step out of a curtain and 400 people will go nuts and you've got to remember the other side of this camera is a sign that says Applause Tony and Emmy winning a was on TV screens for8 years the man himself James Gordon I went upstairs and I sat in his room and I just went to him uh I need you to know that I haven't changed I love you more than you'll ever
know and he went before we jump into this episode I'd like to invite you to join this community to hear more interviews that will help you become happier healthier and more healed all I want you to do is click on the Subscribe button I love your support it's incredible to see all your comments and we're just getting
started I can't wait to go on this journey with you thank you so much for subscribing it means the world to me the number one Health and Wellness podcast J shett J shett the one the only Jett James it is truly a honor and privilege to have you here today because I have to be honest with you I've been a huge huge
huge fan ever since Smithy and comic relief and I was at the Grove just a couple of weeks ago and I was remembering how that sketch started there you yeah and you walk into one of the rooms and you're with the and so I've been such a huge fan from day one and watching you and admiring your journey seeing you go crushing it from
the UK through to the US and you know I moved to the us a few years after you did but just getting to see the impact you had there the amazing amazing content that you've created I'm a big fan of whether it's spill your guts or carpo karaoke every single segment you guys produce such a huge fan and so to be able to sit with you and even the few
moments we've just spent together off camera I've already enjoyed your company but I wanted to start off by just saying I'm a huge fan and thank you for doing this so I'm a huge fan yours I think what you've done is is really uh quite extraordinary actually I I really think I think it's actually deeper than a a
successful podcast or show or book I I think what you've done really I think and I'm sure I'm certainly not the first person to say this to you is you've created like a safe place for people to talk about to talk about mental health health everything you know what I mean feelings the depth that that I I I think
is of course we're more aware of today than we were a decade ago and certainly a decade before that and I think you're you're a real big part of that and I'm a real fan of the show and it's given me a a lot over the years so it's a real thrill to be here and I hope I can be deep enough to fulfill the needs required you know well for everyone
everyone who doesn't know everything that James was saying to me off camera just now like James save it I need I need you to say it again because it was it was so it was perfect but James I was thinking about this I was looking at your journey and I was seeing like you went from writing right Gavin and Stacy
amazing success gone to the West End amazing success Broadway Tony Award amazing success then moving off into late night amazing success and there was something I was observing about you and I felt that what I saw in you was someone who had the ability to continuously disrupt themselves take risks and innovate when it seemed like
there was a clear path and I wonder whether what's the decision you've made right now is almost the same thing that you've said I don't want the safe option I'm willing to take the risk would you agree with that yes I I I think so I mean it's really lovely of you to say that there's there's also misses in the middle of that do you know what I mean
like I think it's very important to say that that curve could also be looked you know what I mean there's there's as many misses as there is hits you just want to keep that ratio as as clean as you can you know in the sort of last sort of six months since finishing the show and then the few months before that after when we
announced that we were ending the show lots of people would say uh you know they would ask why you're doing this and why would you leave such a thing and such a contract and offer and all that th those things which I I completely understand I've always been able to separate work and life and that the two one shouldn't
outweigh the other does that does that make sense that that actually you have to go well I know that for my career Ruth and I could have Ruth Jones who I co-wrote Gavin and Stacy with which was a a show that became successful in in the UK we we could have of course have carried on writing that show and making more episodes of that show but I don't
know that that was at the time feeding our life you know I was wasn't feeding mine it wasn't feeding ruths it was like we've done that it's time to stop we have to do something else and then you know I I love being in plays I love being in the theater and when I was in One Man 2 Governors or or The History Boys there was a path where you could
say well I could carry on doing this and there were moments or opportunities to perhaps go and do another play after that but it was like well I don't know that that's going to feed my life so I think the the key from what or what I'm trying to do is go well if my work is feeding my my life and my family then
it's of benefit and if it isn't then it won't be and I think some people perhaps often just look at their career as being the primary thing in their life or the work is the thing I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that then I'm going to do this then I'm going to do that and you have to go no no but but how is that
feeding your life and your soul and who you are as a friend son brother husband father you know and that's that's the thing I think I've I've always thought about so the decision to end the show had nothing to do with not enjoying it anymore it had nothing to do with it not being fun financially of course it was fantastic
but then it got to a point where I was like is it feeding me and us as a family is this environment what we want now I don't think it is okay well then we're going to then we're just going to turn it over and shake it and see what it is the other side of that yeah the thing I keep coming back to all the time in
my in my life a lot recently is just to constantly say well we don't know yet we don't know I don't know yet I I can't tell you if it was a good thing or a bad thing to stop the show I don't know I will only know in a year or two years or maybe five years time because you just don't know you don't know at all you know in the same time that you might
accept a role over here and when you get that job people are go oh my God this is the greatest thing ever and you say I well we don't know me and my friend Louie very dear friend of mine Louie who moved to the moved to America to come and write on The Late Late Show you know uprooted his family move he didn't have
a family at the time had two kids in the eight and a half years we were there we wrote a TV show together which got picked up at Hulu I wasn't going to be in it we just created this show and then a few months later we wrote two scripts and they really love the first script and we wrote the second script and they said look we we're just we're not going
to make this show happens all the time and we were I was really bummed and my friend Louie said the best thing he was like look if they'd have picked it up it might have been the worst thing to ever happen to us we might have fallen out we might have who knows what would have happened it might have been a disaster
we just don't know yeah you have no idea yeah don't know anything you've reminded me of this beautiful Zen story where a farmer finds a new horse story you know the story amazing yeah the farmer finds a new horse and everyone's excited and they're like wow this beautiful horse you just came upon it like how lucky are you and he says good thing bad
thing who knows yeah and then his son's riding the horse and he looks incredible but then all of a sudden he gets tipped off the horse and his son falls off and breaks his leg and everyone's like oh no this is the worst thing ever like if only you didn't bring that horse in and he says good thing bad thing who knows
and the story continues and hearing you say that it's really honest of you to share that though because I think sometimes when we make a decision we often feel like we have to convince ourself it's the best decision in order to make it through but for you to actually have the vulnerability to say I actually don't know that takes a lot of
Courage well I I do know that that ending the show I do I do know that the the reasons for it are absolutely right no question but but you don't know you don't know how those things will you just don't know you don't know any of it so if you can accept all of it if you can just say well this is this is it this is this is life what
we're doing now me and you sitting here this is it we're doing it you're alive and if I think sometimes the expectation of stuff is the thing which really ruins stuff your expectation of what a holiday might be your expectation of what Christmas day was going to be like is the is actually the problem the thing that happened on holiday or the the
argument you had on Christmas day that's not really the issue I didn't have an argument on Christmas Day I'm just using as example that's the thing I think is is your expectation of well when I do this my life will be like that and I think my I think I've thought that a lot of my life when I get my driver's license my life will be like this when I
get a girlfriend my life when get my when I move out of my parents house my life is going to be like this and it's not it isn't it can't be it's and what it is will be amazing you're going to be alive you know and I think I just feel very accepting of everything now at the moment yeah there's something really
beautiful that came out of what you said this idea of reasons over results like you know your reasons you don't know what the result will be but you're sure about your reasons and that's something we can all practice and take on like I think that's something everyone who's watching can apply that you never know the result of your decision you don't
know how it's going to pan out but you can be sure about your reasons without question and if you feel clear about those and to recalibrate perhaps what success is and that's I think a big issue in a broader Society what is success success is not this amount of money it's not this amount of gold statues and trophies you
