SmartLess - "James Corden"

Episode Date: December 21, 2020

The electrical & incredible James Corden joins us this week for a true gentlemens' sit-down and a journey through the brain of a real talent, who's usually on the other side of the interview. Happy Holidays from the whole SmartLess gang!Please support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Happy holidays and welcome to smart list. That was really nice. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. So the gang said that we need to do some new intros, Sean. So do you want to take it away? We need a really good solid intro. Go me. Yes, go. Okay. You got it. Hey, everybody, this is smart list. You're listening to smart list, the podcast that everybody loves. And it's, it's with Jason Bateman, me, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. And what happens is we bring on a guest that the other two don't know about it. And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a surprise. I'm sorry. Are you in a race? Cause I've never heard anybody read something so quickly. All right. It's all new smart list. Let's go. So when you get Rick rolled, what you do is your kids, like my kids rolled up on me in the car the other day, they were in Amy's car while it's just Archie and his buddies and they were, they come up and they're playing. They're like, put the window down. They were next to us in the car and put it down. They're playing like some like cool hip hop music. And then all of a sudden, never going to give you up comes out. That's when you Rick roll somebody. You trick them.

And it's a whole meme. It's a big meme with the kids. So you send people a link for like, Hey, check out this cool video. And the video's got like some cool thing. And all of a sudden it just goes, never goes right into the Rick Astley video. $5 foot long. Yeah. And that's when you Rick roll people. And he's there. Guys, sometimes you just need to turn it off and turn it on again. I've been trying to tell Will that for years. A techie Fonzie. It's a life lesson. Yeah. And we are rolling. Jason is in real quick before surprise guests. Don't say a word, but snap for us, please. Bingo. Nice. Have fun. I think it was a double snap too. I think they snap with both hands and that, that tells me something. It tells me that

they are cooperative. They are happy to be here and they have strong hands, strong snap. Yep. Oh God. They've got rhythm. They're ready to go. Guys, not only is it a special day because we have a great guest, an amazing guest, but it's a special day because of a text I sent both of you last night in the wee hours of the night as I was on episode two of arrested development. Oh my God, that is right. You did send a nice clip last night. It got me all excited to watch the show. Sean, what do you think of the show? It is fucking hilarious. Scott and I are laughing out loud. It's one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. Isn't, and I'm not just saying this because Will's here, but isn't Will, and I'm not doing

this to bait any sort of compliment for me either, just truly as a friend and as a fan, I just think Will could have been so much better on that show. Yeah, I don't disagree. That's a fair assessment. No, he is ridiculous. Yeah, when you were trying to throw that letter in the ocean with those terrible, flimsy, triple pleated trousers, Tommy Bahama, all Tommy Bahama, Joe only word Tommy Bahama. Anyways, I can't wait to sing my song further. Yeah. Well, I did it for two reasons. One, because I've always wanted to see it, and two, to get you guys off my fucking back. It won't be off your back until you finish. We're going to come over and watch with you. We'll have a little watch party.

Great. And then we'll, I can't wait to watch you, Sean, next year TV going, arrested development. Guys, today's guest is amazing. This is a fella. This is a fella that not only has conquered Broadway, but he's crushed it and filmed television and now is a brilliant late night host. I love this man because he's good. He's kind. And boy, is he talented. He's literally in every movie that's come out since 2010. British. His name is James Corden. James Corden. You should have said yes, and then I would have guessed it. Oh shit, sorry. There he is. Look at him go. Look at him, dude. How are you? This is thrilling. I'm so happy to see all of you. Yeah, this is so cool. My god, we're happy to have you on the, on the program, James. It's really cool. I will say some of my

biggest laughs in the last couple of years have been in your company. Well, I was thinking the exact same thing about you. I really was. I was no, I mean, obviously Sean, but I was, so I've been listening to the podcast. I think it's brilliant. It's really, really funny. I really, really enjoy. Oh, it's Jason Bateman gone. Did he just leave? Sometimes he does that. No, he'll be back two seconds. Do you know why I think Jason Bateman's just clicked out? I think there's a bigger beef here. Hello. Okay. I'm coming back. Here I come. Here I come. Yeah, I lost, I lost connection for a second. Are we still recording? Are we still in the show? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was fun. I had a little detour. Sorry, James, you were saying you were saying. What I was saying

that I wasn't surprised, Jason, that you clicked out and left the show just then. I'm very fickle. You're the only person here on this who's never been on my show. Are you serious? I started to wonder if there's something darker going on. Well, now wait, well, let's talk about that. Why, why is that? Have I not been, uh, invited, allowed? You've definitely been invited allowed. Because, oh yeah. No, I'm, to be clear, I'm joking. I'm, but yeah. Well, you say you're joking, but why do you keep winking at me? I don't know. I don't know what the wink. No, I sat behind you at the Emmys. We had a lovely chat. I'm a huge fan. I love Ozark. As am I with you. I, and then I thought, after that, I thought

he's bound to come on. And then I watched like on Colbert tonight. And then, and then I'd say, well, he's gone to New York and they go, yeah, no, he's a Kimmel guy. Well, well, first of all, Jimmy's one of our closest friends. But aside from that, there are, no, no, no, but, but, but this is something I think the, the listener would be interested in this because I find this kind of interesting. And I would love for you to give me the full education on it now and our listener. Okay. There is a protocol or an order in which one must go through when you do talk shows, like one can't follow this, or if you do this, when you need to wait a certain amount of time before you do that one, if you're on the East coast, you must, isn't there a bit of a, and I

