James Corden wants to set the record straight – he DOES drive the vehicles on “Carpool Karaoke.” Most of the time.
Last week, a video of James and Justin shooting their “Carpool Karaoke” segment went viral. The clip appears to show James sitting in the the driver’s seat and Justin riding shotgun. The thing is, it looked like James wasn’t even driving the car – their car was actually mounted on some small wheels and was being pulled by a truck.
The video sparked a lot of speculations on whether the host does indeed drive during the popular segment. Following the outcry from fans on social media, The Late Late Show issued a statement that James DOES drive on “Carpool Karaoke” – except when there are special circumstances involved.
“James always drives during ‘Carpool Karaoke.’ However, on the rare occasion when there is a stunt component and the producers feel it is unsafe to drive, we will use a rig (tow),” the statement read.
And James himself has since addressed the “very very serious allegations” against him – and did it with a light-hearted approach.
First off, he called the accusations that he doesn’t drive at all during the segment “fake news.”
“I know this looks bad. But I just want to say right now that I always drive the car unless we’re doing something where we think it might not be safe, like a dance routine or a costume change or if I’m drunk,” he said.
Explaining that using the rig for his upcoming sketch with Justin was a “safety issue,” he quipped, “Frankly, I just kept getting lost in his eyes.”
He then went on to point out that the video has gotten over 13 million views – more than some of the “Carpool Karaoke” videos, adding, “I’m just shocked. I’ve done something that upset people more than Cats.”
He says that he drives 95% of the time in “Carpool Karaoke,” and raised the point, “I want credit for it because I was raised driving on the completely different side of the road!”
He also gave the hilarious lowdown on what’s what when they film.
“I hate to be the bearer of even more bad news, but while we’re getting things out in the open, I don’t actually need them to help me get to work,” he joked, referring to the musicians who join him in the cars. “Often, I’m at work already. We’ve also never once, in the history of doing that bit, ever used the carpool lane. There’s not even a carpool lane on my way to work and I just thought that we all knew this. And I’m sorry that you were so deep into the reality of ‘Carpool Karaoke,’ but it’s TV and sometimes we do stuff just for the sake of entertainment.”
Out of all the “Carpool Karaoke” segments that they’ve done over the years, James says he’s only used the rig a total of five times.
