I’m not sure I can think of a worse idea that having James Corden in the lead role of ‘The Whale’ over Brendan Fraser, but according to The Late Late Show host himself, this was almost a reality.

Movie critic Pete Hammond wrote in his latest Deadline column that Corden had told him during a conversation that he was originally set to star in the movie:

Corden asked what I had seen lately that I liked and I happened to mention The Whale. He had not seen it at that point but had a connection. “I was going to play that part, and Tom Ford was going to direct,” he said, adding that it ultimately didn’t happen because Ford wanted more complete control of the project. Corden also thinks he may have been too young to do it justice. He then told me George Clooney also got involved with it at one point but only wanted to make the film if an actual 600-pound unknown could be found to play the lead role. The complications of that were too much, as you might imagine, and Clooney never became involved beyond that brief flirtation with the property.

I mean, Tom Ford is a decent director and all, but thank fxck this didn’t come into fruition. Has Corden even acted in a serious, dramatic project before? I’m not sure he could pull off that kind of role when he’s mostly known for comic relief and doing things like Gavin & Stacey and Cats. Hard to imagine ‘The Whale’ would be up for so many awards if it had been Corden in the lead role over the legend that is Brendan Fraser, especially as all the reviews (even the negative ones) highlight Fraser’s performance as a highlight. What an upgrade that turned out to be.

Let’s not forget the timing would have been awful too given The Whale hype was in full effect around the time Corden was making headlines for abusing restaurant staff in NYC. Apparently Corden also auditioned to be Samwise in Lord of the Rings years back, so that was another bullet dodged right there.