you know you've got to look at it as a whole it's really interesting if you if there there are there are numerous people who talk about the night that they won an Academy Award as being the Loneliest Night of their life and and and yet for us looking in on that you look and go oh my God that's this is incredible I would give anything why do
you think that is because I think it's more The Climb is the thing the top of a mountain I I think can be quite a isolating experience actually and the climb to the top of it is and of course when you get there it's amazing MH cuz you go oh my God we did you know what I mean we did it it's like someone that takes a
helicopter to the top of eest is not going to have the same experience as a person who's climbed it absolutely you're looking at the same view but it's going to be it's going to feel very very different sure I also think it's it's an incredibly you know the anxiety of it the the the fear of it I can only am I
don't know I'm not I don't know I can only imagine and so I think because I think what you realize is that the doing of the work and the climb of it is the thing that is the most satisfying and how can there be such a thing as best yeah ever you can be the fastest runner over a 100 meters that's that's not up for debate you say Bol you are the
fastest runner over 100 meters you can't be the best film that's that's impossible you know it's more subjective of course it is and should be yeah where did where did your drive for Success come from you just said that you've realized now that success is not you know the bank balance or this or that these specific things where did your
initial drive for Success come from did you always define success in a particular way or was it just what you think everyone in our generation was almost chasing I I don't know I I I think I for me really from I really don't remember a time that I didn't want to perform I just don't remember a time that I didn't want
to just perform did you perform at school and at home and I mean everywhere everywhere I would call it performing I'm sure some people would call it showing off my mom would you know oscillate between the two stop showing off so you know like I just I just loved I just loved I loved performing in in in in any shape or form school player
Church playground I just I really really loved it like I I can remember so vividly the first time I was ever sort of on what we'd call a stage so we we grew up in I was a we were a family that were in the Salvation Army which is a church that's also a charity and and uh like any church you're born into you think that this is completely
normal you know when you're any any church you're B to and then like we you know we would like put on a uniform and my we would my dad would you know occasionally March down the road in a brass band and we would do Christmas carolling and I would play the trumpet and you just thought well this is just completely normal life and then you get
to about 15 and you're like guys this is really weird but it was essentially a church and that's what we'd go to and uh a church from what I can really work out now retrospectively was perhaps full of the least Christian people I've ever met in my life you know like many churches you know at its core good infect it with
people becomes something very very different and uh and so we're in highwick in in bakim Shar and and my sister was three no four my sister Ruth was four and it was her christening and we were on the the platform which was you know to all intensive purposes looked and felt like a stage to me and the uh Savage army officer the Vicor
the priest I couldn't see because I was you know quite morning he said let's get James a chair and I stood on this chair and I could just see there was maybe I don't know 30 people in the congregation it looked like a thousand and I just started like pulling these faces and turned around and looked back through my
legs and people are chuckling and I was like well this feels fantastic and then what I really remember is sitting back down in the congregation and my uh I sat between my mom and dad and person's back is in front of me and I remember being like well this is boring this isn't nearly as much fun as being up there and I was I was seven at
the time and no I was four and my sister was obviously a newborn so I was four and I remember just thinking well this is that's that's it now life is a quest to to be up there as much as possible oh that's beautiful so I think that's what I always thought success was like my my my absolute Ambitions were to be in a
West End musical yeah that was it that was like that was the peak and literally it was a roadway from where are now at the prince headwood theater and I was 17 and in a musical and I was I I honestly genuinely was like well that's it for me I will it cannot be greater than this that's how that's where my absolute
Ambitions were to be just on a West End stage that's spectacular I mean you said there were misses naturally in the journey that I laid out in the beginning I wonder what were some of the most painful or tough misses whether when you were young or as you got older what were the ones that you look to and say I'd love people to know about this or learn
about this because when you look at it from the outside it is easy to see hit hit hit hit hit but these are the couple that maybe would surprise us well well there's things that that you do that just naturally aren't very good that's the first you know what I mean there's things that you you do and they're not
they're not very good those things you you understand why they didn't connect cuz they're not very good you know and I oddly I don't feel a sort of sense of any disappointment in in that really do you know what I mean I don't because because someone asked me once cuz I I was in that film I was in that film cats right the musical Cats and uh and you
know I haven't seen it but like by all accounts not good and didn't do very well and someone said to me oh God you regret that I was like no i' do it again had a great time yeah you have to separate sometimes your own experience and the outcome of a project because you can do things that do really well but at that time in your
life it was a disaster do you know what I mean such a good point and at the same time at the same time you can do stuff which isn't good but actually you had a really great you know what I mean like you know if I when we were shooting cats we had an afternoon and I sat in this weird green suit with dots on your face yeah with Ian McKellen and Judy
Dench and I wouldn't swap that for yeah to literally sit and talk to seran McKellen and Dame Judy Dench about I couldn't tell you what we talked about I couldn't tell you if it you know and I was like well how lucky am I yeah this is extraordinary so I think I did this I did a TV show which came out I I think about maybe a just
two years ago now maybe 18 months ago for which was on Amazon called mammals which I was really proud of and I really I really hoped that people would find that and and and they didn't that's the only that's the only thing that I look at and I think ah because it got reviewed well it's written by I think the best
living playright at the moment you know or certainly Young Living playright called jez Butterworth who wrote like Jerusalem and the ferryman and Mojo but then also wrote Skyfall and Spectre and Indiana Jones and it was me and Sally Hawkins and Malia Kellan and that's that's the only that's what I would say that's the
only thing that I go ah I wonder what we could have done differently to make people find it but then we don't know yet yeah you don't know you don't know when it's going to take off again like I love hearing about even if it doesn't we don't you know who know you know what I mean like you just you just have to I love what you just said mate I love that
perspective of the idea that and I can relate to that I've had moments in my life where I'm having one of my biggest external career wins but I didn't have the right people around me to celebrate it with and therefore it's not as gratifying or as celebratory or it's not as meaningful whereas you could have had
something that externally like no one cared but you you had the people around you where you knew what you'd built and you know knew what you'd created and I love that that resonated so strongly honestly well also say that the the notion that I don't know the way I see it is every single day your life can get turned
over and flipped on its head in a phone call every single day like I I used to say that to to my wife Julia all the time when we were in Los Angeles where I would go every day we live here and the phone doesn't ring in the middle of the night to tell us Something's Happened at home is an absolute win it's an absolute
win and you just have to be so aware that those things are coming and those things are real and all the stuff that we're talking about over here work and all those things it's it's not it isn't it isn't those things that are just going to just bang and you're to and then you're talking about life before and after before and after those moments
like I was talking to a friend of mine the other day you know and I'm I'm 45 and my friend said to me and it's quite a dark thought but actually it's good to he said we've he said he's 45 also and he he said we've we've turned the corner into snipers alley and I said what do you mean I didn't know what he meant and he said you've to you're now
in an alley and suddenly people are going to just and you're going to go oh my God like it's just that it's that that that shift in life of like oh this is where like I'm very fortunate both my parents are still alive so that's inevitable that's definite and then you're in this world of just absolute unknowns so I think the older I
get I the just the less I sort of think about work in that way I just don't I maybe because I've had 6 months of of real reflection six months of not really doing anything you know I'm do started this this podcast that I'm really really enjoying outside of that I'm writing some stuff some of it I hope people will
see other stuff I'm certain they never will you know what I mean I you know and and some I hope they never will that's a terrible idea you know and you just don't know and so I just think less about work and I want to think more about my health and all those all those things you know yeah walk me through what like like you've had all
