-Welcome to the show.
Welcome. Please. Yes. You're the guest.
-There you go. -You're the guest.
-I'm so used to waiting for the other person.
-Yeah, this is -- I'm interviewing you.
-I'm loving it. -You know --
-I'm so happy to be here.
-I'm so happy you're here. -Can I say that?
I have wanted to be on this television show since I --
since the second you started hosting it.
I don't know if I would have ever hosted my show
if it wasn't for watching you do this show
and all the people you have here.
And as we sat here now, I am thrilled to be
on "The Tonight Show."
I mean it from the bottom of my heart.
-I love you man. -I'm so happy to be here.
-You know, at first -- -I really am.
-When I first met you, before you were hosting
the show, I knew you as an actor.
-Mm. -You're a phenomenal actor,
and, everyone, watch "Mammals" on Prime Video.
Watch just the first episode if you haven't seen it.
If you don't like it, you don't have to watch the --
You'll be sucked into it.
Even the last three seconds, I'm like, oh, my God.
-It twists and turns all over the place.
-You are fantastic, buddy. -You are so kind. Thank you.
-It's your first time here on our show,
but we've hung out many a time. -We have.
-We have many fun adventures together.
-Well, it's always fun.
-[ Laughs ] -It's never not fun.
That's the beauty of it. If I go to something --
because often, obviously, Jimmy and I will be invited to things,
And you get there, and I always feel like I shouldn't be there.
Someone's going to tap me on the shoulder and go,
"There's been a huge mistake."
[ Laughter ]
-You should leave. -Yeah. James Cameron we met.
-Not James. -Then, when I see you, I think,
"Oh, okay, this is going to be fun."
And we have this -- and I can't remember who started it,
whether I started it or you started it, this running bit
that we have where we see each other at an event --
Because also, have you noticed, we go to things
and no one ever sits us together.
We're on different tables.
It's like they got to spread the talkers.
-[ Laughs ] -Do you know what I mean?
-They know we're trouble when we get together.
-So we started -- I think it was me who started
because I came over to your table, and you had --
I think it was a tequila, a glass of tequila,
and you were just about to grab it to take a drink,
and I swooped in, picked it up, looked you dead in the eye,
and drunk the whole thing. -Drunk the whole thing.
-And put it back. -Yeah. Exactly, yeah.
-And this then set in motion a constant running joke where --
-Any time we saw each other, I go like, "Can I have a sip
of what -- can I have a sip?" -Oh, sure.
You got a bad voice? Yeah, yeah. There you go. Yeah.
-And then I just chug the whole drink until it's empty,
then give it back to you.
-The entire thing. And it always makes me laugh.
-Do you remember you were sitting next to Lady Gaga once?
-Do I remember? Of course I remember.
It was insane. We're at this -- I'm sat next to Lady Gaga.
Right? I'm here. She's there.
And she's lovely. She's amazing.
And we're talking.
And she was saying to me that she's very nervous
about her performance.
She was going to perform that night,
and she said she was very, very nervous.
And I was like, "But you're Lady Gaga.
You don't get nervous."
And she said, "No, I'm more comfortable in a big stadium
than I am in front of a small room like this."
And I said, "You're going to be great."
And she said, "Will you pray with me?"
-Yes. -Right? And I went, sure, yeah.
Let's --
And she held my hand like this, and she closed her eyes,
and we're literally like this.
She closed her eyes, and she started saying,
"Please give me the strength to perform."
And I opened my eyes slightly, and in the corner of my eye,
I can see Jimmy walking towards my drink to do the bit.
[ Laughter ]
And I'm going like this, I'm going like this --
I'm going like this. I'm going -- I'm going --
[ Laughter ]
And I'm going like this, "Hmm, yes, give us the strength."
[ Laughter ]
And he goes -- he goes to me --
He goes later -- You came over.
-Because I did a good job. -He looked and was like, okay.
