STANLEY ON STAYING YOUNG
THE ACCLAIMED ACTOR TALKS ABOUT LIFE IN ENGLAND, BECOMING AN INSTAGRAM STAR AT 60 AND WHY HIS KIDS MAKE HIM FEEL YOUNG
He’s spent four decades in showbiz, appeared in everything from Beethoven to The Hunger Games and starred in two beloved movies with Meryl Streep, but Stanley Tucci humbly says he’s still waiting to feel like he’s “made it” in Hollywood.
“You do get to a point where you think, ‘OK. I’ll be able to get some kind of work,’ but you go through lulls,” says the 60-year-old actor. “Even after The
Devil Wears Prada. I waited around. Couldn’t get a job. It’s only recently where I’ve started to know where my next job is coming from.”
The wry New York native’s career is busier than ever – even as he’s locked down in England with his wife, Felicity Blunt, 39, their two children, Emilia, 2, and Matteo, 6, and his three older children, Camilla, 19, and twins Nicolo and Isabel, 21. (His first wife, Kathryn, died of breast cancer in 2009.)
He’s earning acclaim for the new movie Supernova, in which he plays a man struggling with early onset dementia with
Before he was famous
Back in 1985, when Tucci (then 25) was still a struggling actor, he strutted his stuff in a tank top for a Levis 501 jeans commercial. “You went up for anything that would pay you some money,”Tucci told GQ of the gig. “I think I got paid $300 or something. It was shot in an afternoon. It was really fun.” support from his partner, played by Tucci’s long-time friend Colin Firth.
A cookbook author and food lover, Tucci also hosts a new culinary travel show on CNN, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. And the cocktail-making videos he began posting to Instagram during quarantine have become viral hits. “Surprised isn’t the word,” he says of the enthusiastic, sometimes lustful responses. “I’m shocked and appalled – and so flattered.” Here, Tucci opens up about fatherhood, friendships and what he’d like to do next …
HAVING YOUNG KIDS MAKES YOU FEEL YOUNGER
My twins just turned 21. They’re home
“I’m still waiting to ‘make it’. Acting is always touch and go” –TUCCI
because they can’t go to university, and it’s nice. I like to be able to sit around and have a cocktail with them and talk to them and my daughter Camilla. It’s great. And then the little ones, when you wake up in the morning, they’re just so happy. They just give you such incredible joy. And yes, it’s true, they do make you feel younger. They make you feel older, too, like when you bend down to pick them up and it takes a while to get up again.
BRITS AND AMERICANS SPEAK TWO DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
I love accents and dialects. I’m fascinated by them because it’s also part of my job, to really listen to people. But there’s still things that my wife [who’s British] will say, and I’ll go, “What? What does that mean?” Recently she said, “Oh, I was talking to so-and-so, she was just being so shirty.” And I said, “What? She’s being what?”“You know, shirty.
Annoying, ornery.” I’d never heard that word before. Our little kids have British accents, and my children from my late wife, they still have their American accents. I do say, “herbs” now instead of “erbs”. My little ones say, “woh-tah” for water and “paa-sta”.
IT’S OK TO TAKE JOBS FOR LOVE – OR MONEY
Acting is a very odd way to live your life – you can’t ever plan things, so I’m very bad at planning. I don’t plan vacations or anything. I mean, actually, if you do plan a vacation, that’s when you’re guaranteed to get a job, so I probably should plan vacations. I can be a little more discerning now than I used to be. But sometimes you look at something, and you go, “Well, that’s really good money. I’ll do that.” Because you have to pay your mortgage. Sometimes it’s about the director. Or you just love the script. [Golden-age actor]
Edward G Robinson used to do three movies a year. One was for money, one was for art and one was for location. If I could have a career like that, that would be all right. It’s getting there. I just turned 60, so maybe by the time I’m 80, I’ll get there.
WORK WITH YOUR FRIENDS WHEN YOU CAN
There’s so much trust that has to be there [between co-stars], so when you know somebody really well, and you love them, like I love Colin [Firth], filming is really fun. That sort of jocular banter stuff that happens with friends is the hardest stuff to re-create on-screen. Colin is a joy. He’s a brilliant actor and one of my best friends. We’ve known each other for so long, and we’ve both been through things, personally, that we’ve helped each other through. It’s just nice to have that history. [During filming] he would come over and cook dinner for us every night. And we never got tired of each other’s company.
THERE’S ALWAYS MORE TO LEARN AND DO
Longevity-wise, I seem to be blessed with very good genes. My dad is 90. My mother is 84, so that’s good. But there’s no question, when you turn 60, you panic. I wish I were 40. If I could be one age for the rest of my life, I would be 40. It’s a nice age. Your knees don’t hurt as much. But I’d like to be around for a long time. There are still so many things I want to do – direct more movies, direct another play. I would like to go onstage again for a very limited run. There is still stuff I want to write, but then there’s also more things related to food that I’d like to explore or more artwork that I’d like to do. And more charitable work as well. There’s a lot to do!