James Corden covers the September issue of British GQ. I like the cover, but the inside photos aren’t that great, because they came in too close on Corden’s face. Magazines do that with women who are a bit heavier too – like, readers will be “upset” if they see a heavier person photographed from the waist-up, or even a full-length photo. Corden’s interview is pretty great, and I want you to keep in mind two things. One, he’s speaking to a British audience about how they did not treat him fairly. Two, he specifically speaks about how posh British actors are given all the break and name-checks Tom Hiddleston, and British GQ included this cover line: “How to be attractive… Hint: Be more like Tom Hiddleston” right next to Corden’s face. Passive-aggressive editor, I’m just saying. Some highlights from Corden’s interview:

His dream Carpool Karaoke guests: “Kanye has been booked to do Carpool Karaoke now twice and both times something came up. He’ll do it eventually. He wants to do it. [When he cancelled he sent] about three dozen white roses, of course. Arranged in the shape of a cube. What could be more Kanye than that?… [The dream would be] Beyonce. It would break the internet. She’s on tour right now. We’re working on it.”

How the American audience has embraced him: He says that there was an “expectation of failure” in Britain when he launched his show in the U.S., noting: “If we’d made this show for ITV to air at eight o’clock on Saturday night people would have destroyed it.”

The UK is becoming culturally elitist: “I’ve come to the conclusion that it is about class… Look at my career: I was in a really good play at the National Theatre, The History Boys, which then moved to Broadway and won six Tony awards. We came back. I wrote a sitcom (Gavin And Stacey) that did really, really well. I did a couple of films, got a play in New York, One Man, Two Guvnors, and subsequently won every best actor award going. I mean, that’s quite a lot of good stuff! Douglas Booth has got a great career, he’s a brilliant actor, but he’s never going to encounter the sort of sh-t like I’ve had. Nor will Tom Hiddleston. Nor Eddie Redmayne. Nor Benedict Cumberbatch. I fear acting is becoming an elitist sport and I worry about where that lands us culturally. I really do.”

[From British GQ]

Regarding his comments about how his show would have been destroyed if he had done it in Britain, I think he may be right. I remember reading a lot of British critics stick their noses in the air about how Corden was going to hugely fail in America, and then when his show was successful, those same critics say that it’s because Corden is “too American,” meaning that he’s gauche, or too happy, or that he doesn’t have enough of a stiff upper lip and a dry, sardonic sense of humor. So many British entertainers try and fail to find success in America, and I don’t think many in the UK thought that Corden would end up being embraced by American audiences.

Regarding his comments about posh actors… it’s been a topic of conversation amongst British actors for years now, as the Hiddlestons, Cumberbatches and Redmaynes started gathering up all of the roles. For the most part, it’s the posh actors being forced to talk about how they benefit from Britain’s deeply ingrained class system, and rarely is it the James Corden-type of actor/entertainer saying he was always treated differently because of his working class background. I think the root of it – as an outsider looking in on Britain’s class system – is that it doesn’t feel like British celebrate the upwardly mobile. If someone working class strives to better himself, he’s cut down with insults that he’s getting above his station. Tall poppy syndrome or whatever. That’s so foreign to me, and to most Americans. The upwardly mobile narrative is part of our national identity.

Photos courtesy of British GQ.