defer all of this to my publicist who needed it. So I don't mean to hide behind them, but I do know that I love you. I love your show. I have nothing against doing that. But I'll bet you the reason I haven't is because I probably have just done one that you guys don't follow or that. It just hasn't the timing. Yeah. What is the politics of all that? Well, I'll take the politics for our show, which is we're more than happy to follow everyone. Really? So we will just, yeah, because I don't really prescribe to the notion of like, just even network television. Do you know what I mean? So it makes no sense to me the whole, but there's a huge amount of politics that I have next to no interest in ever being involved in.

So we just always, yeah, I don't really enjoy even competition. So I was just winding you up by saying that. I would suggest, James, next time you guys exchange numbers and you call or text Jason. Now, he doesn't get great reception in the shadow of his publicist. But I think you're going to say he doesn't get great reception in Los Angeles. No, especially when we're rolling. Well, I'm, we'll get ready because I'm coming. I'm not singing though. I'm not singing. Jason, let me tell you something. I've done, I know Sean's done it too. And I've done, I've done James' show a number of times over the last few years. Okay. And we, I did a musical number. I can't sing. I did a musical number with Marty Short. Well, they did the singing.

James and Marty did. And I just fucked around. But we've done, we did a police detective, like a stupid bit with, and then we did, we went to space camp. Yes. Which was such a blast down in Alabama. And all your writers and you are great. Hold on a second. Jason, it is such a blast. I don't need to be talked into this. I remember us talking at the after party, whatever, of Into the Woods. Yes. And I, God damn it. I fell in love with you on that movie. Oh, that's so sweet. Yeah, that was great. Look at the talent on this. And that movie is one of my favorite movies of all time. Same. I love that movie. I love that movie. That's so sweet. Because I remember that vividly and I just presumed you would have forgotten

about that because you have to know for me, when you came over and had that chat with me, when you left, I immediately called my wife and was like, you're not going to believe who I just spoke to. Jason Bateman really enjoyed the show. And I was like freaking out. I want to say that you weren't yet doing your show then. No, I hadn't moved to Los Angeles then. Right. Because I remember then when that show, when you started on the show, I was like, now I get a chance to have another conversation. Go hang out with him on his show. I swear to God, on my life, I've always wanted to do that. And he loves the woods. And did out of the woods come out yet or no? We're still working on it. Sometimes working on it. You know, we were saying extremely

or not us. It doesn't matter what we were saying, but Paul McCartney had incredibly nice things to say about you. Barry, he went out of his way, Jason's right, to talk about how talented you are. Yeah. So what's going on there? Yeah, what is going on? Tell us how you guys clearly have a history. Is it England centric? When did you guys first start accruing blackmail on one another? Well, oddly, this actually goes back to a sketch. I'd written a sitcom in Britain called Gavin and Stacy, which had done quite well and people enjoyed it. And you won all the awards and it's a fantastic show. Is it the precursor to Ned and Stacy? It was not, but it's quite funny if I do an American interview and they go, I love Ned and Stacy. And I just go, thank you so much.

So we did these sketches for a big charity called Comic Relief, which do a big drive on like a telethon on the night. And it's a huge deal in the UK. And I'd done a few sketches with my character from that sitcom. And we decided we had a new idea for it. And oddly, in the very same sketch that Paul McCartney was in, the sketch opened with me and George Michael singing songs in a car. And it was that clip that we would send to people's publicists to try and convince them to do carpool karaoke. But the whole sketch ended with a big reveal of Paul McCartney. And the way you kind of get those sketches together is if you get Paul McCartney, 10 other people will fall in line. If he'll do it, if he's doing it, I'll do it for sure. How about the rest of the

world will fall in line? Yeah. So we'd had this idea to get Paul McCartney. I'd never met Paul McCartney. I'd never seen Paul McCartney. And I got in touch with his publicists and all these things and they started listening to the beat of your limies. Who are these guys? We started to listen to this music. This is good. It's got legs. Yeah. And they called and they said Paul McCartney is going to call you on Monday at four o'clock on your private phone. So he called me and I just, I had it all, I went into this speech and I just said, I just said, look, the way these sketches work, Paul, is they drive donations on the night. But people also download and buy them for £4.50. And £4.50 is the exact cost of a vaccine to give a vaccine to a child so that

they won't get malaria. So whether you want to admit it or acknowledge it, it's a fact that if you do this sketch, children won't die. You didn't say that you'll be saving lives. You said children won't die. And he went, bloody hell, James. I've heard some pitches in my time. This is ridiculous. I said, well, this is nothing. I said, my wife was pregnant at the time, which was my girlfriend at the time. She was pregnant with our first child. We knew it was a boy. And I said, if you said no to that, I was going to tell you that I'd named my unborn child after you. And he said, deal. If you commit to that, I'll do it. So we did the sketch and we called my son Max McCartney Corden. And I took a photo of the birth certificate and I sent it to

