Director Rails Against ‘Obnoxious’ James Corden And Brands Him ‘Difficult’ To Work With

If you haven’t got anything nice to say about James Corden… do as director Craig Duncan did and make a YouTube video about it. 

Craig recently released a 10-minute video about the departing Late, Late Show host, who he called “the most difficult and obnoxious presenter” he’s ever worked with. 

In his video, Craig said he had been on set with James after the actor’s production company asked him to direct a segment for the panel show A League of Their Own in 2013. 

While watching the Cats actor rehearse, Craig claimed he’d witnessed James reading off lines for the show and saying: “That’s not funny – that’s not funny. It’s shit. We have to rewrite that. We have to rewrite this.”

“Maybe he was having a bad day, and the writing’s just not been up to scratch,” Craig said. “But I definitely thought, ‘Man, you know, somebody wrote that – not nice to do that’. But, you know, television isn’t for the faint-hearted.”

Craig praised comedian James’ co-star Jack Whitehall, saying he was super friendly and asked him questions about what he needed for the show. James, on the other hand, started critiquing the way Duncan was shooting a certain scene. 

The director alleged that James began shouting: “What the fuck is going on here? It’s obvious what you do!”, before yelling out how he would shoot the scene. 

Craig said that James reiterated that it was “so obvious” how you shot the scene and ended his rant by telling his colleague: “You’re stupid!’” 

“Cheers, James ― you got your way. Well done,” Craig said at the end of his video. “Well done for treading all over my toes. I don’t care. I get paid at the end of the day, and I hope I never ever work with you again.”

HuffPost contacted reps for James Corden and A League of Their Own for a response. 

James has repeatedly been called out for his behaviour both on set and off over the years. 

Last year, the talk show host was the subject of a back-and-forth with prominent New York City restauranteur Keith McNally after Corden dined at McNally’s restaurant, Balthazar, back in October. 

The two are seemingly still at odds, as McNally said he had “given up on” Corden “for good” after the two traded barbs, apologies and many Instagram updates. 

Spice Girl Mel B also didn’t have nice things to say about the Gavin & Stacey creator last year when she appeared on The Big Narstie Show show and named James as her pick as “the biggest dickhead celebrity” she’d ever met. 

While she didn’t illuminate a specific encounter with the actor, she noted: “You always have to be nice to the people that you work with, whether it be production, camera guys, sound, lighting.” 

She added, “We all work for the same thing. So you should always be nice, and he hasn’t been very nice.”