SURPRISE 'WOODS' MAN
Corden breaks big in film musical & CBS late show
For actor James Corden, the only thing more fantastical than the plot of “Into the Woods” — is that he’s starring in it. In the fairy-tale mashup movie musical opening Christmas Day, the 36-year-oldd Brit plays a baker forced d to battle a Big Bad Wolf (Johnny Depp), giants and a conniving witch (Meryl Streep). He’s try- - ing to break a curse that’s t’s left his wife (Emily Blunt) unablenable to have a child.
Corden — who’s also set to take over CBS’ “The Latete Late Show” as host — couldn’t ’t wrap his head around the idea a that a simple bloke from Bucking- kinghamshire would be standing ding in the mammoth, man-made forest alongside such Hollywood heavyweights.
“I know this is the sort of s— people say at junkets; that’s why it’s annoying. Most of them are lying,” Corden tells The News. “But to just go to work everyday and sit on a rock in the middle of a woods on a soundstage that’s bigger than a football pitch and be chatting with Meryl Streep, or doing scenes with Emily, or stabbing Johnny Depp — I knew at the time (how surreal it was) and I’m really happy that I did.
“I can look back at it and say, ‘You know, I really tried to enjoy every single second of it.’ ”
But Corden’s fairy tale is just beginning.
Starting March 9, he’ll replace Craig Ferguson as host of CBS’ “The Late Late Show.”
He’s as stunned as anyone. He thought he was meeting CBS CEO Les Moonves and other brass over dinner this past summer for his proposed sitcom idea, and they ended up offering him the high-profile gig.
“I thought we were just having a chat,” Corden insists. “And we were talking about that sort of landscape of late night and how perhaps it could be made to feel a little fresher.”
He doesn’t have the heart to tell CBS, he says half-jokingly, that the network has made a mistake.
“To give you any idea of how I feel about it, my wife was like, ‘Should we buy a house in Los Angeles?’ I was like, ‘Absolutely not. We will get somewhere on a month-tomonth lease,’ ” Corden recalls. “Because if it’s on the network in 12 months’ time, that will have exceeded all my expectations for it. I’m not even joking.
“It’ll probably be canceled in a few weeks.”
Corden may be more nervous about the prospect of long-term success, particularly the idea of his two young children growing up with American accents. “My daughter is 21 days right now. She is not even going to know London as a place. She’s going to be like,” he says, slipping into a Valley Girl impersonation, “‘Oh, Dad ... nana and granddad don’t have a pool, what’s wrong with them? Oh. My. God.’ ”
As for the tone he’ll take in his upcoming hosting gig, The actor/ comedian/sitcom writer says he won’t be political.
“I genuinely believe that there is enough political satire being done really well in America,” Corden says. “No one touches Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart... “We’re just going to make our show a party every night.”
He promises a “show that is warm and fun and gives people a smile on their face — if not before, then probably whilst they fall asleep.”
That humble everyman quality is why “Into the Woods” director Rob Marshall chose Corden over bigger names for the most grounded role in the Sondheim musical. Corden had just won a Best Actor Tony for the play, “One Man, Two Guvnors,” but Marshall had to know if he could hold his own in a cast that included strong vocalists like Streep, Anna Kendrick and several Broadway vets. “When you love an actor and you know they have so many of the qualities, but you don’t know if they have that essential quality of singing, you hold your breath,” Marshall says. “And I knew in two notes.”