Paul. That's really cool. And three days later, this beautiful blanket, this cashmere blanket arrived and embroidered it in the corner. It said, to Max, from one McCartney to another, love your uncle, Paul. Oh, Lord. So from that minute on, we'd sort of had a little bond and which is so crazy. And did you ever think about like that blanket? How many kids lives it could have saved if you'd not bought that blanket, put that to the malaria? I'm just saying that bit of the story. I sold it and I gave the money to comic relief. Yeah, I don't want to go on about my charity work. I'm going to send you the faces of those kids right now. I have the photos. But he called me last week, Paul. He called me last week because we did a parody of one of his

songs. We did a thing called Maybe I'm a Mew. He mentioned it. So he called you. It was incredible. Like I really had a moment where I thought, okay, I may have peaked where he called to say he'd seen it and he liked it. And the reason he'd watched that song was that Willie Nelson sent it to him on a text. And I was like, okay, well, then I'm out. I don't even understand how that's. It's on a flip phone though. He's got to hit the one button three times to get to see. That's so cool. That must be so, I mean, what a thrill. So what is your, I mean, you act and you perform and you and your presenter and a host and stuff. And you also obviously excel in music is a big part of what you do. What was that connection? How is, what's the music for you? How did that

start? Which came first for you? Well, it's important to say I don't consider myself in any way. I'm like a musician or a singer. Well, you're a bloody good singer. Let's be real. I just think it's a different thing as soon as you say that you're a recording artist, which is just something I would never, ever do. And I really love music and I love singing. And anytime we do music on the show or any musicals I've been in, I consider a different thing. But when did it start? I don't know. I don't know if this is the same for you. Like, I feel like it might be with Sean, when we've spoken before, like, I don't remember a time that I didn't want to just perform in some capacity. Well, Sean, you started, you started as a pianist, right, Sean?

Yeah, I was, I started piano when I was five. And then I thought that was going to be my life and compose music and all that stuff. But first of all, though, you've done eight shows a week. Yes. Of a musical, right? Yes. That to me, I have two. That's like, people can make fun of you all they want. You have to be like an athlete. It's like insane. It's the stamina and the endurance is crazy on your voice. And it doesn't matter if you feel like shit, or you're tired, or whatever. At eight o'clock that night, you have to be like dad, a lot done on all that. You have to be so on. It doesn't, I was puking my brains out one time offstage, came back on, did my song, went off. It's just fucking awful. And also great. The frontline workers listening

to this, it's hard. I get it. But it's interesting. Because since I've taken this job, I meet lots of people who go, God, it must be exhausting. And I do only ever reference like, I did a play in New York or one man, two governors, and that was, I'll never ever be, I'll never be as tired as I was when I was doing that play. That was eight times a week, just in pain, basically. Right. Because Jason and Will, the play he's talking about, it's constant physical comedy the entire time, you completely falling down, running in and like, it was incredible. And you did that, I mean, I can't imagine your body after that. Yeah, we did like 400, I think 490 shows in just under two years. Oh my God. But it was brilliant. I would say you did it for two years.

Yeah, we did it at the National Theater, then went to the West End, and then we went to New York. Yeah. Didn't you have problems with your, like broken bones or anything? No, I did damage my eye. I damaged my eye, which actually just came back to haunt me about four months ago, which had been fine and then came back. But that was the only real injury. Most of it was just sort of aches and things. But I would say this, and this is why I would urge like Jason, Will, to do it once is that play was the happiest time of my professional life. There were certain nights in New York where I don't know about you, but I almost always only enjoy things retrospectively. I look back and go, Oh, that was a good time.

And doing that play, I was like, there were moments where I thought if I could stay here forever in this minute now, I would stay here for this is utopia. I've always dreamed of having the courage to do theater on that scale, you know, in England. I've thought about it too, and I just thought too easy. Yeah. It seems too easy. James, you know, you mentioned you hurt your eye doing that show. I kind of don't have sympathy for you because my mom raised five kids with one eye. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. And then she died. All five kids only had one eye. That's just terrible. Hey, guys, let's go from that straight to the auto zone. Okay, great. So let me double back to fame for a second. And the musical or the movie?

That movie needs to get redone, by the way. I love that movie. So it seems to me that you have held on to plenty of normalcy and jadedness has not crept up on you to the point where I would imagine that it's not lost on you every night, how famous these people are that keep sitting in front of you that you get to talk to that you get to come up with questions for. And are you able to enjoy that as much as a quote normal person would, because it seems like you hold that for yourself. And therefore you enjoy being exposed to all these super famous people all the time. Is that accurate? Yes, I think so. Because I don't know that it's necessarily famous people that I stand into. But my favorite thing in the world is to be around and

spend time with talented people. I think and I am constantly blown away by how talented so many people are. And I find that infectious. Like my favorite thing to do on the show when people come by is I thought I think if I was shooting something with them, I think we'd have real fun. That's how I've really felt. Every time we've shot something with Will, I've thought, oh, this would be one of those things when when they go cut, you go well, and anyway, then they say it. And you're straight into those pockets of friendships and things. And I really love being like in a gang. Yeah. But wait, to Jason's point, do you feel because you've met what I'm sure feels like every person in this business, do you still have get at all star struck? Are you numb to the rush of

meeting someone famous anymore? I can't stress this enough. And you will think that I'm that this is some sort of faux humility and I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Like I feel star struck now in this because I do I don't it's funny when I listen to your podcast that when you were talking to Jennifer Aniston, I always feel like I'm an outsider looking at this gang, like you'll be talking about how what great hospitality it is at her house and I'll sit in the car go thinking, oh, that'd be great. I don't in any way feel like and I do I do think it's that's important with the nature of our show. I still am in in awe of like I feel the same way now on this with you Jason thinking, I just can't believe this like a rest of development is just a huge part of my life.