And he came back. He went, "What was going on?"
I said, "We, We -- We were just praying."
-What are you guys doing? You were praying.
-We were praying. -And then I drank your drink.
-And then you drank our drinks.
You announced you're leaving "The Late Late Show"
this coming spring. -Yes.
-Very sad. I know. We love you.
Do you have anything planned for the end?
-I've actually just been asked to take over "The Tonight Show,"
which is really weird.
-Hey, that's a mistake! Wait! No!
No! I can't -- Please, no!
-[ Laughs ] Yeah.
No, my biggest plan -- well, my intention,
which I think I'll fail at dramatically,
is to just not be just, like, crying for the entire hour,
which I think I will be. -Yeah.
-So I'm really going to try and keep it together.
Our intention is to, you know, go out in the way
that we came in, and I will miss it hugely.
I will miss it every day.
I will miss the people that I work with.
And there's no sense of me leaving because I don't love it.
I'm just leaving the show primarily because
we're a long way from home, and we really want our children
to know what it's like to grow up in London,
to have a solid relationship with their grandparents,
and that is time that you don't get back, really.
So, however hard it is to go, I'm completely certain
that it's the right thing to do it.
And, you know, I've loved every second of doing it.
I love it. I love the show. I really do.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Let's talk about "Mammals." -Yeah.
-Can I say that? Can I -- -Yeah, sure. Go for it.
-Can I give a little spoiler?
-Yeah, it's always impossible not to spoil the show
if you're going to talk about it, but you can.
-It's a dark comedy. -Yes.
-With some very dramatic scenes, very funny scenes.
I think that only you could pull this off.
You do such a great job of this.
Who wrote this, by the way?
-The show is written by an incredible writer
called Jez Butterworth, who has written --
He's got the most extraordinary career.
He's basically written two Tony award-winning plays,
but he's also written two "Bond" movies,
the new "Indiana Jones," and "Ford versus Ferrari."
-Wow. -So he's got this kind of
incredible -- and what he's done in the show is make something
very small about love and relationships and marriage
with all of the kind of twists and turns that you would get
in one of his kind of bigger movies.
I'm incredibly proud of it.
-It starts off with you guys traveling.
You're going to this beautiful place in England.
-In Cornwall. The coast, yeah. -Cornwall?
-Beautiful, and your wife is pregnant, and she's beautiful,
and you guys are just the perfect couple,
and the sunset, and it's all great.
-Yes. -And then she loses the baby.
-So they lose their baby and it's really sad.
It's awful.
And he's got her phone because there's bad service
where they are in Cornwall, and he looks down at his phone
and he realizes in that moment that she's having an affair.
And in that moment, he also bumps into the singer,
Tom Jones.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah. So -- So he's trying not to freak out
that Tom Jones is there, but then your life is falling apart.
-Correct.
-And it gets trickier after that.
It just gets trickier upon trickier upon trickier.
It's so great and so worth it.
I want to show a clip.
Here is James Corden and Tom Jones in "Mammals."
Take a look.
-You're my neighbor, right?
I'm Tom from next door. Pleased to meet you.
I don't know about you, but I'm coming back.
I mean, this is like a landscape you already know.
It's like something that's -- that's etched in your soul.
Do you ever get that?
-[ Vomiting ]
-Are you all right? -[ Coughing ]
-What?
[ Vomiting ]
Jesus Christ.
What was it, an oyster or something?
-[ Sniffs ]
Tom Jones.
-Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Tom Jones.
I want to say thank you so much for coming on,
but I love doing late night with you in the same school
and us doing the show together.
I'm going to miss that and seeing your bits.
You would do things that would make me want
to be better at my job.
So, I want to thank you for everything you do.
-You're welcome. I love you.
I love you so much. I really do.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-James Corden, everyone.
"Mammals" is streaming now on Prime Video.
Jenna Ortega joins us after the break.
Stick around, everybody.