these transitions in your life walk me through what your reflection process looks like in your head like just for you personally like it doesn't have to be systematic or perfect just what is it what what do you go through is it looking at going well am I helping my family am I taking care of them is that the number one thing or are they other
things that go through your head because I feel like you've had to make some big transitions well that's that is that's that's the number one thing you're only as happy as your least happy child is a wonderful saying which is without question true there is there is nothing that can happen in your professional
life that will matter if one of your children is unhealthy un unwell either mentally or physically this is irrelevant so so that's let's park that as a as a given yes um very clear in terms of my reflection I I I mainly I just think what like I'm so aware of time and the and the and the passage of time and that this is this is it and you
have to go okay well now how do you really really want to use use your time cuz I think when I was hosting the show I think I probably knew this at the time but I recognize it more now that I think I said yes a lot perhaps to too much because I I just loved I knew I wasn't going to host that show forever I didn't want it
to be the end of the book I didn't want it to be the last thing I did so I didn't want it to be a shock when I finished the show and said I'm going to go back to act again now because I was very aware that there was a lot of people watching that show who had no idea that I'd ever acted before that so I really just said ABS yes I'll do it
I'll be there I'll do it and I think I understand my reasons for it but now I think mainly the thing I'm really thinking is what forget what you can do forget what's possible forget foret what's in front of you forget what's offered to you or not offered to you what do you actually want to do what is worthy of your
time what is worth not taking your kids to school in the morning or picking them up at 4:00 what are the because that's really the question you're asking yourself you know and like I don't have like so much money that I don't have to ever work again I really really don't whatever you might read on the Internet is I cannot stress
you untrue and so you know it's it's it's that thing of just going well what what do you what do you want to do is there anything that you want to say and if there isn't then don't and then and it will come it will it will it will it will come and you know it's interesting this since moving back to London and I I feel in a
different cultural space I'm I'm trying my absolute best to hit 10,000 steps a day that's I'm really really really trying to do that and so sometimes I'll just go and once the kids are asleep I'll go and I'll be I'll look and I'm look at 8,000 steps and I'm like babe just going to go and I'll literally walk up and down the
road and to come back in and in that time of walking I'm starting to feel the notion of like oh it's maybe that's is that an interesting idea but don't leap on it yes don't go that's it let's go let's book a flight let's pitch it is to go I well let's let it let's see if it almost just to treat it like a plant really and go we're going to water it
for a minute see if there's something there and and and already now I'm like well thank God I didn't go and tell someone about that have you ever read that thing about doing the thing yes yes yes I mean that's my I just I just look at that almost every day doing the thing just do the thing don't talk about doing
the thing yeah don't tweet about doing the thing don't just do the thing the doing the thing is the thing and that's all I'm really trying to do yeah it's it's fascinating because I find like you know you've been performing as you said you love performing when you were a kid you've been performing for decades now and it's almost like an identity shift
when you stop yourself from performing in an in a I'm talking about performing in a play or in a mov movie or on stage like you're not allowing yourself to do something that feels so pure and true and I can see in your eyes when you were talking about it like brings you to life yeah and and almost removing yourself
away from that requires you to rethink your identity a little like like who who are you today or how are you feeling about who you are when you're not performing when you've been so used to entertaining crowds for so long but that's ego I think that's ego that's what we you're talking about is ego I lived for eight and a half years
what could only be described as a narcissist stream do you know what I mean like and that like and I I I cannot stress how much I think being the host of a late night TV show is one of the greatest jobs in the world I think it's amazing I think it is brilliant like my God how lucky am I to have done that I think it's
amazing you know but if you were another way inclined you you know drive into a studio lot you drive past a massive picture of your face that's that's the first thing you see when you get to work is a huge picture of your face and your name you then Park in an amazing parking spot with your name on it you go in like I tell you the thing I miss most
about the show was my like I missed seeing there's a great lady called T who was on the front desk at CBS and I would just I my interaction with her every day I I just grew to love it so much morning T morning James how's it going all good and as I walk through the door she'd say have a good one and I'd go have a good
one and it would be a race to who could say it first you get in a lift you come out the lift to be greeted by another picture of your face do you know mean it's like another picture of your face and your name you turn a corner and then you start walking up a corridor and there is just your name and faces everywhere right yeah yeah pictures of
you with everywhere then you get to say well what are we going to do tonight back up then you get to like shoot a sketch with Matt Damon or drive around in a car with Stevie Wonder then you'll come back into work get dressed you work also in a gang of people who are the funniest people you've ever met in your life life ever
and they only want to try and make you seem funnier and that's amazing and you chat with them and you're hanging out with them and then good day bad day and different day your day will end with a standing ovation right that's amazing step out of a curtain and 400 people will go nuts and you've got to remember and the thing
that I would just remember all the time is the other side of this camera is a sign that says Applause M do you know what I mean there is people going it go you know what I mean and you the walk down from the from like office Green Room to the studio is an amazing change in your psyche CU you're with all your B that that and very slow down I
remember the first show CU really you're in a gang you're in a team where you make a late night show it's just a gang you you're all making it together and then at some point people tap you on the shoulder and go have a good one and then you are surrounded by people you walk in microphone makeup touch you enter a door
and you hear you know the other side of this thing you hear 400 people screaming you hear a guy go okay that's everybody on your feet let's go this is how we do it that another look at the CH all right every here we go let's get ready okay and we're going to five four three and you find yourself stood behind a curtain
M completely on your own and suddenly this team effort you're just you are on your own and the spotlight is behind you so this this circle is on the curtain and a shadow of you and uh I used to stand there I'd open my hands take a breath I would look and I would say to I always have this feeling that my granddad is getting a real kick
out of all this I so he is not with me in any spiritual sense he's just in for the love right of it you know like I know that he just you know he's a jazz musician he would be like this is fun J you know and uh and I would open my eyes and I would look up and I'd say be with me just be with me and be here now and for the next hour your only job
is to enjoy yourself as much as you can it doesn't matter what's happened all day it doesn't matter what happens on tomorrow's show your only job is to enjoy this right now and I and I did and I you know we did 1,198 shows I think and I I just loved it I loved it so it's a lot to leave behind it's a lot to walk away
from but I also think this period of silence is so good for me I'm getting as I'm getting as much or more from this period now yeah like I you know it's so odd that I used to do that every day that then even speaking to you now I'm like God I haven't spoken to anybody in this sense yes yes yes since April mhm I haven't done anything
yeah and it so it feels odd you're like oh man this is and the podcast I'm doing I'm loving because I'm in your chair yeah and I'm but even now this feels unnatural and there is a feeling of like I don't know what I've got to say but then you go but I'm I'm going to get to meet Jay so that'll be lovely you know
yeah so what is life without it it's it's it's great it's great I think because I really really always knew that this wasn't going to be forever I always knew I wanted to leave before it ebbed away I just knew that I wanted to to to to do it and then stop doing it and see if there's something else and if there isn't okay
great who could wish for more do you know what I mean I guess that's the thing I I I look now and I think I don't want any more stuff or or fame or all those things like what I'd really love to do is go I wonder if I've got one more thing to write I wonder if there's one more thing to say like I wonder if there's just something
else I don't know yet what a brilliant way to live I mean when you just said that the idea of I knew that it wasn't going to last forever and I didn't want it to that's so the opposite of how we're conditioned to think most of us are conditioned to believe when you find something good hold on to it forever make sure it lasts forever because you
never know and I love your perspective because I think not only is it healthier for the mind and the ego it's actually the reality of life that everything is ephemeral and transient and it will move anyway and so you wanting to hold on to something that isn't yours to control is almost a game anyway well then you're a