Will and Grace Acer watch Will and Grace and think that would be the single greatest thing just to go to a taping like I still have the same enthusiasm for all of it because I really really love talented people. Well, that's what you can tell it's it is infectious you know when you watch your show it does come across that you that's what makes you a great host because you are our proxy to these talented famous people and you you don't look you don't look bored or or disinterested you know as a jaded person might well he hasn't had you on yet we've already established that yeah good but I also think that's a thing in actors I do like I think I tell me if I'll be interested to think if you agree with this like I think there are only two types of actor in the world I think there are

aliens and human beings and neither are better neither are better like it isn't a better but so aliens you're like Mark Rylance Daniel Day Lewis right Meryl Streep Christian Bale Christian Bale Ray Fiennes and humans Tom Hanks Philip Seymour Hoffman George Clooney George Clooney like just kind of be us they are and and so you can watch the same play like I watched Simon Russell Biel do a Hamlet and Mark Rylance do a Hamlet and it's the same text and I was watching Mark Rylance thinking I don't know how he does this and I watched Simon Russell Biel and I thought oh you're me up there you're representing us right you are the audience and being just the normal guy it's kind of sneaky tough too to not chew it up you know unless you've got the skills

like an alien does to really morph into somebody else yeah and I think because it looks easy yeah like I like what you like what you do on Ozark for example the stillness of it makes people I think think go ahead well go ahead well you got something you got something fucking hurtful to say here it comes Jason you know what Jason here it comes I I love you and you're my friend and I don't want to hurt you so sorry James continue on and how dare you he's working on it though yeah he'll come back with it keep going James you were in the middle of a compliment I'm sorry I didn't like that I think people think that that looks easy and I actually think it's harder than than doing like it well it's just I can see his like his smoke coming out of his ears as he's writing this I think

what Will wanted to say is Jason's stillness is a result of him not knowing the camera started rolling no no I think that that's not true I've worked I Jason is really good and I think in those moments you see him and you think like yeah they've just turned the dial to the don't move mode and he just you know there's a robot dial on my back next to the batteries no because I think it's all happening in there that's but there is there is that thing you're right and I've worked with both of these guys a lot and I will say there is you know Sean and I had so much time we did a couple shows and we used to laugh our asses off and fuck around and it was exactly that it was cut and it was just trying to make each other laugh on set and trying to screw around and then

my introduction to working on a regular basis started when Jason and I worked on Arrested Development and I will say and I don't know if I've ever said this out loud I learned so much because Jason been doing it since he was a kid I learned so much I knew so little and I learned so much from Jason from that experience and he was like a friend and a big brother and he taught me a lot of things and he taught me with a lot of tough love like hey stupid why are you standing there get clean you know whatever but it was so great and there is that thing that human thing of like we're you're being silly or you're having fun but you're really you're enjoying it and you're really in the moment and those moments you do look back I I will say Arrested Development was

the thing I remember the second season every day driving onto the Fox lot and I'd hand my path to the guy or you know whatever for the gate to go up and I think every single fucking day I thought I am the luckiest guy in the world and I really I really really really appreciate it especially after spending years struggling I thought this is it I gotta really remind me enjoy it enjoy it enjoy it yeah James I'm sorry we'll get back to you um so uh so I'm from Toronto so wait I want to ask you something so James when you were a kid did you have like a specific dream as in a late night talk show or is the dream just to do anything in show business you just want to be a part of it or did you want to be Johnny Carson or whoever no it definitely wasn't

to be a talk show host in in any way it came so out of the blue even being offered this job I was even when I got offered it I was like what's I don't think that was in a tough decision well you said you turned it down a couple times I don't know if I'd be able to turn that down I did turn it down twice just because I felt like I knew what I was going to do for the next 18 months and I feel like that's quite a good amount of time to know how long you're doing stuff for and yeah and did the offer come out of the blue was it just like well the offer came out I was writing a show I came to Los Angeles I'd been twice before and I'd been done that round which of just coming to Los Angeles and dying of encouragement of you know people just giving

you a tiny bottle of water and saying they'd love to work with you and then never hearing from them again and then I decided I thought I'd written a show for the BBC another show called The Wrong Man's which we knew was probably going to be the last bit of that and I had this new idea for a show so I came to LA and I pitched it everywhere and then it was one of those strange weeks where by the end of the week there was like six offers to make this show and then the offers got to a financial capacity which I genuinely was mind-blowing to me I didn't even know that you Americans earned this sort of money and like TV shows like I cannot tell you how that is not the experience for any other country in the world and I was like this is insane this is crazy in any way

