The Late Late Show’s James Corden 

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Back home in England, he’s a bona fide star. Now, with his debut as Craig Ferguson’s successor on

James Corden is poised to become an American household name as well. A torrent of talent, the comedy virtuoso has written himself multiaward-winning television shows such as the BBC’s

, won international acclaim and a Tony Award for his wild, slapstick Broadway turn in

and, in the past year alone, has sung and danced on movie screens as The Baker of

. When he’s performing, the guy can be anarchic craziness incarnate, but when we spoke, a warm, earnest mensch of a man emerged.

: Congratulations on the show! Have you heard from Craig since the announcement that you’d be succeeding him?

James Corden: He called and said, “Look, there are two people on the planet who know what it’s like to come from this tiny island called Britain and become a late-night talk show host in America and, unfortunately, that’s you and me.” [

.] He said any advice I needed, he’d be at the end of a phone. I’ll always be indebted to him for that.

Sweet. You’ve done a load of TV hosting in Britain, such as on the sports-centric game show

, where you’ve done stunts such as being rigged up as a human arrow and plunged into a giant target. Is that the sort of madness we can expect from

The Late Late Show with James Corden

Corden: Yes—I want us to find our own groove of silliness. You want people to say about the show, “I don’t know what the hell it’ll be tonight!”

Will you have a kooky sidekick in the way that, say, David Letterman has Paul Shaffer?

Corden: The comedian [and vocalist/beatboxer] Reggie Watts is going to be the leader of our house band and he’s amazing. He sits “left of center” which is where I think our show has to sit. My influences aren’t Dick Cavett and Johnny Carson, but [British chat show rebels] Chris Evans, Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross.

Corden: I want the show to be inclusive, silly and wild. Quite like a party every night. I think you have to remember that all people want to feel at that hour before they fall asleep is, “It’s all going to be OK. There’s another day tomorrow.” I hope there’ll be a positivity that will seep through.

Corden: Guests are the icing on the cake—we have to make the show fun so good guests will want to come, anyway. That said, Tom Hanks is my favorite movie star of all time. To be able to do

… I just think that’s a proper career. I’d give anything for the opportunity to sit and talk to him.

It’s been said that you were right on the verge of movie stardom yourself when you took this show. When asked why you took it anyway, you replied that you never wanted your career “to be just one thing.”

Corden: Never, ever! And it’s amazing to be offered a job where you have a focus every day. Every day the audience is coming, and you have to put on a show and make people laugh. You cannot celebrate your hits or wallow in your misses. You’ve got to just go for it. I think that’s the most creative space you could ever operate in.

more scared. I’ve genuinely lost sleep about it.

Corden: I have great people around me and an incredible wife [Julia Carey, a former television producer who worked for Save the Children] and great children [Max, 4 years old, and Carey, born Oct. 30]. They’re great levelers, children. They don’t care whether the show works or doesn’t work. All they care about is that I’m around a bit more. So I’m going to try to make the best, funniest show I can and then, as my son says, “Saturday is Dadderday.”

Airs weeknights at 12:35 a.m. ET/PT on CBS.