On bringing out the character after all this time:
Colbert tells me he has thought of his original Comedy Central character as a “tool” to be deployed — judiciously. “He can’t come in small, it’s got to be big,” he says.
But he admits he still has reservations. Not for himself but for the audience. “Hopefully,” he says, “they won’t be like, ‘Huh? That’s a different show. Wasn’t that 18 months ago? Why haven’t you moved on?’ ”
On the James Corden rumors:
Corden’s sudden rise has been particularly complicated for Colbert, fueling the media narrative of a budding rivalry and feeding the rumor mill that CBS executives are angling to flip-flop Colbert and Corden, 37 — a la Conan-Leno 2009 — in the late-night lineup. Corden’s elaborate Hamilton skit at CBS’ annual upfront presentation to advertisers in May — while Colbert went virtually unmentioned — only stoked the gossip flames.
When I ask Colbert if the Corden rumors make him feel bad, he looks down at his desk. After a long pause, he answers: “The implication of that question is that the show isn’t good enough in its present position. So of course that makes you feel bad. But it doesn’t jibe with what I know about our show, so you recover.”
CBS executives have flatly denied the rumors. “We have no plans to flip the two shows,” says Glenn Geller, president of CBS Entertainment. “It’s really easy for people to pit the shows against each other. But they’re different kinds of shows, they’re different kinds of hosts. One was a known quantity to America, and the other was not. I don’t think it’s fair to compare the two and say, ‘Well, just because one show has this, why doesn’t the other?’ ”
While conceding that Colbert’s performance has been “uneven,” Geller emphasizes that the show still is in its early days, adding that network executives hope the convention shows will remind viewers of Colbert’s talent for incisive political satire.
On dealing with criticism:
I ask Colbert if the criticism bothers him, whether he cares what people write about him.
“I’m a human being. Yeah, I care,” he says. “If there’s something informative, if there’s some criticism that would be helpful, I’m happy to listen to it. But you know, you are the show, and so you can’t not take it personally. And the only difficult thing really is I like what we do, and so I don’t entirely know how to feel about negative criticism.”
On Les Moonves urging Colbert to get a show runner:
“He knows how to talk to talent because he was an actor,” says Colbert of Moonves. “I thought I could do it, I thought it would be a natural transition to make. But that was a real revelation to go like, ‘No, if I want to do the show that I want to do and enjoy it at the same time, I have to have somebody else come in here.’ ”
On future guest bookings:
And while highbrow guests (George Saunders, Ron Suskind, Tim Cook, Elon Musk) still are sprinkled in, there are more actors in the mix, which Colbert professes complete comfort with. “I am an actor!” he says, laughing. “I loved talking to Bryan Cranston. I like Busy Philipps. I’m interested in just people. I spent 10 years doing one thing. This is a change-up pitch for me.
“I still want to talk to scientists and intellectuals, authors and members of the news media. But it’s only a couple times a week now as opposed to what the bulk of it was before, but I don’t miss that.”
There is a perception — erroneous, says Colbert — that he has chafed at the more populist requirements of the job. Yes, he has esoteric interests (Latin, world religions, medieval literature, Tolkien), he says, “but I really like pop culture. I eat McDonald’s, I drink Coca-Cola, I like a Bud Light Lime. I do. I mean, in some ways I’m extremely pedestrian.”
The photography with Stephen on the roof the Ed Sullivan theater is quite stunning (we need more stuff like this! There are like 3 Late Show promotional photos available), and there is a cute video that accompanies the photoshoot, if you are in need of an additional Stephen fix:
Stephen Colbert Featured in August Issue of 'The Hollywood Reporter' Magazine
Stephen Colbert is featured on the cover of the August 5, 2016 edition of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. The accompanying article, by Marisa Guthrie, includes a wide ranging interview with Stephen in which he discusses the “Convention Comeback” (live episodes), the backstory on bringing show runner Chris Licht onboard, and those pesky rumors about James Corden coming for his job.
Article Highlights:
The photography with Stephen on the roof the Ed Sullivan theater is quite stunning (we need more stuff like this! There are like 3 Late Show promotional photos available), and there is a cute video that accompanies the photoshoot, if you are in need of an additional Stephen fix:
Full interview: The Hollywood Reporter