“It takes one to begin, but then once you’ve begun,
It takes two of you.”

To continue my journey of collecting fabulously talented besties (Ahem: Meryl Streep, Tracey Ullman and Christine Baranski), I once again headed back Into the Woods (now playing in theaters, by the way- GO) and got a chance to talk to the amazing James Corden and Emily Blunt. Now, I don’t know who started the rumor that Brits are boring, cause these two are anything but. Immediately walking into our interview room, which consisted of 25 mom bloggers, James exclaimed that “this is a dream! This is all I’ve ever dreamt of!” Suddenly, we weren’t interviewing two actors, but rather chatting with two parents who could you know… sing, act, be awesome.

You could see these two were old friends, much like the married couple the play on screen (James as The Baker and Emily as The Baker’s Wife), their conversation went without any hitches, in fact, we didn’t want it to end. Besides sharing many many (MANY) laughs, James and Emily shared a few things about Into The Woods, parenting and flirting. Read on and I dare you not to laugh.

The Two Are Old Friends And James Corden Is Sexy (Duh)

Emily Blunt: You have a little thing in your teeth
James Corden: Oh, is it a bit of blackberry?
Emily: Yeah, like, the next one along it.(Laughs)This is it. This is our relationship. That’s part of working with each other. We knew each other, actually, I’ve known James for, like, eight, nine years almost? Um, we met at a polo match in England. The princes were there, guys…
James: Which was held by Harry and William.
Emily: Harry and William. We met the princes.
James: Have you ever heard a more British?
Emily: Yeah. And we were at a polo match.
James: We met there…
Emily: And we really got along and, and we had too much to drink, and we sang…
James: “Something Stupid.”
Emily: “Something Stupid” by Frank Sinatra. Like, he’s the only person I’ve ever sung in front of…
James: Yeah, we were getting on great.
Emily: And so it was nice. When I heard it was him- I remember Rob Marshall [Director] telling me that I had the part – and I said, ‘Who’s the baker?’ And he went, ‘It’s James Corden.’ And I went, ‘Oh my god!’ I was so relieved and so thrilled because I knew that this couple needed to have real lifelong, shorthand chemistry, ease with each other and you needed to believe in them. You needed to believe that they’ve been together forever. They were probably the only- that was the option they had in the village that they grew up in, and… these are small-town folk.
James: There’s always options. Okay? There’s never not options if you’re rocking this,” [slowly waves his hand over and down his body].
Emily: This is the thing; this is the thing that he’s going on, that he said the whole time. This is a fairytale movie. A lot of, like, fantasy stuff happens, and the audience goes with it. The only thing that this audience won’t understand is why she’d leave this [pointing at James] for Chris Pine.
James: No one, no one would believe that – you know what I mean?

They Learned To Make Bread… Kind Of

Emily: We made some bread.
James: Yeah we had a bread making session. We had these bakers come in. This is what they do on films. They go, well, we should teach you how to bake. And it’s, like, four hours of learning to bake and none of it’s in the film. An absolute waste of everybody’s time. I mean, it couldn’t have been more a waste of time and money. I mean, the guy’s really, you know kneading and the folding and teaching us how to make bread. I took my bread home and cooked it, and it was delicious.
Emily: My mom loved it.
James: Oh my god. It was amazing.
Emily: It was good.
James: Phenomenal.

On if Into The Woods Influenced Their Parenting

Emily: It’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of that, actually.
James: I think there’s an honesty in the film which has made me want to be more honest with my children from the get-go. I think what the message in the film – the great message in the film – ‘be careful what wish for’, and sometimes the very thing you wish for is not the thing that you need, in a world where we seem to have told children that this happily ever after does exist, and we all know it doesn’t. And I feel like- that’s not to say you won’t be happy – but like that song, No One is Alone at the end of the film, I sort of feel like what that song is saying is, it’s two adults talking to two children saying, ‘there’s some screw-ups coming your way’, and that’s true of all of us. There’s screw-ups, and they’re coming for you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. But when they do, you might feel like you’re completely on your own in the world. You will feel like you are completely alone, and you’re not. And you never will be. And these things are just part of your life and what ultimately make you better and stronger. And it has made me think that that’s a positive message to tell your children, that mistakes are gonna happen.
Emily: And also, you said that children – like, no one is more perception than a child.
James: Yeah.
Emily: They see everything, they’re like little sponges, they pick up – even babies, I’ve noticed – they pick up on your energy, they pick up on, like, if someone walks in the house that Hazel [Emily’s daughter] hasn’t met before, and they’ve had a bad day, she- she doesn’t want to go to them. She doesn’t want to be around them, you know. And so even at- from a young age, they’re so perceptive. And, and I just feel that it’s important to teach your children that life is not always going to be easy, you know, and that is what this film is about. Nobody goes through life unscathed. Nobody does. And actually, these fairy tales – the original fairy tales – really were sort of, obviously children can’t understand the deep metaphorical meanings in these fairy tales, but they understand right and wrong, and they understand the need to make decisions, and they understand what happens when people behave badly, they get a comeuppance. You know, it’s that sort of thing that these fairy tales, I think, were created to teach children about life, to warn them about life. And we’re sort of in a society where we like to coddle our children and over-tend, over-parent, over-this- there’s like ten thousand books on how to raise a kid nowadays, and it’s purely instinctual. It’s purely personal, you know, and I saw this thing that there are books- ‘How to Raise a Gluten-Free Baby’…
James: In my defense, when I wrote that… I don’t even know what gluten is. I just know…