CBS I didn't know this but my my old bosses Les Moombas and Nina Tasler who were the the kind of chairman and the president network have both seen the play we've done before and I didn't know that they'd seen it and they made without question the biggest financial offer for me to do the show but I turned it down because the more I thought about it I thought this is a show that would probably live on HBO this is the show that you had written that you had pitched yeah this show that I'd written I pitched so I decided to make it with HBO and CBS just didn't understand how that was even I've also like it was genuine it was like four times the financial offer so I was in New York and I went to see Nina Tasler and Les and I sat with them and told them

I said look you're you're mad to be upset about this I've done you the biggest favor ever I said I would have written a show that you wouldn't have liked you would have tried to change it because you've overpaid for it I'd hate you for changing it you'd hate me for being annoyed at changing it we'd hate each other and never work together again I said I promise you this show is never going to be on your network you will hate it and Stephen Colbert had just been announced right as the taking over from Letterman and Craig Ferguson and say he was stepping down and I said to them I said look I think that 12 30 star is is what are you going to do with that and I said we were just chatting by this point and I said if you don't make a show that embraces

the internet there's no point doing it I said you have got to make a show for kids and stoners they all still want to watch late night they just don't have a TV and they don't care about a schedule you know they've passed out by 10th or exactly and they want to find it the next day this is a generation of people who just want to watch it now and for our listener out in Wisconsin a lot of people don't know that stoners and babies happen to hang out a lot together sorry keep going just and and I said did I say stoners and babies no stoners and children I guess all right to be fair kids teen teens teens what I mean so anyway then that night this offer came in would you like to host the show and I said I don't think so and then they came back and said the first one was like

do a pilot the next one was like just do the show and I said no sorry I'm gonna write this other thing and I might go and do a musical on Broadway and and then it went quiet for a bit and then I went to South Africa to shoot this show in Johannesburg and I was I'll never forget it I was in this like service department in Johannesburg and I was realizing that really all I want to do is just be creative every day I just want to be creative and hang out with creative people and I was Skyping my pregnant wife by the way he should be mentioned that Sean also did a pilot right before he left LAX he uh I love the cheapies keep going James so I was never got picked up Skyping my wife and I thought this is only gonna get harder this will only get harder let's keep it clean James please

keep it clean go ahead this will only get more difficult being away from them right and here is someone offering me a job where I'll get to be around and yeah I started to think maybe you're an idiot to not turn this down and wouldn't you rather regret doing something than not doing something yeah and then I sort of decided okay let's leap into it and we all just moved to and I was kind of born from that conversation with Les and Nina and they followed up on it and said great put your money where your mouth is yeah you do it right yeah yeah also you're you know you seem to have accomplished something as a talk show host that a lot of talk show hosts have not been able to do which is be a host as well as an actor at the same time yeah like I can't think of

another remarkable that that does both and it seems like you're constantly working like I said you're doing when you're not doing your show you're in every single movie yeah because it's a 50 week a year job right yeah well mine isn't so that was part of the agreement really uh the agreement was like do it if I could go and do other things because I really really love acting and I love writing and I love working with actors and directors and how often do you get to take time off is that written no I have a good break in the summer so that's a break where I know is there to shoot stuff right and then other times it's just an agreement really that if something comes along we'll figure it out and it's difficult and it's hard on the team but I sort of feel without those

things I don't know about you might think that with this with this podcast I feel like side projects in a way they actually re-energized me into the show more yeah because I get back here in this room that I'm in now and I go oh I know what I'm doing here you know like and it it's hard so Sean it's like cheating on Scotty you were telling me right it just keeps that fresh you know you realize oh wait no I've got something pretty great at home yeah for sure you need that you need that nudge that reminder so um so you're saying so you're saying James if you if you had to choose between being only being an actor and only being a talk show host that you can't you can't answer that question can you yeah yeah no I would be I would ask oh well there it is yeah how about that

but it takes you away from the family and you can only see them um you will never go longer than two weeks without seeing them but that's gonna happen a lot uh then I'd be a talk show host yeah yeah Jason what would you do oh hang on we already know the answer fucking monster no I am serious and you can check this because I've bored people talking about it before um being a talk show host is one of my dreams I it would be a very difficult thing for me to turn down wait I thought you dreamed of being on Broadway how many fucking dream do you have I dream and tick tock buddy everything hey I'm gonna ask us what I dreamed of hey everybody dreamed of it but for a lot of the same reasons that the routine of it the schedule of it being able to talk to a bunch of people that you admire

same by the way I I always thought maybe the hours were a little cushy and then Kimmel corrected me on that um it's it's not as easy as you guys make it look yeah it's it's it's like I've had the same dream I don't think they'd have enough time for the length of your questions Jason because they have to see that's it I love to hear myself talk so a talk show so the producer would be like hey act one will be the question act two and three will be the answer you guys are dicks when was the moment when was the moment James that you felt I remember seeing you you were just about to start and Craig Ferguson's show ended and I did one episode uh that's right I guess hosted and I saw you but we didn't know each other but I kind of said and I had Kimmel

and David Cross and Chris that's right and I had a big chat a long chat with Jimmy Kimmel it was the first time I met him and yeah blown away by his insane levels of kindness yeah it's such a sweet guy and Jason mentioned that he's a good friend of ours and he's such a sweet guy and you came in and you were you were in known quantity you weren't as known in America necessarily but we knew who you were people who you know who the taste makers the three of us are real the taste makers of America influencers that was the other title of our podcast or influencers sure that's a dozen sure different way to say it too yeah we're in coastal elites are we coastal elites we are we by the way we just got elite status really it's kind of like frequent flyers

