Marshall Fine
source : http://www.drdrew.com
Stanley Tucci tribute page
Unofficial website
Best Life
Stanley Tucci: Never Sit Still
One of Hollywoods hardest-working actors talks about passion, fishing, and feeling uncomfortable
You know this guy, Tucci? Sure. He played mobster Frank Nitti in Road to Perdition. He was in Sidewalks of New York, Big Trouble, America's Sweethearts and Tom Hanks' The Terminal. He wrote, directed, and starred in one of our favorite movies, the critically acclaimed indie flick Big Night. (Want to know even more about his screen chops?)
Like you, the man isn't afraid of demanding work.
For example: Here's how Stanley Tucci spent the summer and fall of 2002: naked in front of a huge Broadway audience with The Sopranos star Edie Falco (also naked). They appeared together 6 nights a week in the highly praised Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, a two-character play about a night in the lives of a short-order cook and a waitress searching for love. He's also lending his voice to the upcoming animated film Robots.
Like you, Tucci has trouble relaxing.
You're Italian, you like to eat, you're 41 years old with three young kids and a demanding job—and you've got six-pack abs!
Tucci: [Laughs.]
Hey, we're from Best Life. We have to know how.
Tucci: I have a high metabolism. And I don't eat dairy. I'm allergic. But I can eat goat cheese, thank God.
Exercise has nothing to do with it?
Tucci: Exercise is my salvation. I exercise consistently—always have. It reduces my stress. It keeps me focused. [I do] the simplest stuff in the world. Pushups and situps daily. I do some light weights and run on the treadmill, ride the bike. I've been doing basically the same workout for 25 years. And I try to get as much sleep as possible.
When did you know you wanted to be an actor?
Tucci: I knew when I was a kid. My mother is a wonderful cook—she has recently written a cookbook. And my father's an artist. How could anybody become a lawyer when life was all about food and art? We lived in Italy for a year. My dad had a sabbatical, and he studied at the Academia. We lived in Florence. We spent a lot of time going to museums. All this has a tremendous impact on your life.
What kind of impact did losing your hair have on you? How did you handle that?
Tucci: Oh, it was very painful. I hated it. I was very depressed. But then, the more hair I lost, actually, the more I started to work. And now I have completely given in to the fact that I will never have it again unless there's some incredible medical breakthrough, which could happen. It's fine, and I have been told that, you know, women find it attractive. So, I'm thrilled.
You've been in your career a good 20 years, starting with Prizzi's Honor back in 1985. Not all easy, we're sure. How did you deal with setbacks?
Tucci: You always learn something through the painful times. But I think you have to look to your mate and to your friends for peace. I'm blessed with a lot of great friends who have been very supportive. Men don't put enough stock in the importance of friends.
Amen. But how do you keep up with friends when you're working, traveling, and you have young ones at home?
Tucci: It's very hard. We'll talk on the phone as much as possible. And when we are in the same city, we get together as often as possible. It takes effort, but it's so worth it.
Balancing career and marriage is always a challenge for men. How do you keep a marriage together when there's so little time and so much temptation?
Tucci: Listening is very, very important. And if you have kids, it's important to find time for yourselves. [My wife, Kate, and I] try very hard to go out for dinner once a week. It makes a big difference for us to sit down, have a nice meal, and talk. But you need to make sure you really talk and don't just discuss logistics.
Thinking back over your career, can you pinpoint when you were most dissatisfied?
Tucci: Absolutely, yeah. [It was when] I felt that acting wasn't using enough of myself creatively. That's why I started writing and directing. When you're writing, directing, and acting, you use every single part of yourself—your visual, your oral, your aural, your physical, every part. I like doing things I haven't done before, things that make me feel a little uncomfortable. Things like creating new characters. I'm lucky to be in a business that allows me to bounce around. My teacher in college used to tell us, "Go beyond what's comfortable." Otherwise life is so boring.
How do you relax?
Tucci: I don't. That's my problem. I swear to God. I don't relax.
You must kick back sometime.
Tucci: One of the ways I try to relax now is by going out for dinner withfriends. I also like to paint and sketch, but I have not done that as of late because there's no time. I like to read. I like to go fishing.
Trout fishing?
Tucci: Fish fishing. It doesn't matter. It's the process, not the result. My father and I have been going since I was able to figure out how not to get a fishhook in my eye. We go to the reservoirs in upstate New York, where I grew up and where I have lived, in Westchester County. We have a great time. I just love it. Love it. To me it's one of the most relaxing things ever.