On Working With The Kids and How Jack Flirted With Emily

James: Well, they’re both incredible – incredibly talented and gifted, and unbelievably composed and assured. It’s one thing being brilliant in the film; it’s another thing just being brilliant to be around all day, and they are.
Emily: I mean, Lilla Crawford [Little Red Riding Hood] was doing eight shows a week playing Annie on Broadway. Like, this is a girl who knows how to punch in and go to work, and show up, and be professional, and when she opens her mouth, she has a voice like a trumpet.
James: Oh my god!
Emily: I mean, it was just insane what she was able to do, and she was so capable, you know. And Daniel [Huttlestone, who plays Jack] was completely unflappable, like, the coolest kid.
James: The first day shooting was the Giants in the Sky song, which is my favorite song in the show anyway, and I absolutely remember watching him run around this tree looking at him… and thinking, oh my god, this is- I’m watching a thousand Facebook profiles start to happen from girls who are just gonna be in love with you. He is- he’s got that thing which is unquantifiable that you can’t- you don’t know what it is, but it’s just there. And he’s so gifted, musically. He would sit down at a piano, and he’ll playing these ukulele- he’s, he’s the real deal. He really, really is.
Emily: And he has the best hair ever. He kinda likes older women, he told us.

I read that he flirted with you on set?

Emily: Oh, no, he was, yes. By the way, I was, as well. Like, I loved him.
James: There’s no way that doesn’t look weird in… Right now, in this room, we’re all having a great time. That looks weird.
Emily: But he would, he would come up to Meryl and go – and she’d be there with her cape – and he’d go, ‘Aye, Meryl’. And she’d go, ‘Yeah?’ And he’d go like this [KISS], and she’d take her cape and be, like, “Ahhhh!”; we all thought he was the coolest thing ever. He was very upset to learn that I was pregnant.
James: Again, again, sounds weird.
Emily: He was the only person who was upset about it.
James: Wow. This is really gonna open some doors for you.
Emily: It certainly is. I’ll never be allowed to speak to mommy bloggers ever again.

James On Choosing The Late Late Show Over Films, For Now Anyway

James: [Laughing] Let’s, let’s not get carried away. Um, you know, I’ll fare. It’s an amazing sort of time for me. I’m very intent on trying to enjoy it while it’s here – whatever it is- it comes or doesn’t. Like, I’m so aware that these are transient things that will go as quickly as they arrive, in so many ways. And so I just want to really enjoy it and, and lots of people have said to me – and I get it, like, when I decided to take on The Late Late Show – lots of people, their first reaction- and my reaction, in a sense – was an amount of reticence of people saying ‘You won’t be able to do this, and there’s a film coming, and what if,…’ you know? But after talking it through with my wife, the truth is that in this job, you can’t- there [is] no guarantee of anything, and you really have to go wherever the work is. And there was a point in the summer, just after I got offered, and I was unsure what to do. Where I was shooting in Johannesburg for, like, six weeks, Skyping my son on my birthday. And I thought, this is only gonna get harder. Here is someone offering me a job where I get to be creative every day, I get to have fun every day and talk to America before – or more likely, while – they’re falling asleep and at the end of every day, I get to go home and be a present father and husband. And I just don’t think there’s ever a child, when they’re twenty or thirty, sitting in a therapist’s chair going, ‘Do you know, my dad was just around too much. He, he gave me too many cuddles, and he was too much a part of my life.’ And ultimately, it was like, this is a privilege, actually, to be in this job, in this industry – because you don’t have the choice. You’ve gotta go; you’ve gotta go. That was the thing that tipped it over, really, is just to be around, and I feel very lucky to have such an opportunity.
Emily: You’re gonna make me cry.
James: Stop it. Stop it, flirt.