kid with a balloon yeah right and you go and hold I'm never I'm never ever going to let this balloon go right and ignoring for this for a second the environmental impact of letting a balloon go let's talk about it just metaphorically you know that you go I'm this is my balloon I'm hold this but I'm never ever ever ever ever going to let
go of this balloon in fact I'm going to go I'm going to tie it to my wrist so it can't disappear cuz that happened to me once before and it you know what I mean I'm going to just you know that's it and then slowly that balloon will just Wilt and it will run out of the thing that made it great and it will just then be
then it's tied to your wrist and you're dragging it behind you right and actually there's something quite beautiful and again environmentally I'm not encouraging this we didn't we didn't know about this when we were kids when you let go of a balloon it's magical magical look and then you see it and you're like oh my God I used to have that I used to
hold on to that and look at it now look it's just flowing that's amazing and then you go well now I haven't got a balloon and then you go well maybe I'll get another one yeah maybe there'll be another balloon and maybe it'll be a different shape or it'll be shinier or whatever it is like you've got to be able to let go of stuff
to make new things come in you've got to have the space and the time yeah to encounter something new a friend of mine a year ago maybe less had his heartbroken in in in the most brutal circumstances it was his first love first girlfriend and they broke up and he was just not in a good way and he this was his first real
proper serious girlfriend certainly the first time he'd been in love before I just found myself saying to him I was like this is great this is great because you really only understand what love is once your heart's been broken you understand how tender it is and I was like and you understand it now and what's you're
looking at this all wrong you you get to do it again you get to do this again you're going to meet someone else and feel all these feelings and perhaps you'll go into that relationship learning what you've learned from this relationship and that will then feed that relationship in a different way and like and he he's just met someone right
yeah and he's like oh my God this is amazing and I'm like yeah got that balloon again yeah yeah that's it that's it and so again I think it's expectation is the thing that that that makes us hold on to stuff yeah if you can just EB and flow with stuff you're going to find it so much easier to take The Good The Bad and The everything in
between is just all being good for you I think James you're a philosopher who knew we're going to have to add it to the list we're going to have to add it to the list of uh list of the titles no genu I mean that visual you just painted of the balloon that's going to stay with me for a long time I've probably never heard it I didn't don't I
don't I don't know that it's a thing I think we just might have made it up you you made it up but it is so Banky made it up we've taken banksy's image no that's s it's such a beautiful way of sharing that lesson there's you know a Zen saying that says what's holding you back is what you're holding on to yeah and and that's you know but that
visual that you just painted is so powerful and even the visual that you painted of saying that you come out to all this rapturous Applause and you know the HOA and the idea of you coming out into the stage but you're all thinking about the fact that the screen says Applause on the other side because I think if you don't it's really dangerous
I think it's really dangerous were you conscious of that and have you been conscious of that the whole time in your career because right not the whole time when when did when did that become like a real because that's Marcus aelius meditations at its best Marcus aelius famously had a I don't know this so
Marcus aelius when he would walk around the Roman Town Square he had an assistant that would follow him around and the role of the assistant was that whenever anyone in the Town Square would say Marcus aelius you are such an amazing Emperor you were phenomenal you're incredible the assistant's only job was to whisper in his ear you're
just a man you're just a man wow and that sort of practice and so when you said that that's what I that's the first thing I thought of when I didn't know that you said the Applause I was like wow you you know you're living that I think I've probably fallen into the pitfall of thinking I was more of a dude
than I really was quite earlyish in my career I think I guess in a way I think I'm I think I don't know I think I'm sort of entering phase three right yeah if if phase one was History Boys writing Gavin and Stacy phase two was moving was one was going to Broadway to do one Manu Governor's everything that came with that and then ending up hosting a late
night TV show and phase three will be whatever this is and I don't know um I I I mean look I've fallen into all those pitfalls of thinking that you're more of a dude than you really are thinking any of this is it's like Fame and success whatever you know level of that I'm kind of have in in a way like is on the whole
a a picnic right it's great it's great it's it's it's lovely people come up they talk about things and all you or to things that they that they've liked or or enjoyed and certainly being back here in London you know it's amazing hearing people talk about like Gavin and Stacy and stuff which obviously I would never
hear in America it's and I'm so proud of that show and I think I I've started to thing of like don't confuse the selfie right I don't think the I think for me I think it's different if you're like Brad Pit Harry Styles do you know what I mean Adele like I think that's a different that's that's a whole that's an aura and an orb of of of Fame which I
think is not what I'm talking about now whereas I think on the whole when people are asking for a selfie with me it isn't really anything to do with me I think it's just people go well this is going to be good on my story right I do no I do no I I I'm not that is not any F I genuinely believe that I think people
are going well he's there he's only over there this is going to this is going to be great yeah in amongst the other four photos of my day right and so and I love taking photos with people I don't say no some I used to say no when I was with my kids more but but now they have a bit a bit a bit better understanding of it and I don't
need to hold their hands all the time so that was my my wife was like you cannot give your attention to someone else when they're that like so Charlotte Road whatever so Charlotte so if I'm out with like you know my my two oldest it's always a lot easier now and and it's people are people are really great and cool and lovely but I don't ever ever in
my ever in my life go H look at all these people they just want a photo what can I say I just go no no no this is they didn't find me they haven't been waiting for me I just happened to be in the same Joe and the juices them you know what I mean and it's like might as well you know I love that that's amazing but no I
I do love how how how conscious you were of that and and it's uh it's it's it's so it's so fun because that mindset that approach to success that approach to fame makes everything just feel wonderful and beautiful and it makes everything so you know in the sense of when I don't I don't mean Perfection I mean in the
sense of it gives you a sense of joy in an interaction removing the expectation and the weight that can come with it yeah I also just think you have to just take it all with a bag of salt yeah all of it everything yeah everything good bad yeah you know it if you just can take it with the same bag of salt yeah and and and distance yourself from it
mhm you can just sort of go well that's over there yeah yeah that's happening over there and but but I'm but what's really H I'm here yeah and here are my friends and my all those things and just and also just being so aware of like yeah yeah how lucky you are yeah how lucky you are and and if you lose sense of that and and and I understand when
people do by the way and I have you know other points in in my career and in my life and I don't I'm not walking around like this every day like I have all those same things right so this this it's not like I'm I'm sort of floating around like a kind I'm really really not and a lot of this really is predicated
on just how much sleep I get yeah that's true for all of us like that is it you know what I've been on this supplementary I was talking to my so I'm I'm very into you know biohacking and health and all the rest of it and so I was I've been testing this supplement I've been having for the last 30 days and it's it's like boosted my
mitochondria so much that I can't get to sleep I have so much energy and I was telling I was telling my doctor I was like mate I really want to sleep like I enjoy sleep I'm someone I'm not someone who sacrifice to sleep I enjoy sleep sleep is and I haven't been able I haven't really been able to sleep because of this one supplement you think
that's anything to do with like also jet lag and the time difference I think there's a bit of that but I've been here for like 30 days now so I'm like it should have gone after a week or two but I agree with you coming from LA to London is the harshest jet lag right because I go from sleep never really get used to it oh it's really rough and so
it could be that but I feel like yeah sleep is we're so rarely I I think there I'm saying rarely talk about we probably talk about it more now than we ever have in the last 40 years but like sleep is this extraordinary gift and I think I'm probably more aware of it now because I've got a 12-year-old who it is who
seems to think that sleep is some sort of punishment do you know what I mean like he usew sleep as like why would you do this to me and like dude I don't want to be awake right now you know and and uh it's something like in um in Alan de botton's new book yes please uh which I just I bought for you as as a gift I think it's called a
therapeutic Journey a therapeutic Journey which I I bought for you as I don't know if you want to plug other people's books I no please no I it's not as good as how to live like a man Alan and the school of life I'm a big fan gen fantastic very big fan and he's got a section in that book where he talks
