With roles in everything from Ocean’s 8 to Cinderella – not to mention Cats – James Corden has been pretty ubiquitous when it comes to on-screen appearances in the past few years (whether people like it or not).
However, he’s revealed there’s one major film franchise he auditioned for back in the day, but ended up not landing the part.
During an interview on the podcast Happy Sad Confused, the Gavin & Stacey creator recalled: “Every single person in London auditioned for Lord Of The Rings. Everybody.
“I auditioned for Samwise. I was doing the accent and everything.”
And while James went on to receive a call-back, he admitted that his follow-up audition was “not good”.
“Two of my other friends went in and then we all got called back the next day,” he said. “Then we got called back the next day, and then none of us got called back after that.”
Of course, as fans of Middle Earth will know, Samwise went on to be played by Sean Astin in all three of Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings films.
James is currently best known for fronting the US talk show The Late Late Show, which he has done since 2015.
Earlier this year, it was announced that James would be handing over the reins to someone else in 2023, after which he’ll pursue new projects.
“I think it’s a greater risk to stay,” he said during a recent interview. “There’s an amazing clip, in which David Bowie talks about never playing to the gallery.
“On the day of the announcement that I was going to walk away, it was still made very clear to me that there was a job here for the next five years and I’m not gonna lie, financially it’s good.”
He’ll continue to host The Late Late Show until the middle of next year, after which another presenter will take over.