yeah we're coastal elites congrats guys um but what was that moment I know that you came I remember seeing you and you were just getting ready to do the show and I just do you remember that moment where you kind of crossed over were you nervous at all at first like were you running around and struggling to find your your voice so to speak um it was well I remember that day so vividly because I'd met John uh Krasinski quite a few times so I felt like oh he gives me a legitimate reason to go over and say hi and you were in the studio actually that I can see out my window now and I went over and I was so blown away by like and have been ever since actually by Kimmel's like openness to just be a person and just the way that he as opposed to Krasinski who's a fucking monster

but you know Jimmy's like I was asking him different things and I felt like oh god am I asking too many questions but he just kept going no this is this is all right it's okay it's great you know and I think look we had to move to America and hire a staff and launch build a set and launch the show in 11 and a half weeks and that was a crazy amount of time but in truth I look back at it now and I'm very grateful to it because we didn't really have a chance to sort of second get stuff right we didn't have time to sit and scratch our chin is going but should it feel more like this it was just there's an idea go run with it and so quick because you have to and you it's like get through that day and you've got another show tomorrow yeah and then yeah

we just knew we had to like hit the ground running so we knew that we had no kind of goodwill built up with an audience I wasn't hadn't just left saturday night live or the daily show or a sitcom there was nothing so we thought we've really got to try and make our first few weeks on the air we also knew we would follow Letterman for like a month and then he was going to drop off and we were following repeats of Hawaii 50 so we were like if we don't do some really big things in this first four weeks this is going to be a bleak summer that must have been nerve-wracking yeah it really must have been it was what's your executive producer's name your your friend Ben Ben Winston yeah yeah Ben so so Ben is a great guy did he come with you had you guys known each other

he's my best friend he was the best man at my wedding and he's also I knew the best TV producer in I think in the country for sure and so when I got the job which actually he was the persons that were saying you absolutely shouldn't do this you absolutely shouldn't do this and then then we talked about it and we talked and I explained to him kind of what I felt the show should look and feel like and it would feel closer to a variety show then he was like okay and then I said to CBS I'll really only come if my friend Ben can come with me and they I think they at first they're a bit like oh he's bringing his friend who's a producer and then they then they met him then they met him and were like oh you're amazing you should take over the Grammys you know and he's

now like but he is it was really hard when we came to America because he's so handsome and charismatic and then there's me so we would go to lots of meetings where people don't say that no but wait hang on there we would go to meetings where people didn't know who James Corden was and who Ben Winston was and all they've been told is one is this new talk show host and the other is a genius producer and by anyone metric we look like we're in the wrong bodies there's the on-camera guy over there that's how um are you still loving doing it and do you see an end date in sight not that we want that I hope you do it for another 10 decades but for you personally is there like a limit that you do you see yourself doing I don't know in truth I have like a couple of years to go on this contract

it will never be ending the show will always be a bigger family decision than a professional one like it will be about people at home who we miss very very much who we're homesick for and I also feel like my wife and I we have three young children and they are three young grandchildren that we've taken away from people and in this probably feels particularly magnified now during the pandemic but I have an overwhelming feeling that like our family has walked to the beat of my drum for a very long time and we should probably and I also don't know genuinely and I'm interested to know what you think about this Jason and Will with children like I really feel very conscious of the fact that I don't know

that I necessarily want to be putting out the volume of stuff onto YouTube and Snapchat and TikTok and Facebook and all these things when I've got like teenagers I don't know what that feels like at school I think it's a different thing being an actor in a show or oh you've got a film come out and then you disappear for a while while you film something else and it's so you're always putting stuff out there you make it harder on your kids experience yeah oh your dad you know dad's been canceled your dad's trending on Twitter yeah I'll tell you something James James to that uh I had a very um I was taking my son to to look at some new schools last year uh you know to move to a middle school and his mom and I took him went with him and and we were driving

back to his school after and I said uh he seemed kind of down I said how you doing he said I don't know I said didn't you like that place he said uh I just wanted to get out of there and I said why he said because all those kids they all knew you and mama were at the end there and I just felt like that everybody was coming over and just looking at everybody was just looking at us and looking at me yeah and I thought in that moment and I dropped him at school and I almost started I almost burst into tears when he said it and I thought am I robbing him of a normal life and a normal school experience and then I thought right he's sitting in a Porsche I had a chat with a good friend of mine and uh she's a singer and we were talking about the

experience of going to Disneyland if you're like well known and I said oh man I said I'll never forget I said to her you know we just we didn't queue we didn't stand in line anywhere and I said I'm looking at my kids thinking you don't know you're born this is crazy and she just went yeah but when you weigh it up with the shit they're gonna have to deal with because you're their dad not waiting in line is probably you know what I mean and you're like oh yeah there's just all the stuff that comes with that so that does plan my mind it wasn't it wasn't a group decision is what you're saying it was it is yeah they have no choice yeah it is a weird thing it's obviously not exclusive to any of us you know people who are on tv and film the kids and they've