Who catches more, you or Pop?
Tucci: No one catches anything. It's hysterical. For years we go, and we talk to people who go to the same places. They say, "Try that spot over by the bridge and the thing. This guy yesterday caught a 10-pound blah, blah, blah." We go over there and...nothing. And we see a guy, like 20 feet away from us, catching fish. We're cursed. Simply cursed. We're the only Italians who can't fish.
If you were to go to an isolated island to fish and vacation, what would you make sure you brought?
Tucci: Pasta, without question, and good bread and olives. I would bring all the fixings to make martinis. And good wine. Ha, I sound like one of those Russian counts or something, going on a fishing trip. Oh, and I would take good friends. And hopefully we'd catch fish, and if we did, we'd cook it. For me, cooking's the easy part.
In
Frankie and Johnny, you play a short-order cook, and you crack eggs and
chop onions like a pro. You're pretty skilled in the kitchen.
Tucci: I learned for Big Night. My friend Gianni Scappin taught me. He has a restaurant called GiGi Trattoria up in Rhinebeck, New York. And now we're partners in a restaurant in Westchester called Finch Tavern.
Is that something you always wanted, a restaurant?
Tucci: Ever since Big Night. Yes, I have to say, it's fantastic, very satisfying. 'Cause you can always get a table. But really, I love the idea of having a third place in your community. You know, a place that isn't your home and isn't your work, a place where you can go and talk to people. And everybody can come—families, couples—and have a good meal, congregate at the bar, and have a good time. We've been losing a sense of community in this country.
We've read that you have a fascination with America pre-World War II. Where does this come from?
Tucci: I have no idea. I wish I could get rid of it because I'm exhausted by it. [Laughs.] But I am fascinated by it, fascinated about it stylistically, the aesthetics. It was the closest we've ever come to socialism in this country, with a lot of the programs that FDR enacted in the New Deal. I'm interested in a time before we knew the world could end as easily as it can end now. Not end necessarily, but that large parts of it could be destroyed. I suppose I imagine it as a time that was, in a way, more intimate.
Are you fulfilled now?
Tucci: Today, yes. I'm enjoying being back on stage. And I have interesting projects. We're in the process of producing a little movie that I found at Sundance. I go out there as an advisor at the Sundance Institute every year. And teaching is atruly satisfying experience, mostly because I learn so much. But finding real fulfillment in life is always challenging. I think that's why people throw themselves into athletics and hobbies. I'm always amazed by the hobbies people end up having.
There are secrets all over this town—the Wall Street guy or the cab driver, doing something you'd never expect them to do. He's a poet or a painter, or he plays basketball. Like my friend Jay Parini. He's a teacher at Middlebury College, a novelist, absolutely brilliant. But the thing he loves, loves, loves is basketball. He's obsessed. And he's about my height. He says, "I'm terrible at it, but I love to do it. I can't help but do it."
That's passion.
Tucci: Exactly. And if you find that thing you love, it doesn't necessarily matter whether you do it well or not—you just need to do it. It sounds cliched, but [it's true] you discover so much about yourself in the process. People need that kind of an outlet, particularly nowadays. It's so interesting to me. It's like there is this other person inside of [Jay] that should have been a basketball player.
And inside you, a fisherman?
Tucci:Yeah, if only I could catch those goddamned things.
One of Hollywoods hardest-working actors talks about passion, fishing, and feeling uncomfortable
You know this guy, Tucci? Sure. He played mobster Frank Nitti in Road to Perdition. He was in Sidewalks of New York, Big Trouble, America's Sweethearts and Tom Hanks' The Terminal. He wrote, directed, and starred in one of our favorite movies, the critically acclaimed indie flick Big Night. (Want to know even more about his screen chops?)
Like you, the man isn't afraid of demanding work.
For example: Here's how Stanley Tucci spent the summer and fall of 2002: naked in front of a huge Broadway audience with The Sopranos star Edie Falco (also naked). They appeared together 6 nights a week in the highly praised Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, a two-character play about a night in the lives of a short-order cook and a waitress searching for love. He's also lending his voice to the upcoming animated film Robots.
Like you, Tucci has trouble relaxing.
You're Italian, you like to eat, you're 41 years old with three young kids and a demanding job—and you've got six-pack abs!
