James Corden has admitted he has no regrets at appearing in the critically mauled film Cats.
The Gavin & Stacey star appeared as Bustopher Jones in Tom Hooper’s 2019 big-screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, which did not go down well with critics, or in indeed the musical maestro himself.
Shortly after release, James admitted he’d not yet seen the film but had “heard it’s terrible”, later poking fun at the backlash during an appearance at the Oscars.
However, he has insisted he “doesn’t regret” Cats “at all”, telling Radio Times in a new interview: “How could you? I had a blast.
“You’ve got to be really careful to separate your own experience and the finished product. The finished product happens in a room 14,000 miles away from me. My experience was that,” he said.
“I got to sit with Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Idris Elba, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson... It was extraordinary.
“You really have to google yourself from time to time and go: how did I grow?” he continues, meaning, take a step back and look at yourself.”
James added that he believes “failure is necessary, for every single person” and has learned more lessons from “failure” rather than successes in his career.
During the interview, James also sidestepped a question about his role in the 2020 musical comedy The Prom.
The actor played a gay character in the Netflix film and attracted criticism from some who believe gay actors should be cast in gay roles.
“I’m just not going to talk about it,” James said when asked about it in the Radio Times interview. “Because it’s then all this would be about… it’s just really hard to talk about without context or nuance.”
Read James Corden’s interview in full in the new issue of Radio Times, on sale now.