James Corden: 'Fat' actors aren't given romantic roles in films
James Corden has claimed "fat" actors are not given leading roles in romantic films and television programmes.
Speaking on David Tennant's podcast, the Late Late show host said "chubby" actors were typecast as funny friends rather than given starring romantic roles.
He told the former Doctor Who star if an alien were to come to Earth, it would think larger people "never really fall in love" from the way they are represented in TV and films.
Corden said: "You never have sex, certainly no-one ever really finds you attractive.
"You'll be good friends with people who are attractive and you'll often be a great sense of comfort to them, and that's really how it feels.
"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.”
He revealed not being given a chance to shine in those roles was one of the factors which inspired him to write Gavin and Stacey.
He said: "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.
"And pretty much every day, three or four of these boys would come in with this massive film script under their arm."
“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 the film.”
Game of Thrones actress Elizabeth Webster, who plays Walda Bolton in the hit TV series, agreed with Corden's remarks, but insisted there has been some change in recent years.
Ms Webster told ITV presenter Nina Hossain that she could "completely see" where Mr Corden was coming from with his comments.