James Corden has revealed that he nearly played Brendan Fraser’s lead role in The Whale.
The film, which has been generating a huge amount of Oscars buzz, stars Fraser as a 42-stone English teacher desperately trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter before it is too late.
The Whale has marked a big comeback for Fraser, who has been mostly out of the limelight for the last decade, after name-making roles in The Mummy trilogy and Crash.
It has now emerged that Corden was almost the movie’s leading man.
Corden told Deadline reporter Pete Hammond, before a Q&A for his new show Mammals: “I was going to play that part, and Tom Ford was going to direct.”
The film went on to be directed by Darren Aronofsky, and Corden reportedly said that Ford ultimately didn’t take the reins as he had wanted more complete control of the project.
Hammond wrote: “Corden also thinks he may have been too young to do it justice. He then told me George Clooney also got involved with it at one point but only wanted to make the film if an actual 600-pound unknown could be found to play the lead role.
“The complications of that were too much, as you might imagine, and Clooney never became involved beyond that brief flirtation with the property.”
Aronofsky later confirmed Corden’s account of events to Deadline.
The Whale isn’t the only movie Corden has recently revealed he almost starred in. Last month, Corden talked about how he once auditioned for the role of Samwise in Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. The part was played by Sean Astin.
Corden is standing down as the host of The Late Late Show this year. Earlier this month, he became emotional while talking about the reasons for his exit.
The Whale is out in the UK on 3 February 2023.