about sleep and he says when you've got a newborn baby when you've got a newborn baby you are very your your only intention is to put this child into a routine and make sure that they sleep at the right time for the right amount of time so therefore you feed it the right food to make sure it's the you know to
the right we have to because if you don't get the right sleep they are going to be awful for tomorrow and then at some point we just decide well I don't need to do that that's only for a baby yeah I can sit with my phone at midnight just looking a stream of 30 second videos to then car to to not sleep and and imagine that I'm going to
be okay tomorrow and I I I I find that that sleep is just like this gift tell me about it and the better sleep I have that without question in every facet of my in every facet of my life I'm I'm better yeah like I'm really thinking about you don't drink right no no no I haven't how when how long have you not drunk uh I would
say how old am I like maybe 18 years or something right but did you ever were you did right okay Al I was never alcoholic but I drank socially enjoyed it had fun love drinking games like used to hang out with the lads and like yeah go about where I am so I I I really really yeah I I don't I very rarely drink at home I never really get in and
go I'm going to have a glass of wine or a gin and tonic but if I go out yes and if I'm out I'm like I love the feeling of being three and a half drinks in between 3 and six I am Raj's face he knows what I'm talking about I am I feel it in my knees and I love it right yeah and now as I've got older I'm just really am really I'm going to really try to just
stop doing that like with no great declaration I you know you know I am I just I'm really really going to try not to do that because my friend a a good friend of mine my friend I spoke to him about it and I was like how did you just manage to just did you just stop doing this and he said something to me and I think you'll
really like this he said I he said I started asking myself and I do think this changes post probably like 3738 it starts to change in your body and he said I started to ask myself how how much of Tomorrow do I want to borrow all I'm doing now by drinking is borrowing from Tomorrow wow right it's like a it's it's like you're going to a
cash point yeah you're going to a cash point and you're going I'm going to withdraw three hours from tomorrow that I will be useless and then probably if I just borrow 3 hours around about noon or 1 I'll start to feel okay yeah so I'm borrowing from Tomorrow wow and that and how many hours do you want to borrow and
sometimes you borrow a day yeah and then the only way you think you can rescue that day is to go let's have another one you know yeah and uh I thought that was a really amazing way of looking at it and so my my intention is is to really try and and not do that I just want to try try and just be healthier I don't even sort of think
about weight loss anymore I've done that so many times in my life life just made so many like decisions of just right this is it I'm not to go why don't you change that CU that isn't working why don't you just only try and do what is healthy and see how that impacts your yes frame yes you know yeah yeah yeah no I I I like that approach I
mean you know I think it's natural when when we're recording this it's like New Year's resolutions and start of the year and all that kind of stuff and I think all of us know that about 80% % of us drop off by the end of January by February we're not practicing this New Year's resolution this massive commitment we made and it's almost
because we go from this huge extreme from being indulgent in December to trying to be hyper intentional in January yeah and trying to go from one extreme to the other and none of us can hack that it doesn't work well a friend of mine said a really good thing to me my friend Simon said to me he said you need to stop going on a diet cuz my
weight has has gone up and down you know I can I can see it in in too many videos on YouTube like where I was up where I was down I used to have like three sets of Suits Lauren Shapiro who was our wardrobe uh designer on the show who I am now saying as I said it out loud would have hated hearing her name on on your podcast H and I my time
with her I used to just love so much because like I said so much of the day would be a lot of people and then it would just be me and her choosing suits and choosing what I'm going to wear and we chat about the day and you know we've had moments where we cracking up laughing we have other days where one of
us is really down and it would just be this little precious moment in this very small walk-in closet that was off my uh off my office where all the suits were and my time with the those are the things I really miss yeah that's the stuff I really really miss and she very very subtly and we never talked about it we never ever talked about it but I knew
what she did and I was grateful was she basically started organizing my suits into like really fat fat and always looking good you could see and she would just you always look good she know but she would just very very in the in just and I would go and then it just became a thing where I'd be like uh I think we're
you know particularly if we came off a Hiatus or a go away and just okay I think we're going to be and she'd be like mhm and we'd never really speak about it but my friend my friend said my friend Simon said you need to stop going on a diet I said what do you mean he said You' got to stop you've got to stop going on a diet he said because going on
a diet is like going on a holiday you are going to return you're going to come back wow that's he said if you go on a diet what you're saying is this is short term he said you need need to just go This is How I Live Now that's good and this is it that's not going I don't eat any bread you no no in moderation it's
probably good for you to eat certain types of bread but that's it and you're going to don't just stop this thing of being like Oh guys I'm not I'm on a diet and he was like and stop broadcasting it stop saying it just stop saying it just go this is what I'm going to do I'm going to try and exercise like this I'm
going to try and walk like I'm trying to do and just be like no no I'm going to I'm going to eat this and don't don't be like well I want to be down 20 in 35 days like cuz you've done that yeah yeah and you know how that plays out don't go on something that's change something good that's good I like that yeah on a diet on a holiday that's good that's
strong you've got some wise Friends James I do there's a lot of good there's a lot of great advice are these are these friends for like life for these friends recently like some my friends Simon I've known probably yeah probably about nine nine years and then I have yeah I have like friends I've known for 35 years you know what I mean like
what's it taking to keep those because I find like I've been talking to a lot of my male friends about this recently and this idea of you know do we have do you have a friend that you could call in the middle of the night and you know they would pick up they would turn up they would be there because if you have one
of those friends that's pretty rare and pretty incredible especially as men I find sometimes it's it's almost harder to have those vulnerable relationships but you seem to be having a lot of open vulnerable healthy conversations with but I think it's easier now I think it's easier now than it used to be I
think I hope we're going to move into uh a a generation of of of men and I think you and your show is responsible for that I think lots of I think just the the ability to to just be like I'm struggling m is a thing which I think for a very long time men were conditioned to that that was weak and actually it's almost certainly the
bravest thing you can do it is it is a tremendous Act of Bravery to say I'm not doing too great at the minute and as soon as those words leave your mouth I reckon 20% of those things have gone and and I'm very I'm very very fortunate I just have a lot of I love a lot of friends that I've known for a very long time and I and I love them and
I tell them I love them and I I and I enjoy the company of people so much you know I I just you know it's interesting you talk about who would call like my friend Louie that I was just telling you about who we wrote that script together Louie had a previous life where he used to he would go out sometimes for three days I don't
think he'd mind you me saying this he'd go out for days on end and I always always I when I said to to Jules when we met I said just so you know I've got this friend Louie and he goes out for a long time like you know what London was like in those times in these very streets and I said if he calls me I always I have to pick up I always pick
up because I always used to think he might be in trouble this resulted in some of the funniest things I've ever heard right him calling me at two 3 4 5 in the morning resulted in some of the funniest things I've ever heard and so that's why I'd say to anybody who doesn't pick up the phone to a friend in the night it
might not always be bad it might be he called me once I think it's okay to tell you this he called me once and I like for half 3 in the morning said hey man are you okay and he went I'm and he's drunk and he went I'm going to tell you something now and it's a fact I went what he went it's a fact I went sorry he went what I'm about to
tell you is a fact it is a fact of life and I would like to to share it with you I okay this quarter four in the morning he's like it is a fact James that I have never and will never see the Jersey Boys goodbye and hung up the you know he's okay know and so I love yeah I I don't know I I think friendship is I think it's I think it's
sort of everything isn't it yeah like it's it's I cherish it so mhm much mhm I also think you know with kids it's really important for them to see you with friends yes to not separate those things to to to be to involve your friends with your children and your children with your friends because I'm really aware that like my
son's 12 and and like he's right now like we just get on great we get on so well yeah so we get on so well it's I love it's beautiful and I'm so aware that that is about to change because that is just nature you know I I I took about a year ago before we moved before we moved back I took my son I can't even remember what happened
