James Corden on 'The Prom': 'Acceptance Is Everything'

James Corden has been noticeably silent since "The Prom" came on Netflix amidst a storm of criticism of his performance as flamboyant Broadway star Barry Glickman, who describes himself as "gay as a bucket of wigs... a BUCKET of them!"

A number of headlines say it all, EDGE reported earlier this month. "James Corden Should Have Been Banned from 'The Prom'," trumpets Richard Dawson in his Vanity Fair review. "James Corden faces blistering backlash for 'gross and offensive' portrayal of a gay man in 'The Prom'," headlines a report at PinkNews.

Not all his reviews were scathing. In Variety, Owen Gleiberman writes: "Corden may be criticized in some quarters for portraying Barry as a gay stereotype, but like Christopher Guest in "Waiting for Guffman" he burrows so deeply into the character's quibbling insouciance that he gives him a three-dimensional essence. He's soulfully funny and touching."

Nonetheless criticism went far beyond the merits of his performance and into identity politics, with many calling his performance an example of "gayface," the appropriation of "blackface" in which an actor plays a role with stereotypes. Out Guardian writer Benjamin Lee doesn't so much blame Corden for his tone-deaf performance but producer/director Ryan Murphy "for not only choosing to cast him in the first place but for then allowing him to gayface quite so grotesquely. He knows better and has shown that he cares about furthering queer representation and stories..." Adding, "The backlash Corden has faced, and will continue to, should be a wake-up call to many who haven't thought these things through with enough time or care and a warning that for those who don't, there'll be tomatoes rather than roses waiting ..."

While Corden hasn't responded to any of the criticism of his performance or of the ensuing controversy, but he did speak earlier this month to the Metro about being in the film. In the film he plays one of a quartet of self-involved Broadway performers in search of a cause to bolster their image. They find one in an Indiana high school prom canceled because one student wants to bring her girlfriend. Once in the Midwest, Barry is forced to reconnect with his fractured relationship with his own family whom he abandoned years earlier because of being gay.

"I get emotional when I think about those scenes about his family, if I'm honest. They are important scenes which move the story and character forward," Corden said. He continued: "And then you go, 'Oh God, what if I am not able to do these things?'. Ryan, I will be indebted to forever for his guidance, the way that he led me through it. The way he led me through it as a director, the way he led me through it as a friend, the way he led me through it as a gay man. And I'll treasure those days."

He also stated what motivated him during the shoot: "The whole time I was thinking about the friends of mine, young friends of mine whose families don't know that they're out, friends of mine who have distant relationships with their families, because of their sexuality and really hope that many people would realize that however hard it is to address or confront those things, their acceptance is everything. It's everything to accept, and know that it's never too late to forgive those things that at one point you felt were forgivable."