begins to lose it. In the first ad break, James reveals to the studio audience that he’s been too nervousslash-excited to eat anything all day, though he does admit he’s had a tequila shot. “I think it’s really helping,” he jokes. Then, when final guests Harry Styles and superstar comedy actor Will Ferrell join James on the sofa, they play a game of “Spill Your Guts Or Fill Your Guts”, in which they each have to answer a tough question or eat something disgusting, and
James ends up gobbling down a bull’s penis. Harry avoids the “food” altogether by answering the question “Will there ever be a One Direction reunion?” “Never say never”, he says matter-offactly, much to the studio audience’s utter delight.
Earlier, when heat asks James if he always wanted Harry to be on the last show, he tells us, “I don’t think
‘Prince Harry snuck in to watch’
Harry would let us not have him on the last show! I think, at the point when he was plotting out his current tour, he was honestly like, ‘Well, when’s the last show, because
I need to be in LA for it.’”
As for Adele doing the final Carpool Karaoke, James says, “I couldn’t believe she was doing it. The last time she was on the show was seven years ago. While I was in the shower that morning,
I was thinking, ‘Oh, this might be an emotional one’. But I never thought she would tell the story about I Drink Wine.”
Turns out very few people knew Adele wrote that song about James, and he kept it a secret (“I didn’t think it was my story to tell,” he says) until she shared the details on that last Carpool, revealing it was inspired by a chat they’d had on the way home from a family holiday together. And then they both started crying.
But the moment when James really has to fight back the tears comes at the very end of the final recording. He takes to the piano to sing That’s Our Show – a funny and poignant song he’s written about his whole US TV experience – in front of his entire team; the studio audience where his mum, dad and two sisters are sitting, along with his wife Julia and their three kids; and actual Prince Harry, who’s standing at the back, totally rapt. Halfway through the song James suddenly breaks down in tears, surprising himself as much as anyone. He stops the performance, composes himself, and starts again. He finishes the song, takes his final bow, and the audience continues to applaud for what feels like ten minutes.
James most definitely felt the love tonight, and heat sat down with him in the build-up to the spectacular and tearful finale for an emotional, heart-felt chat…
So, has it sunk in that you’ve done eight years hosting an American nightly talk show?
Oh, it’s so ludicrous. It’s ludicrous that it came my way at all. I will never get my head around the fact that somebody who’s never interviewed anybody, never told a joke in a monologue, is from High Wycombe, and is too chubby to be on American television, somehow got to do this. I just don’t know what I’ve done to deserve these memories really. And we’ve done 1,200 shows in eight years. It’s a lot of TV! So, not doing that is going to be a big adjustment. And one day I’ll sit and just go, “F**k, did that really happen?” It’s mad.
Was there was a specific moment when you decided it was time to stop doing the show and return to the UK? There’s been a lot. Mostly, it’s a family thing. It comes down to the fact that Max [James’ 12- year-old son] is at that age where it would feel wrong to be moving him around as he starts to forge his own life. I considered leaving after five years, but we were only just reaping the benefits of the show doing well. You know, when Michelle Obama wants to do Carpool Karaoke, it really is too soon to stop.
Was it hard breaking the news that the show was ending?
I sat in this very office where we’re sitting now with [CBS boss] George Cheeks, with no agents or anything, and I told him that I wanted to leave. But I also wanted to give the crew and everybody here time. I didn’t want it to be a shock. I wanted them to have time to think about new opportunities.
But it was inconceivable to me that I could carry on doing this show, at the rate that we do it.
What’s been the most surprising thing about the whole experience for you?
I really, really didn’t expect it to work. I had made peace with it being cancelled early on.
It’s like an American network once made eight episodes of a sort of version of Gavin & Stacey that Ruth [Jones] and I didn’t have anything to do with, but they never aired it! That kind of thing happens all the time in American TV. So, the idea that this show would stick around was nuts. What will you miss most about LA? Well, of course the weather. [Laughs.] And I’ll miss the unwavering optimism. It’s a place where
you can have an idea and people will go, “OK, how can we make this happen?” I’ve loved that.
It feels like, since you announced you were leaving, you’ve been having even more fun than ever doing the show. Is there any part of you that regrets ending it now?
I have felt freer, yes, and all of us who make the show have become such a found family, but I can’t regret leaving, because I think, if I had stayed, it wouldn’t have been for the right reasons. I’d be staying, because it’s safe. I think you’ve got do stuff that makes you feel uncomfortable. I’ve never been more uncomfortable than when I moved here and took the job, and look what happened.
Do you have a plan of what you’re doing next? Nothing immediate. I’ll still have ideas for things that I’d like to do and things that I’d like to say. I’m very keen to do another play, for example. I think it would be a bad idea to jump into something else too fast. How much has this experience changed your life?
One thing I’ve really come to think about is how so few people get to shake up their life. You just can’t. My dad couldn’t. Most of my family couldn’t. Pretty much every one of my friends couldn’t. They might want to, but
‘I didn’t expect it to changemesomuch’
they can’t, because they’ve got mouths to feed and rent to pay, so to have the utter privilege to take your life and just f**king turn it upside down and see what happens – that is such a fortunate thing to be able to do and that’s not lost on me. Also, when I’d been thinking about what to say on the last show, jotting down a couple of thoughts here and there, I kept coming back to how I just feel nothing but gratitude, pride and joy for all of it. I don’t know if I expected it to change me as much as it has. I feel like a completely different person.
In what way?
In the best way. I feel so in touch with myself, my family, my friends. I don’t know if I need the stuff that I needed before I did this. You know, I used to really, really thrive on attention and showing off and all that. And I just don’t feel that any more, which is partly about just getting older, and being a parent, but I also think I look at this show and I think, “No, this is enough now... it’s OK”. It might be nice to tell some new stories, and maybe revisit some things that have had to lay dormant for a while. So, I just couldn’t feel more proud of all of it, really. I’m at peace with the idea that whatever I do next may never be as big or as good as this. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m really excited to find out. ■