been dealing with it forever and how do you properly in the most healthy way frame it for a kid what it is that we do I remember driving by some billboard or something or a poster and and my daughter who was at the time maybe second or third grade and she said oh yeah I want to tell this is near my friend's house I gotta tell my friend that you know you're on a poster I said no no don't don't say that that I'm on the why oh because and just instinctually I said because it's bad it's like like you know how you sometimes incorrectly might frame money or something like oh don't don't don't talk about you know that that that grandma sent you a hundred dollars you kind of frame something in a negative so that they don't brag but then you've stamped something

as a negative that then they think oh there's something wrong with our family and and it was a confusing thing that I'm glad they're a little bit older now to get a little bit more context towards but it's obviously something that that is our our burden that we need to figure out a better way to explain to them than obviously I'm doing here but it's certainly not worth stopping for no but I think that burden is enhanced if you are just constantly putting out you know look it's an hour a day you know you know so it's it's an hour a day that gets chopped up and shared online and all those things and and that just it's just it all just plays on my mind how far away we are from home and I also don't I really really don't ever want to be doing the show if I'm not just

absolutely loving it yeah I know like it's one of the funniest things I thought Letterman ever said was when he announced his retirement he said he said I told myself that when I got bored with this job a decade later I'd retire yeah and I sort of partly feels like maybe maybe like it was a real it was a really punk move to choose to do it and maybe maybe the really punk move is to is to stop while I'm still really enjoying it and then it would always kind of be perfect you know yeah you know back to when you guys had those problems with your kids and stuff I you know I have a dog named Ricky and when I drop him off at the dog park he's always like can you drop me off a block away isn't the same because you know just be quiet till we're done talking

about children so yeah bring up tuna sandwich I want to we we still get along great we'll never look after you all right look at James you know you've been in a billion things that I've all like hit hit after hit after hit you're always in these things that work your show is a massive hit that's why I want to say as Chris Cuomo would say let's get after it cats what happened oh my god um I haven't seen it so I'm okay I've not watched it um here's what I'll say about cats and you can ask whatever questions you want here's what I was saying this is and I'm really mean this I had such a great time I went to London for eight days shot the song with a brilliant group of like actors they're all hanging out with like Judy Dench and Ian McKellen and

Taylor Swift and all these things I just like I had a blast so I think you have to be really really careful not to judge whether something was valuable to you as to whether it's successful at the box office right it's nothing to do with one another because I've had really miserable times yeah and on things that are really successful and I'm like well that was a really shit time in my life so actually I should never look upon that as a success right and vice versa I love that you said that you had a great time I that's always the mark for me anyway because I have time yeah I've done a lot of films and worked with a lot of people and had a lot of fun and had a great time in there great moments in my in my life uh and I think that that is truly I mean it's almost harder

you know it's almost harder it is amazing how rare it is to have a really harmonious set for one reason or another and there are many many reasons why I can go sideways it's a real special thing when you've got a bunch of people that just sort of agree either verbally or not to just treat each other well it goes a long way oh and I have to imagine James and this is truly from the heart that because of who you are and I I've now got to hang out with you several times over the years and that any set you're on any set that you are on is going to be a great set because you are joy and your energy is always positive and you're always professional and you're always so freaking talented that that's why like I saw cats you were fantastic in it like and everything that

you're in you are great and I'm sure every set that you're a part of everybody's excited to be involved guaranteed joy is the key for sure joy is the key I'm not saying me as joy I'm saying just if you if you start every day thinking well how can this be a joyful environment like I heard a quote my dad told me something the other day where he said what did he say let me try and get this right he says you should never rate your opinion of yourself by the metric of the joyless like if someone doesn't have joy what they think of you is irrelevant because joy is what you have to cling to and like the best example of that and this will sound like a real name drop but like when we were talking about Into the Woods like I just did this musical a film musical

with Meryl Streep again Jesus Christ from and you you you play the part of one of my best friends on brought you know Brooks Ashmanskus Brooks is amazing he's one of the funniest people he's one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life yeah Meryl Streep is the epitome of what everyone should seek to be on a set which is I'm going to take the work incredibly seriously and I'll never take myself seriously yeah for a second I love that she's in for the fun she wants to be in a gang she wants to like have a she wants you to try and make her laugh if the camera's on somewhere else like you know she is like and that you go oh my god that's why that's why your career is so incredible is you've never lost the joy of essentially what we do is play dress

up and put on a show and this can be really serious you can be doing something we have a seed in the thing the two of us are like crying our eyes out in a hotel room it took us three days to shoot but in between those bits she's telling me stories about this and that and you go that's it you can't lose the joy of the greatest thing you can do you're like if any of us could have a conversation any of the four people here could have a a conversation with your 12 year old self and say this is what your life's going to be like his head would explode his head would explode and I I just never tried to stop that feeling and I could there's people on our show will tell you I can be grouchy as fuck sometimes and boring all those things but I try my absolute best to just go

this is just a gift and at some point we're all going to get a tap on the shoulder that goes and hey buddy yeah yeah not really wanted any more around here and what you want to do about is go look back and go I made a lot of friends and I really spent a lot of the day laughing I couldn't agree more James I it's the most important thing to me I spend my whole every day these guys know looking for different ways to have fun and it's the only way and I said a friend of mine decided to me recently he said he was joking but he said I said something stupid he said grow up and I said why yeah yeah you know people have been tapping will on the shoulder for several years but he just swats it away like it's a lie well that's just because I'm a long I take a long time

to pee it's just because I gotta my bag is so full often because I wear and then sometimes the hose gets caught sure James you're brilliant we love you I don't want to take up any more of your time yes no I've got one question which I mean keen to know from you three just what we're on this thing I have a question for you if that's okay I'm interested to know are you three do you think you're good now at separating yourself and your career do you know what I mean because I think every sort of actor perform when they start their entire life is about what am I doing who am I working with is it impressive enough am I all these things are you do you consider yourselves people are good at separating well this is me and this is my work and if this goes away