but he was kind of stroppy and he you know stomped upstairs he's really not that kind of boy but he he did and I I went upstairs and I sat in his room and I just went to him uh I said can I ask you some questions and he was quite taken it back cuz cuz he thought I was going to go what was that about and I can I ask you
some questions and he went yeah I said do you think I love you and he went yeah I said do you think I would ever do anything to intentionally hurt or upset you he said no I said and do you think in the 11 years that you've been on Earth do you think I've changed dramatically he went no I went well done you scored 100% they are all the right
answers I said' and I'm telling you this because over the next few years there are going to be points you are going to think I don't love you you are going to think I am intentionally trying to hurt or upset you and you're going to think that I've changed and I need you to remember this that I haven't changed we haven't
changed you've changed and you need to and and you have to and you are going to go through immeasurable changes in your life and body and all we are trying to do me your mom your sisters and it's going to happen to them too are just trying to help you navigate these bumps that are going to come your way and these changes both
mental and physical that are happening for you but I need you to know that I haven't changed I'm never trying to intentionally hurt or upset you and I love you I love you more than you'll ever know and he went I think we should have some sort of code word so I remember this and so we came up with we came up with some silly
code word that I would just say to him like do you remember and he' be like and he' be like oh yeah you haven't Chang I was like my hair hasn't changed dude I got the same hairstyle that I had when I was 18 years old you know CHS that was yeah and I I really feel that with friendship that that they I'm so painfully painfully aware yeah
that there's going to come a point where the influences that aren't me are going to become bigger on my children for a moment and so if I can make sure that those other people that they look to are people who are aligned with how I feel then it's going to be great you know and sometimes they're going to take advice from Dad's friend more than they
are from Dad they are going to seek it yeah they're going to absolutely seek those other Role Models yes particularly boys I think that's right is that right I think right yeah I like yeah I don't know if it's completely right but I do think there is a perhaps more of a a thing between boys and dads and you know
it's it's such a strange thing the the it's so you know yeah I I remember so you you would have know this cuz we didn't know each other then but became friendly with um James Longman on your team years ago yes and so longas had invited me to come and watch the show this is when I first moved to LA when I first moved this this was like five
years ago God yeah and I got to come and he was he was he's wonderful obviously the greatest so he showed me around I got to see all the rooms and like you know the green rooms and every like he was he just gave me the best Tour Ever he great uh took me to the photo wall I got to put up a fake photo of myself on
the wall as if i' been on the show like you know all all of it it was really sweet and we we didn't know each other at all then of course and um and I didn't know anyone else apart from him and I was just really excited to be there cuz I was such a fan of the show and I remember you were you were so wonderful even in between the show where
you in between segments like it's not live and you would come and chat to the audience you'd Shake people's hands and then I remember you'd go and call your kids and you'd literally sit at the desk before in between and just like get them because and you'd tell us you'd be like guys I'm just going to call my family
because I'm going to say good night to my kids and it was such a like it was so amazing to see someone who's in the middle of everything you described so phenomenally earlier but then be like I just want to say good night to my kids because it's that late right however late it was at that time I think kids were going back to bed at 7 or 7 7
whatever it may have been and I remember you FaceTiming them and then we got to wave it wave and and and I just remember how special that was and I I just think you know I've heard you say before that you know for so many years your your family was marching to the beat of your drum like they were they were there for
you they were just holding it together for you so that you could build and create and I just think about moments like that that you were having with them me I'm so worried that the show you came to was terrible it's all I can think Mark Ruffalo it was great he was great he was great but like that's that's really what what really resulted in us moving back
is the truth is is you know like my my wife just walks to the Beat of My Drum my family you know we're going to New York we're going to La I'm going here I'm going there babe I'm going to do this thing in Australia you you're you're good here with the kids you know what I mean like honestly I genuinely feel and I get the feeling
that you might be like this I feel like I could live anywhere yeah live anywhere I could live anywhere because we're very fortunate that that you're here now in London you're going to go back you're going to go to India you're going to go to New York you're going to go to La like what a privilege I'm so aware that
that hasn't been my wife's life mhm for the last 12 years MH 13 14 years you know and so really our our our decision to move back was like I I was going to stop the show regardless you know there was there was a moment where I was going to stop it a bit earlier and then it was done so beautifully my leaving of the show like me and my
boss George just sat in my office and literally talked it out like this no agents no lawyers no nothing like I said I'd like to leave at this date he said is there any way I can get you to stay to this day I like I can't stay to that day cuz we've got to resettle the kids have got like they have to start school in September you know and and
then at one point it was going to be May and then there was like I think there's Golf and Masters and all these and we literally just were like okay we'll end it then and that'll give us the the right Gap and and all of that came from me just saying to Jules like I I'll live anywhere where where like where do you
want to be where do you think it's best for us to be cuz I know she would never make a decision that isn't best for the kids forget me and uh and she was just like I think it's time to go home yeah I was like okay that's it and and I'm so I'm so grateful that we that we did just in my family before Christmas we had a my
mom sings in a choir it's not a church choir it's just a a choir with some of her friends and we all went out to highwick to watch her sing in this choir I sat in this room in in a John hamon Sports Hall or their you know theater just a school hall that we were in I cried my eyes out I cried I couldn't stop crying because I'm my
mom was in this choir with like 40 other people singing Christmas songs and it was so pure it was so pure it was so the antithesis of what our life have been in Los Angeles and I my mom was in the corner of this you know like and I just she couldn't stop smiling and I just thought oh my God this Purity that's here these
are a group of women in and men in their I guess they range between 30 to 60 people and I just was like this is everything I would I don't want to be anywhere else this is I only want to be here and it was so weird it's so weird the effect it has on me even now saying I can't understand it I can't tell you why I think it just felt in that minute
like oh this is the sacri this is why we made what you would perceive to be a great sacrifice yes this is the reason something here that I would never see I would never come back for I would never be part of and then my dad joined them few numbers playing the saxophone and uh and I just I just was like oh my
God this is worth everything this is this is this is everything I need to feed me and my kids watching their Grandma sing this song I was like how lucky are we to appreciate and have this experience yeah to have come back and everyone be healthy you know yeah for sure I what do it take in that in the marriage for that communication for that
even the fact that you know you're both asking each other questions you're both checking in with each other like that's not easy it's challenging yet like what is that what has that Taken like from both of you to to really be able to make those big decisions together it's taken me learning from my wife that's it
that's it like she I think has always known and always figured out how to communicate how to do this and I think I've been terrible at it I think I've been rubbish at it because I think I lived for a very long time an existence of just I nothing will move me from this train I'm on this is it oh you're hopping on great but this is this is
it's this is the thing and actually you then realize that that that that isn't the case I mean we don't argue very much we really really try to talk in the day right to to not make it the last thing we do even if you are going to bed with like with you and and it's more her than me she's like well I'm going to I can
talk to you about that tomorrow you know what I mean but it's so much better than than going to bed going to sleep just don't go to sleep on an argument yeah that's the first thing and I think I learned quite probably halfway through our marriage that that actually if all you're doing and this is this is an almost impossible thing to do
but if you but if you're at least trying to you're pretty much there is if you're going well if if all you're trying to do is meet your partner's needs then all yours in turn will be met they just will like how many times do we hear it's funny we had a friend of ours or a friend of my wife's they're friends of ours but you know if we ever broke up
she'd get her you know man now you've got me thinking about all our friends oh divide it up it's quite a fun game I think I think my wife's going to take it's quite a fun game but uh it and uh and she was saying this a few years ago now she was like he just never does anything for me he never he never surprises me and takes
