Craig Duncan slammed the TV host and actor, 44, after working with him on an episode of a panel show. Photo / YouTube
James Corden has been branded “the most difficult and obnoxious presenter” a director has ever worked with.
Craig Duncan slammed the British TV host and actor, 44, after working with him on an episode of UK panel show A League Of Their Own.
Corden starred on the show from 2010 to 2019, and Duncan worked with him on an episode of the show’s seventh season.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Duncan said: “The most difficult and obnoxious presenter I’ve ever worked with is James Corden.”
Duncan explained he was directing a MasterChef-style cooking challenge with Corden and co-stars Andrew Flintoff, former soccer player Jamie Redknapp and comedian Jack Whitehall when things became awkward.
The director said he was watching a rehearsal of the scene when he claims Corden called a joke “s***” and demanded it be rewritten.
Duncan said: “It came to a point where he had to read from a card. It was kind of a joke in there, and he just looked at it like, ‘That’s not funny, that’s not funny. It’s s***, we have to rewrite that’.
“I don’t know, maybe he was having a bad day or the writing’s not up to scratch, but I definitely thought, ‘Man, somebody wrote that, not nice to do that’. But television isn’t for the faint-hearted, and sometimes you have to take those knocks on the chin.”
Duncan went on to say that Corden “trod all over his toes” during the last segment of the scene.
He said: “We were working it out, when old buggerlugs pipes up: ‘What the f**k is going on here? It’s obvious what you do - you put a camera there, you put a camera there ... It’s so obvious how you shoot it, you’re stupid’.
“I hope I never, ever work with him again,” Duncan added.
News.com.au has contacted a representative for Corden for comment.
Corden was briefly banned from a restaurant in New York last year for his “rude” behaviour.
Corden apologised to the owner of Balthazar after making the comment to a waiter.
“I made a rude comment,” he said on the Late Late Show. “And it was wrong. It was an unnecessary comment. It was ungracious to the server.”
He went on to reflect on the incident with his wife, Julia Carey, alleging that the 46-year-old producer was given food that she is allergic to on three occasions.
“In the heat of the moment, I made a sarcastic, rude comment about cooking it myself. And it is a comment I deeply regret,” Corden said, noting that he previously worked restaurant shifts “for years”.
The comedian said he has “respect” for servers and “values” them – especially those at Balthazar.
“Genuinely, I love it there,” Corden said. “I love the food, the vibe, the service. If I lived in New York, I would go every day on the proviso … that they would let me in.”
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