Okay, don't freak out.
This is not a thinkpiece about James Corden playing a gay man in The Prom.
I've died on that hill so many times, they've put up a memorial for me on it, and I'm not totally done fighting that fight, but in the meantime, I want to approach this from a different place.
Because every time a play or musical gets made into a mainstream movie, you always hear the same outcry--
Why couldn't they have gotten Broadway actors?
And while I usually join in the chorus of people yelling--
Because no matter how much we all love Kelly O'Hara, people in Iowa have no idea who she is.
This time around, things are a little different.
Here's why.
This movie was part of a deal Netflix made with Ryan Murphy. They essentially paid for this movie upfront, and while there may have been a plan at one point to release it in theaters, Netflix doesn't actually worry about making money off the limited number of movies they actually bother putting in theaters. They just want subscribers streaming the movie on their platform.
And here's the thing--
People will stream nearly anything if Netflix pushes for it hard enough and it's not totally awful.
We really don't know how successful anything is on the platform, because they only sporadically let us know how well some of their content is doing, but it's reasonable to assume that a movie like this would do fairly well even without the marketing barrage Netflix put behind it.
The point is--it's not really about money. Nobody was going to be "making" any money off this movie, because the money was already made.
That means, there was an opportunity for Ryan Murphy to take a few more casting risks with this film, because really, what's the worst that could've happened?
A few less streams on the platform?
Why would he care? His deal is set in stone. Once it's done, I guess he could reup, but he's already delivered what appear to be a few decent-sized hits for the platform, and even if they didn't ask him back, there a million other streaming services he could go to.
But of course, if any platform gave any of us an obscene amount of money to make a movie, I bet most of us would yell "STREEP! KIDMAN! TRACEY ULLMAN!" just like Murphy did, so I can't fault him for that.
It's also worth pointing out that Murphy produced the film version of The Boys in the Band for Netflix, and he mostly kept the cast from the Broadway revival, and yes, there were some stars in it, but all of them are out gay men, and none of them are stars at the level of Streep and Kidman, so it's reasonable to assume he's not entirely driven by star power.
But what about James Corden.
What is the actual argument, not only for having James Corden in this movie, but in terms of thinking of James Corden as a...star.
I'm going to admit that this is all going to be inherently snarky since I'm questioning a celebrity's, um, celebrity, so this is when I remind you that we actually have as many stories about Corden being an asshole as we do Ellen, and Ellen got herself cancelled this summer, and Corden has zero point zero zero think pieces about him being a jerk, so I think it's okay to ring this bell for the first time, no?
If you were putting together The Prom, yes, you would want star power. Both because with the amount of money you've been given, you can take your pick, and because, even if people watching your film won't result in you making more money, you still...want people to watch the film.
But here's where I start to get confused--
You have Meryl Streep. You have Nicole Kidman. You have Kerry Washington.
You have...stars.
You have enough star power to light a small city.
Do you...need James Corden?
This is assuming that you believe James Corden is a star, and ohhhh boy, we'll get to that.
But let's say you do think he's a star.
You don't need him in this already heavily star-laden film, right?
If anything, this could be the opportunity you take to create a break-out performance by either casting a theater actor or finding somebody completely new for the role.
Or, like...Andrew Rannells was...right there.
(Sidenote: Andrew Rannells said he believed his character in the film is straight. Is that...that can't be right...right?)
You could also find someone with less star power than Corden (assuming you think he really is at the level of Streep and Kidman), because a little less star power alongside all that major star power won't exactly kill the film.
Over the past week, a bunch of my friends have offered up a ton of good suggestions about who could have played the role--everyone from Neil Patrick Harris to Sean Hayes to Jesse Tyler Ferguson--all of whom, I would argue, actually have way more universal name value than Corden does.
Think about it.
Wouldn't it make more sense that people all over the country are more aware of someone like Sean Hayes who played one of the most famous characters in television history for over a decade than Corden who people sort of know from singing in a car with Justin Bieber?
I mean, if that's what makes you a celebrity, why not get the guy from Cash Cab to play the lead in Man of La Mancha?
(Oh great, now I've manifested that into existence.)
Some have said that they really wanted the role to stay with a plus-size actor, in which case, Titus Burgess, who also has a major Netflix connection is...again, right there.
So the only argument can be that Ryan Murphy, or whoever was involved with casting, really thinks Corden is A-list on the same level as Oscar winners and Keegan-Michael Key, who by the way, has now helped foster a high school principal fantasy I never had until now. Thanks for that. Call me.
If that is the argument--Corden is an A-lister--I have to wonder if this is a case of Hollywood once again believing that someone they're really super keen on must be popular outside of Hollywood as well, because aren't we all one homogenous world with the same tastes and preferences?
(:: Cough Cough :: 90 Day Fiancé :: Cough Cough)
I get that, in some ways, casting Corden is a huge promotional help. This is a person who has a nightly show on network television (granted, who watches that show?), and still has an interest in acting, unlike Fallon or Colbert. He's also become the male Anna Kendrick, someone who can, like, kinda sing? But also, combined with their name value, is now the first phone call anytime anyone makes a movie, because "I can kind of sing" then becomes their brand.