me out for dinner he never says oh like oh I'm you know buy a theater ticket he never says oh Friday night me and you let's do this and I just went well when do you do it how often do you do that she went well I don't and I was like right but you have to see that that might be a yeah that that might be a I
like for we know he's sat somewhere now going she never takes me out she never CU lets go to the cinema and she was like oh and I and and and that's it in its most base level I think that's probably the the thing I've learned the most yeah I love hearing about your relationships and the way you talk about your relationships obviously this whole
shift in your life is because of your relationships and so it's it's so wonderful to hear about it and you were you were giving me credit earlier for you know hopefully changing conversations around masculine inity but I think you did that very much so as well with uh your Bromance comic relief videos with David Beckham and I'd always
appreciate those when they came out and I know you guys have a real Bromance but but seeing it on screen was always a real treat uh whether you doing the Calvin Klein ads together or whether you know or doing each other's nails or whatever it was it was it was it was so funny uh and you went to the premere recently of his documentary which I
thought was just yeah it's brilliant phenomenal I I read Beck's biog when autobiography when I was like 15 or something and it was lifechanging I loved it and getting to what's the doc was almostly reliving it again ah I mean what a story what a story right just just the whole thing when I watched it it really really reminded me have you
ever watched Aaron sains commencement speech at Syracuse University I have not no not actually me saying you know when I get my driver's license my life will be like this he actually says that in that speech he he he talks about that and and I think and that was the first time I realized that like oh that's what I have always done
his commencement speech at Syracuse University is brilliant okay as you can imagine it's just so brilliantly written and he delivers it it's exceptional it's my favorite thing to watch on on YouTube is people's commen addresses and his is particularly good and I would urge anybody to to go and to go and look at
it I I use it I quote it I it's fed into me you know and he says a brilliant line and it it really came to the Forefront of my mind watching the Beckham documentary where he says the world doesn't care how many times you get knocked down so long as it's one less than the amount of times you get back up again and that's what I
think the Beckham dock is yeah it is a story of a man who just doesn't stop he just gets back up and he carries on and that's what it's about you could you you could say it's about the first Sportsman to become a global brand and icon you could talk about it's the first family to have become perhaps in Britain outside
of the royal family a family of intrigue and interest you could say it's a story about Fame and Sport it's not I think it's a story of someone who just kept going through adversity through challenges just got up and carried on and that's why I think it's resonated so much with people because it's interesting I don't know if you found
this but like it's interesting being British and watching it yes yes so then because because people in America are like I had no idea no idea oh my God those football those soccer fans the way way they were with him and you're like yeah no I know I remember the Effigy yeah all it you know and then and then Greece and the like that's where sport
though can transcend everything it's like it's it's why I think Sport and music I think sport stars and musicians are I think their Fame is so different to actors and performers and hosts and writers I think their Fame is something different because they give you moments they give you moments in like and I and
really what I put those moments down to is they made you feel less alone that's actually what it is it's why our relationship with singers and art and recording artists is so personal because I was in this play called The History Boys and it's written by Alan Bennett and there was a a spe that Richard Griffith used to deliver
every night and he'd say the best moments in poetry are when you think a thought or a feeling is particular to you and then suddenly someone who is long dead you may will never meet no he say someone who you will never meet perhaps even long dead has written down the very thing you're feeling and it's like a hand has reached out and taken
yours and it says to you you you're not you're not on your own you're not on your own that's a great bit in a John lenon documentary where there's a guy saying to John Lennon my that song you wrote but it's you know that that was about me it's about me that's how I am and then John Lennon's going they're just songs they're just songs it isn't
that and he's going no but it is you wrote that about me because you can't know how I felt and so I think you you don't suddenly you feel very alone you hear something and you realize you're not and then I think sport when David Beckham curled that free kick in the top Corner which when we qualified for the
World Cup it did not matter Tory Conservative Republican Democrat left right all the stuff the divisions everything suddenly yeah and you're hugging people you don't know you've never met and you're you're brought together and you're not alone anymore and that's where I think Sport and music is such a powerful thing in our lives
which you don't feel when you watch a film you can watch a film or a TV show and go oh yeah that was amazing even if it moved you hugely that connection isn't the same I don't think that's why you gave him an ugly statue of himself for all of that man that oh my god I've watched that a million times that that day man that was so much fun
that was just I you you know cuz pranks they're the worst thing to film they're awful because they could just go wrong at any point they could go wrong one notice of a camera and hundreds of thousands of dollars gone yeah and my God that day just worked out in the best way it was oh it's so good if anyone's not seen it it's so good like if if you
watch the doc and you love David Beckham and you love what James does you have to go and see it it's just you made the ugliest statue idea one of the best looking men well I had the idea because do you remember the real Ronaldo one do you remember that yeah so then it was like I remember going into going into
Ben's office and going because I think if if they hadn't done that with Ronaldo in real life I don't think David would have believed it right right yeah but it was because it happened in real life with Cristiano Ronaldo that we were like oh hang on we could do this I never thought it would work as well as it did
yeah credit I have to say to the to the actors in that sketch I mean just just brilliant Pitch Perfect yeah yeah Manchester City that that was brilliant it's amazing it's amazing it's amazing walk me through that what you just said now that you in that space six months you're reflecting figuring it out we're waiting for that next
balloon we've let the other balloon go what does James cordon's creative process Stillness waiting for the idea building an idea look like what does that look like where does that where does inspiration strike where does it come from where do you seek it when you've let go of something without knowing what's next what I'm really trying to do
now is not rush anything I spent a long time squeezing so many things in MH that actually now I I I just sort of think well don't force an idea to be the whatever it is that you that you might you know write or do or but then at the same time I think what I have to really be conscious of now is to not be too afraid to not be too scared
to do anything because I think I've been so enjoying this feeling of not being on TV every day and putting out content on whether it's YouTube or you know social I'm so aware of how much was just being pushed out all the time and that can come with so much stuff totally It's good to sit and work but then don't be scared to do
it don't be scared of the the the failure of it I I've only took a screen grab sure I think it's the guy who's the new CEO of Vans shoes I think okay we used to work at UH Logitech and it says here I've just got the screen grab which ran for a decade and which he ran for a decade and he penned a do seus like poem
titled The Secret of success oh sorry the secret to success avoid it it reads in part success makes you fearful of losing your place of gambling with stature of losing your face and it is there is an element of that which I feel of like well there's a very very very real chance that you do something and it's you know and all the greats have
had that they've all done there oh my God but I think that's why I was so Keen to even in this period to make this this podcast called this life of mine to like go well no I I know I know what this is like this this idea of this podcast is an idea I had when I was 16 mhm and I wrote it out wow love that I wrote it
out and it was called Planet lovely MH that's name now it's called Planet lovely because do you remember there used to be a TV show uh on TV on BBC 2 when we were growing up uh called Room 101 yeah of course so Room 101 was a show where people would take things they hated in life yeah and they would be they would put them into Room 101 and
they'd be gone forever ever it was a really funny show a brilliant show and premise and I was like 16 I was like well this is great wouldn't it be brilliant to make a show which is just people talking about things that they love Yeah and things that are really significant in their life beautiful and I wrote this like
thing yeah this planet lovely it's not called Planet lovely anymore came to the came to the decision that that's a a not great title but I was like why don't we just have people talk about yeah things that are significant in their life whether it's a film uh a place a person a memory a possession a song and uh and
and and the real the you know I really really wanted to do it so I was like I can I create something in a completely different medium that feels almost the antithesis of what the Late Late Show was it's it's completely different it's calm and it's quiet and it's soft and it's people talking about things that they love or that were moments in their
