Tucci helps tell ‘meaningful’ story
Stanley Tucci’s pandemic experiences have run the gamut.
He has home-schooled little kids with wife Felicity Blunt. He has shared cocktail recipes. He has had the virus. He has worked on film and TV sets with new safety protocols. He has written a food memoir.
And he is starring in a new film. In “Supernova,” Tucci plays Tusker, a novelist on the edge of early on-set dementia. He and his partner, Sam (Colin Firth), take a road trip through England’s Lake District, maybe their last. The film, which opened in theaters, will be available to rent digitally Feb. 16.
This interview with Tucci has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Are your passions for acting and for food interwoven?
A: They’re only interwoven, I suppose, in “Big Night” or “Julie & Julia.” But other than that, no. I act to eat. The only way I can afford to eat is to act. (Laughs) If I’m offered a job, my first thought is: OK, where does it shoot? The second thought is: How much will they pay me? And if it is shooting someplace else, I instantly think of the food there.
Q: If you’re choosing projects partly by circumstance, driving around the Lakes … sounds like a good option.
A: It was … a great experience. I had never been to the Lake District before. … To work with one of your best friends and work with this incredibly talented director on a beautiful script on a story that’s meaningful, it just doesn’t happen. Nobody’s getting rich off it, but that’s not the point of it.
Q: Your first wife, Kathryn Spath-Tucci, died in 2009 from cancer. Were you thinking much about the conversations you and she shared near the end while making “Supernova”?
A: Something like that just becomes a part of who you are. You don’t even have to think about it. It’s just there. … It’s a very strange thing. It’s not that you dwell on it. It’s just a part of you. You just wish that you could have done something more to help. There’s a guilt. There’s no question about that. There’s a guilt that you’re moving on with your life.
Q: You were originally to play Sam with Firth as Tusker. Why did you switch?
A: I was more comfortable playing Tusker. It just seemed more right to me. … Colin had brought it up. He said, “Suppose we switch roles?” I said I was thinking the same thing.
I don’t know why. Every time I looked at it, I said something’s not right. It just made better sense, rhythmically.
Q: Had you ever done that before?
A: No, never. That’s part of working with friends. When you work with a friend, you have a shorthand and you trust each other. And you trust each other enough to say, “Let’s switch roles.” Nobody would ever do that. You don’t walk onto a set and go, “Hey, I have an idea.” Can you imagine the agents and producers and everybody freaking out?
Feb. 7 birthdays: Comedian Robert Smigel is 61. Actor James Spader is 61. Singer Garth Brooks is 59. Comedian Chris Rock is 56. Actor Essence Atkins is 49. Guitarist Wes Borland is 46. Actor Ashton Kutcher is 43. Actor Deborah Ann Woll is 36.