(See also: Amanda Seyfried)
Listen, it's cool. Hollywood doesn't care what notes you can hit or if you can tap, because they can fix all that in post, and I'm not going to fight that battle.
The battle I do want to fight is this:
Is James Corden really that famous?
I would argue that he's not.
Like most straight white guys who are the toast of Tinseltown, he attached himself to super popular and lucrative IP (Carpool Karaoke) and seemingly got credit for an idea so sellable the syndicated version doesn't even have a host.
It's like how Ryan Seacrest became famous off the success of American Idol, a show that, in its heyday, could have been hosted by Rosie from The Jetsons for all anybody cared. It's sort of sweet that we want to reward the people and not just write off the popularity of something off its concept, but more often than not, especially when the concept is kind of stupid, it has nothing to do with the people surrounding it.
But you can see how we'd resist that argument, right? Because those of us who are artists have a hard-enough time convincing people we're special, so the last thing we want to do is argue that if the content is good enough, you don't actually need us.
Trust me though, nobody needs James Corden.
To be fair, I don't think he's a terrible actor, and he does have the same charm everyone else on Earth with a British accent has, but I don't know why we'd assume there's something...special about him?
Also, when we talk about star power as it relates to getting somebody into a project so that it will make money, we're talking about that person having fans.
Not just people who like them, but fans.
People who will purchase anything they're attached to just to support them because they love them that much.
Which begs the question--
Who do you know that would call themselves a fan of James Corden?
Like, to the point where if they saw a movie was coming out with Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, they'd say--
Yeah, I mean, I guess I'd watch it if James Corden was in it, but otherwise, I'm going to pass.
Don't forget. He was a pretty prominent player in the Cats movie, and while we can't lay that Hindenburg at any one person's feet, it doesn't appear that he helped the box office all that much.
The bigger argument here that I'll try to argue as succinctly as possible is this--
I don't think anybody has star power anymore.
Star power is one of those things that existed before Rotten Tomatoes, wherein you would go see a movie with an actor you liked in it, because you had no way of knowing if the film was good or not, so you just based your movie consumption on actors you enjoyed.
Now, we make much smarter choices as an audience.
If Tom Hanks is in a movie, yeah, it'll catch my attention, but I'm still going to check and see if it's gotten generally good reviews before I watch it, and then I watch it anyway, because I'm a movie nut, but it's not because of Tom Hanks.
And you can see why movie stars and studios don't want us talking this way, because it removes one tool from their toolbox when it comes to getting us to see movies, especially movies that don't end up being that good.
To be clear, I really enjoyed The Prom. The Corden thing just...perplexes me. And most of what I've said here is anecdotal.
That being said, Britt Robertson was also in every movie for two years because Hollywood was convinced we, the rest of the world, would eventually loosen our throats and allow her to be shoved down there, but that never happened, because there just wasn't anything special about her. Then we got Florence Pugh, and Britt was relegated to second-tier Shondaland projects, but she'll still always work, because she's blonde and pretty, and Hollywood executives are loyal to those actors the same way I'm loyal to my favorite franchise dining spot.
(Outback Steakhouse is wonderful, and I won't hear otherwise.)
The exception that proves the rule goes back awhile, but follow me here--
When The Grudge came out in 2004 and was a big success, a lot of that success was attributed to its star, Sarah Michelle Gellar. An email was then leaked from the studio where an executive basically said "Anybody could have starred in that movie and it still would have been successful. It's got nothing to do with her."
Now, he was wrong. SMG had a following from Buffy, a show that, ironically, was never fully appreciated by Hollywood, and I bet that following did play a part in the movie doing well, since none of the follow-ups did as well, and SMG was only peripherally in the second film, because she probably wanted to prove a point, and boy oh boy, did she.
But the executive, overall, wasn't wrong.
A genre film usually does well because of the genre and the people who love that genre. Actors in it are usually interchangeable.
And movie musicals are a genre.
As much as I loved seeing friends post that The Prom was going to change lives because kids in Nebraska were going to watch it and find hope, the reality is that closeted gay tweens in the Midwest are making TikToks and watching that YouTube video of Shawn Mendes showering over and over again, they're not watching The Prom. And if you want their homophobic parents to watch the film to potentially change their lifelong views, replace Meryl with Melania and and Corden with John Cena, and then, mayyyyybe you'll have a shot.
Ultimately star power here both wasn't needed and wasn't delivered upon, regardless of what you think about Corden or his performance, and, in fact, the existence of it, in general, might be in question.
This is a long-winded way of saying, while we're all fighting about why Corden should have been replaced with an out gay actor, there are a bunch of other arguments that we could have had that would have gone a lot further in making the point that he shouldn't have been in the movie.
As for the straights-playing-gays element of it, I want to double back and remind you that not only is it possible to have out gay men playing gay characters, but we just saw it happen a month ago on the same damn platform with The Boys in The Band.
That's all.
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