James Corden has hit out at the exclusion of “chubby” actors from major screen roles.
The Late Late Show host, 40, said that “fat” people “never really fall in love… never have sex,” in film or on TV and “certainly no-one ever finds you attractive”.
He told fellow actor David Tennant that overweight people are, at best, cast as the “good” and funny friend of someone who is “attractive”.
The star said that being excluded from the “banquet” spurred him into writing.
“I had no idea if I’d be able to write. It came about because I had done a film with Shane Meadows, I’d done a Mike Leigh film and done Fat Friends on ITV…
“And now I was in this play which was the play to see (The History Boys).
“And I was in this play with seven other boys who were at a similar age and a similar place in our careers,” he told David Tennant Does A Podcast With.
“And pretty much every day, three or four of these boys would come in with this massive film script under their arm…”
One day Corden and two other actors in the acclaimed production were told about the “hottest script”.
“They were looking for two boys of 21, 22,” Corden, who went on to co-create sitcom hit Gavin & Stacey said.
“And they both got sent the script (for the lead roles) and I got sent just two pages to play a newsagent at the start of this film.
“I really felt like people were going, ‘We think you’re quite good. It’s just because of what you look like.’
“If you only watch television or films, if an alien came back and they had to take a reading on planet Earth by just watching films or TV they would imagine that if you are chubby or fat or big, you never really fall in love, you never have sex.
“Certainly no-one really ever finds you attractive.
“You will be good friends with people who are attractive and often will be a great sense of comfort to them and perhaps chip in with the odd joke every now and again.
“As you get older you’ll probably be a judge in something or you’ll be dropping off a television to a handsome person in a sitcom.
“And that’s really how it can feel. It felt like if the world of entertainment was a big banquet table, people are like, ‘There isn’t a seat for you here.’
“I was like ‘if that’s not going to happen then I’m going to try to make something happen for myself’.”
David Tennant Does A Podcast With is available on streaming services including Acast.