Tucci: [Laughs.]
Hey, we're from Best Life. We have to know how.
Tucci: I have a high metabolism. And I don't eat dairy. I'm allergic. But I can eat goat cheese, thank God.
Exercise has nothing to do with it?
Tucci: Exercise is my salvation. I exercise consistently—always have. It reduces my stress. It keeps me focused. [I do] the simplest stuff in the world. Pushups and situps daily. I do some light weights and run on the treadmill, ride the bike. I've been doing basically the same workout for 25 years. And I try to get as much sleep as possible.
When did you know you wanted to be an actor?
Tucci: I knew when I was a kid. My mother is a wonderful cook—she has recently written a cookbook. And my father's an artist. How could anybody become a lawyer when life was all about food and art? We lived in Italy for a year. My dad had a sabbatical, and he studied at the Academia. We lived in Florence. We spent a lot of time going to museums. All this has a tremendous impact on your life.
What kind of impact did losing your hair have on you? How did you handle that?
Tucci: Oh, it was very painful. I hated it. I was very depressed. But then, the more hair I lost, actually, the more I started to work. And now I have completely given in to the fact that I will never have it again unless there's some incredible medical breakthrough, which could happen. It's fine, and I have been told that, you know, women find it attractive. So, I'm thrilled.
You've been in your career a good 20 years, starting with Prizzi's Honor back in 1985. Not all easy, we're sure. How did you deal with setbacks?
Tucci: You always learn something through the painful times. But I think you have to look to your mate and to your friends for peace. I'm blessed with a lot of great friends who have been very supportive. Men don't put enough stock in the importance of friends.
Amen. But how do you keep up with friends when you're working, traveling, and you have young ones at home?
Tucci: It's very hard. We'll talk on the phone as much as possible. And when we are in the same city, we get together as often as possible. It takes effort, but it's so worth it.
Balancing career and marriage is always a challenge for men. How do you keep a marriage together when there's so little time and so much temptation?
Tucci: Listening is very, very important. And if you have kids, it's important to find time for yourselves. [My wife, Kate, and I] try very hard to go out for dinner once a week. It makes a big difference for us to sit down, have a nice meal, and talk. But you need to make sure you really talk and don't just discuss logistics.
Thinking back over your career, can you pinpoint when you were most dissatisfied?
Tucci: Absolutely, yeah. [It was when] I felt that acting wasn't using enough of myself creatively. That's why I started writing and directing. When you're writing, directing, and acting, you use every single part of yourself—your visual, your oral, your aural, your physical, every part. I like doing things I haven't done before, things that make me feel a little uncomfortable. Things like creating new characters. I'm lucky to be in a business that allows me to bounce around. My teacher in college used to tell us, "Go beyond what's comfortable." Otherwise life is so boring.
How do you relax?
Tucci: I don't. That's my problem. I swear to God. I don't relax.
You must kick back sometime.
Tucci: One of the ways I try to relax now is by going out for dinner withfriends. I also like to paint and sketch, but I have not done that as of late because there's no time. I like to read. I like to go fishing.
Trout fishing?
Tucci: Fish fishing. It doesn't matter. It's the process, not the result. My father and I have been going since I was able to figure out how not to get a fishhook in my eye. We go to the reservoirs in upstate New York, where I grew up and where I have lived, in Westchester County. We have a great time. I just love it. Love it. To me it's one of the most relaxing things ever.
Who catches more, you or Pop?
Tucci: No one catches anything. It's hysterical. For years we go, and we talk to people who go to the same places. They say, "Try that spot over by the bridge and the thing. This guy yesterday caught a 10-pound blah, blah, blah." We go over there and...nothing. And we see a guy, like 20 feet away from us, catching fish. We're cursed. Simply cursed. We're the only Italians who can't fish.
If you were to go to an isolated island to fish and vacation, what would you make sure you brought?
Tucci: Pasta, without question, and good bread and olives. I would bring all the fixings to make martinis. And good wine. Ha, I sound like one of those Russian counts or something, going on a fishing trip. Oh, and I would take good friends. And hopefully we'd catch fish, and if we did, we'd cook it. For me, cooking's the easy part.
Tucci: I learned for Big Night. My friend Gianni Scappin taught me. He has a restaurant called GiGi Trattoria up in Rhinebeck, New York. And now we're partners in a restaurant in Westchester called Finch Tavern.