life and like some of the stuff that we've heard has just been great so I've really loved that creativity I'd love the creativity of just I don't you know like we're going to put this on Sirus XM and hopefully people find it and hopefully it'll be just a piece of Joy it'll be a warm heart hug on a Sunday afternoon and that
would be a lovely thing to put out into the world but that's a sort of uh gestation period of 30 years I don't think I should do that again but I do think what I'd really love to do is try and write one more thing yeah I'd love to try and write one more thing I'd love to write again with Ruth Jones who I wrote Gavin and Stacy with I I I love
her so much she is and has been a a a constant in my life as a friend and you want to talk about a long friendship you know and so I'd love to try and write something else with her I don't know what that'll be I don't even know if we'll ever if we'll do it I don't know but you know we we do we do have chats
about yeah maybe this is a thing you know yeah so that that's what I'd really love to do is just Have you listened to Bradley Cooper talk about making my mro yeah I did yeah Rec where he really just made a decision to give himself over entirely for three years to that project to just go what does it feel like actually to not move
from one thing to the next to be here there doing this doing that what is it what does it feel like to just give myself over in every way to the point where I imagine a lot of people around him on that set were earning more financially but like as a as a as a challenge to give himself over to it in the most beautiful way I think
is it's so inspiring to watch and I don't know if I've ever done that I don't I know I haven't done that I never like that on that level but like I don't think I've ever completely just given myself over to something and seen it through from Inception to pushing it on the water and letting other people decide whether it's
good or not and seeing who I am the other side of it like that's I think that would be a really good thing to to do like I might go to I might go there's this I just found this like seven weekend course at the film School in beckfield or seven I don't know how many days I can't that might be wrong but I like I think
maybe I'll maybe I'll do that I wouldn't mind doing some acting classes I didn't I just wouldn't mind just going well can I I wonder if there's one more thing yeah and if there isn't how lucky was I yeah you know but I really feel like I I might be getting to a spot where I might have something to say yeah James you are you're very unique and uh
extremely extremely thoughtful and conscious and so honest and genuine it's it's been such a treat talking to you honestly like genuinely just sitting with you and I know that I'm listening to an actual stream of Consciousness more than curated answers and you know it's it's really powerful it's been really really special and I
want to thank you for giving me this space holding this space and trusting me with it it's I mean I I mean it it's a it's it's a real thrill to uh to sit and chat with you it's it's it's it's great it's it's a lovely thing you've created here it's brilliant it's really brilliant what you're doing I'm so uh it's strange I don't know if you feel
this but I feel like there's a strange thing with like Brits that go to America cuz it's only like there's only a handful of us who know how hard it is and how vast that is so like when I look at when I look at your stuff and I see the things that you're putting out and like I think I walk past like a huge billboard of you the other week and
I was like and I don't we've never met but we have friends in common and I was like yeah I was like I was like G on boy yeah not when I get to work yet this is great I like you're from you're from wood green is wood green yeah you're from wood green look at him I'm very proud of you with no reason to be
no mate I I appreciate it and uh you know offline today and online you've given me a lot of mentorship and coaching that I'll take on and I'll practice in my life honestly that you've left me with some really thoughtful pieces of insight but we end every show with a final five and these are F the Fast Five which are answered in one word
to one sentence maximum of course and so and I'll ruin that rule every time because you give such wonderful answers but we'll try we'll start there abely we'll start there so James these are your Fast Five first question is what is the best advice you've ever heard or received to ask yourself is this of my concern right I'm going to break it
already but I really think that phrase is one of the most important things you can hang on to is to just go there's there's a great power in being able to say that's none of my concern it's more polite than saying I don't care it's more truthful than saying it's nothing to do with me because sometimes it will
be to do with you but is it of your concern do you need to engage with it you just go sorry what was that someone say something think about it oh that's none of my concern and carry on I love that super powerful okay question number two what is is the worst piece of advice you've ever heard or received oh jeez oh God it's weird you know I think
just do it right yeah the Nike the Nike if you're in America and the Nike if you're in England uh Britain the I think just do it is a brilliant slogan right I think it's one of the most powerful slogans in the world and what makes it so powerful is the is the Full Stop is the period just do it MH right just do
it great but that can really have other connotations so I would say I would say don't just do it ask whether you want to do it yeah and do you really want to do it yeah and then do it like I love I love how you just went up against the greatest slogan of all time I do think it's a masterpiece I just sometimes think yeah cuz it's like uh you know I
would say like you know crystal meth don't just do it don't just do it yeah really don't just do it yeah I love it now the new one when we go walking bus the night store in England it's G be do you really want to do it ask yourself seriously do you really want to do it and if the answer is yes yeah just do it I love it I love it I'm looking
forward to seeing that billboard with you on it it's not as Snappy I don't know if it'll really take off uh question number three how would you define your current purpose I think my current purpose is to let it be and accept whatever it ish and that's not work that's life accept all of it don't get caught up in
what you thought something should be MH just accept what it is and realize how incredibly amazing it is to just be alive it's brilliant question number four what does it feel like when Tom Cruz says to you your life is more valuable than his feels like a lie [Laughter] Jay feels like a yeah it feels like a lie and I think I knew that at the time
yeah but you believed it he I mean man he could say anything and I'll believe him he you know anything at all like the guy is just exceptional oh my God God amazing yeah Special uh Fifth and final question which we asked every guest who's ever been on the show if you could create one law that everyone in the
world had to follow what would it be I think the law should be for every minute you spend on social media that when you come off the app you're not allowed back on for that many minutes so if you go on for an hour you're locked out for an hour if you're on for 2 minutes you're locked out for 2 minutes and I believe that should be the
absolute law I don't prescribe to this notion that these things should be banned I think it's insane to think that I just think that actually we regulate the speed on the road we regulate uh what age you are when you can vote what age you are when you can get married have a child do a degree drink alcohol all these things and
actually I think one regulation would be that yeah you know yeah you could you could SP if you need to spend seven hours on it the second it's dormant for a minute you're locked out for S hours and I think people would be I think it would be great I think it would be brilliant that is genius that's my that's my is genius we've never had
anything like that on the show that is Gen I pitched it once to to I was at conference thing uh interview in quite a prominent sort of Silicon Valley yeah type you know CEO and I pitched this as an idea in the room and it did not go down they did not respond as well as you with all they were like well that's why
would we ever do that we are monetizing every all of their time we want all of their time James we don't want some of their time we want to steal it all I I'm the opposite I'm thinking how do we make that happen like what that that's brilliant I think it's a really interesting thing to play with cuz again it's not I'm on a diet I'm I'm on a
detox on it's not you know not going this is awful this you know be on it for seven days and I think all of these things all of these things social media the stuff like you know the way people the way that you know the new thing where we talk about Ai and it's like of course it's terrifying it's also going to be miraculous and Brilliant so
nothing's nothing is all bad nothing is all good no one is all bad no one is all good it's impossible but what you can do is regulate these things in a sense and if that was just the we would all accept it we'd all accept it and I'm sure someone somewhere will find a hack that means you can't but on the whole people
would just go along with it and they would I can't open I'll open it in a minute and then they would stop and look up and realize that actually maybe maybe out here can nourish me more than it does in there it's very hard to leave in there when it's always there James your world class uh this life of mine is available right now wherever you listen
to podcasts uh Sirius right is sirious XM yeah Sirus XM and so I hope you guys subscribe follow uh and look out for an episode I'm going to get to jump on the podcast too so I'm really really really looking forward to that and uh again thank you so much James this is absolute privilege cheers man if you love this
episode you'll love my interview with Will Smith on owning your truth and unlocking the power of manifestation anybody who hasn't spoken to their parents or their brother call them right now don't think you're going to have a chance to call them tomorrow or next week that opportunity with my father changed every relationship in my life