I still exist absolutely 100% I started that years ago or at least I tried to years ago that were yeah exactly what you just said you're not you can't you can't invest in defining yourself by this business and your stature in it you'll be a miserable human being yeah I made I made the mistake of doing that when I was younger and then when it went away I had no self-worth but no self-value it was it was horrific and I felt so foolish to to identify myself with something that you know is it's not it's not a meritocracy you know no no real art is it's all sort of subjective and I always say the thing that Jason Bateman said to me years and years and years ago which is I love you none of this is up to you oh yes he said none of this is I think the thing

you like with Jason was saying with Jason for instance when you scratch the surface it's just more surface but um but no I I honestly I stopped I stopped a long time ago pegging my happiness and my self-worth to what I do and it's completely it's been a few years now but for me it's it's about friends like these guys and it's about my kids and it's about my life and that comes first and foremost and everything else and I mean everything else comes second to that yeah you can't yeah we said it all I I don't know if I envy those who work in an occupation that that is a meritocracy but it's maybe I do I I think it's it's really admirable the people that find themselves in an occupation where it's a requirement that you go to eight years of school

and you have this diploma and you have the certificate of of those who are doctors and lawyers and these technicians I admire that and if you are the best at that it it's it's quantifiable in our in our world there is no best it's all just kind of up to the to the audience there's something great about that but there's also something that's that's terrifying about that too if you have a degree in acting yeah but you're bad right it doesn't matter I just I'm just an expert at that third degree burns you know god here we go third degree burns got it um but James thank you we found something to trim out thank you so much for being here we're all huge fans and uh and Jason's gonna be on your show by tomorrow get can you get ready Sean and I are

gonna come we're gonna be in the audience when Jason finally comes on the show yeah Jason should be on your show and just me and will in the audience that would be tremendous I would love that so much nothing would give me more pleasure this has been the absolute highlight of my day and anytime I've been lucky enough to be in your orbits I've always always thought well this is this is why you move to America to hang out with people like this I mean it and I'm I'm so thrilled to be on your show and I will forever be a fan and hopeful friend of all three of you thank you James you're the best thanks James you're the best thank you pal so much God I loved it see you soon bye buddy all right that was great that thing he said towards the end

I know what I wanted to say now was like a lot of the times and tell me how you guys feel a lot certain I'll say actors or other producers directors writers whatever they wake up thinking America or the world is waiting with bated breath about their next move no right they think like they're just not right nobody cares they care when it comes out they're like oh I love that person but or I love that director I love that writer and then they still might not see it I can't tell you how many films or directors that I love or actors that I love is like I'm gonna see everything they do and I still might forget to go see like it's so thin to everybody else right it feels like the world to the people who are doing it right and it should so that you have a good time doing it

but you can't control the outcome so right better have fun while you're doing it but really interesting to get to talk to him for that long because he's it's always like in seven minute bits on his show so you know and you talk in the middle of commercials but just to get to know him further and get inside his head it was really cool what do you say like during the commercial when they go to the music and you'd like turn to him and go like it's going pretty good right how are you everybody everybody my family was like when I was first going through the talk show was like what do you guys talk about when they start whispering I'm like nothing you just start saying thanks for having me here I want to see a talk show host do because it is sort of a cliche

like as you go to commercial they always like lean in and like kind of like whisper to the guests like well why why why don't they talk why don't they do that while they're just once I want to see a talk show just stare at the guest and just not make any move to talk to them as you go to well Letterman used to for most guests not talk to them in between no right and kind of famously and and Carson would smoke a little bit Carson would smoke a little bit is the last tray right there take a couple hits off cigarette and now James Corden is one of those talk show hosts yeah yeah but he's such a naturally great guy and he does have I think one of the reasons that we I mean the three of us respond to him so well not only is a good host but also he is

he and he said that he would take he'd be an actor over being a host I mean he is an actor at heart and yeah and people go it's one of those things I fucking hate is people say oh fucking actors and like oh do you know actors like some of the best greatest people in my whole in my life all my so many my friends are actors they're incredibly creative talented people right same and and people who disparage them I'm like there are some doozies though no I don't disagree with that but there are doozies everywhere that's true I think investment bankers aren't 99% douchebags 99 is a big number they're the fucking worst can you imagine how boring it is listening to a bunch of hedge fund guys can I speak to the hedge fund folks in our audience this will does not speak for me I have a good I

have a couple good friends who are bankers and who have been for years who are who are the exception to the rule quite the one percent they are they are my friend Dan is one of the funniest greatest nicest guys you'll ever meet and he he's a banker too late I think you just deleted your notebook you can't save it you can't save it yeah I just saved it that's that's considered a save you already deleted you know what I think though because you you tried to save that I think it's time to say bye