231027 Collection Digital Cover 1 - Flipbook - Page 78
“So I grew up with really, really amazing
food, but not only just the food, it was also
the enthusiasm for food and the interest
in food.”
Describing himself as “a cranky patient,” and understandably so, he
admits: “I was miserable. I thought it was never going to go away.” But
his wife was there by his side, from the diagnosis through to remission.
“Felicity’s undying attention, affection and encouragement got me
through it.”
Tucci was initially reticent about the relationship, since he’s 21 years
Felicity’s senior. “But I knew that this was an incredibly special person.
Felicity has been so incredible, taking on a widower and three children
whose mother died. And she is so much more mature than me that her
actual years don’t mean anything. She’s an extraordinary step-parent
and her affection for my children and their affection for her eclipsed
any age gap.”
Professionally, he laughs about being “a cheap ham” when it comes to
camping it up in films like The Devil Wears Prada, but he draws the line
at stereotypical Italian characters. “It took years to avoid that,” he sighs.
“When I started out, with the Italians the roles were generic, and the
person was a mafioso and they were evil. It was insulting having grown
up as an Italian-American and there was a certain point where I just
stopped taking those roles.”
Because of the actors’ strike, filming had been halted on Tucci’s
upcoming projects but when the dispute is settled, he’d be happy to work
in his adopted homeland again. “You can have proper days,” he has said
about working over here. “The British crews want to end at six o’clock.
You start shooting at eight, you end at six. There’s not a lunch break.
Whereas in America, you have this long lunch break and then they can
also keep pushing, pushing, pushing. So you have 15-hour days, which
means no going out to dinner after.”
He’s equally enamoured of UK actors. “They’re very studious, more so
than some American actors, and they just get on with it. They’re also very
respectful of the script.” He’s less impressed by so-called Method actors.
“It’s pretend, you’re not really a murderer. You have to be able to forget it
all at the end of each day’s shoot, otherwise it destroys your life and it also
becomes indulgent. Ultimately, it’s not about you. It’s about what story
we are telling and how you fit into that story. That’s my job as an actor.”
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His side job as a travel presenter, with an emphasis on food, suits him
down to the ground. His love of gastronomy started when he was young.
His parents and grandparents were great cooks. “So I grew up with really,
really amazing food, but not only just the food, it was also the enthusiasm
for food and the interest in food. Everything revolved around what you
were going to eat that night, what you were eating for lunch, so it couldn’t
help but become a huge part of who I am.”
Have his tastes changed? “I think our palettes become more sophisticated
as we get older if we allow them to. A lot of people are just very resistant
to that. I know full grown adults who still have the taste buds of an
eight-year-old and you think ‘God, that’s boring, isn’t it?’ How do you
go through life like that?”
And how does he stay so lithe? “I have a very fast metabolism and exercise
like a fiend. It’s the only way.” Working out allows him to savour life’s
pleasures. “I love to get to five o’clock, have a cocktail [he favours
a martini or scotch whisky], make dinner for the kids and then we’ll
make dinner afterwards, me and Fee. It makes me so happy.”
He’s also happy with how the industry sees him. “I’m not a classic leading
man. I am a character actor, although I’ve always thought in some ways
‘character actor’ was a redundant phrase. To me, an actor is someone who
takes on different personalities and you become them, and when it’s over
you get rid of them and you become somebody else. I don’t want to go
through my life just as myself; it is much more interesting to pretend
to be other people for a little while.”
Tucci won’t be retiring anytime soon, saying: “There are still a million
things that I want to accomplish. There’s a part of actors that feels like
we can never stop.”
As for the fact he’s seen as a sex symbol in his sixth decade, he laughs.
“My wife thinks it’s funny and I’m incredibly flattered. I don’t get it but
I’m glad. Who wouldn’t be glad? Hey, it took a long time.”