Is that something you always wanted, a restaurant?
Tucci: Ever since Big Night. Yes, I have to say, it's fantastic, very satisfying. 'Cause you can always get a table. But really, I love the idea of having a third place in your community. You know, a place that isn't your home and isn't your work, a place where you can go and talk to people. And everybody can come—families, couples—and have a good meal, congregate at the bar, and have a good time. We've been losing a sense of community in this country.
We've read that you have a fascination with America pre-World War II. Where does this come from?
Tucci: I have no idea. I wish I could get rid of it because I'm exhausted by it. [Laughs.] But I am fascinated by it, fascinated about it stylistically, the aesthetics. It was the closest we've ever come to socialism in this country, with a lot of the programs that FDR enacted in the New Deal. I'm interested in a time before we knew the world could end as easily as it can end now. Not end necessarily, but that large parts of it could be destroyed. I suppose I imagine it as a time that was, in a way, more intimate.
Are you fulfilled now?
Tucci: Today, yes. I'm enjoying being back on stage. And I have interesting projects. We're in the process of producing a little movie that I found at Sundance. I go out there as an advisor at the Sundance Institute every year. And teaching is atruly satisfying experience, mostly because I learn so much. But finding real fulfillment in life is always challenging. I think that's why people throw themselves into athletics and hobbies. I'm always amazed by the hobbies people end up having.
There are secrets all over this town—the Wall Street guy or the cab driver, doing something you'd never expect them to do. He's a poet or a painter, or he plays basketball. Like my friend Jay Parini. He's a teacher at Middlebury College, a novelist, absolutely brilliant. But the thing he loves, loves, loves is basketball. He's obsessed. And he's about my height. He says, "I'm terrible at it, but I love to do it. I can't help but do it."
That's passion.
Tucci: Exactly. And if you find that thing you love, it doesn't necessarily matter whether you do it well or not—you just need to do it. It sounds cliched, but [it's true] you discover so much about yourself in the process. People need that kind of an outlet, particularly nowadays. It's so interesting to me. It's like there is this other person inside of [Jay] that should have been a basketball player.
And inside you, a fisherman?
Tucci:Yeah, if only I could catch those goddamned things.
Road to perdition BBC
Interviewed by Almar Haflidason
With the movie about to hit DVD, Stanley Tucci talks about playing Frank Nitti in "Road to Perdition".
Did you draw any inspiration for your "Road to Perdition" character, Frank Nitti, from the graphic novel?
No I didn't see the graphic novel. I read a little about Nitti. They had sent me some stuff, I did some research and I knew a bit about him before, but there's not a tremendous amount about him. He was a real businessman; he wasn't a psycho killer as he's been portrayed in other films.
How do you compress your performance so that your scenes look like a snapshot of a much bigger story for that character?
First of all, it starts with the script. If the script is good, that aspect should be in there. I hope you feel the character's presence throughout the film. Also, you have to bring a lot of different levels to the performance, but maybe a little more so with "Road to Perdition" because I had such a small period of time to get the character across.
You've directed a few films yourself, so what's it like having Sam Mendes in the director's chair?
Sam was wonderful, actually one of the best directors I've ever worked with. He's kind, funny, very smart, and he knows exactly what he wants.
What's Paul Newman's acting method like? Can he snap in and out of character, or does he stay in the role?
He was very focused, but he could go back and forth too.
Do you think Mendes was nervous dealing with Newman at all?
Sam would talk to every actor the same way, no matter who they were.
Nearly every scene of the film is a woman-free zone. Did this make the shoot a little strange at all?
It's always more fun when there are women about! For me, though, it was a week of shooting so it didn't have a great effect by any means.
Is directing something you enjoy?
I love it very much. I haven't done any more since "Joe Gould's Secret" [2000]. There have been a few things I thought I wanted to do since, but haven't yet happened.
Sundance : Bind Date
Found on Youtube (sundancechannel) :
Stanley Tucci talks about his movie : Blind Date
Devil wears Prada
These videos are not mine, you can find them on You Tube :
The Devil Wears Prada NEWS ARCHIVES OF CINEMA CONFIDENTIAL
INTERVIEW: Stanley Tucci on "The Devil Wears Prada"
FROM THE NEWS ARCHIVES OF CINEMA CONFIDENTIAL
http://www.cinecon.com
06/21/06
BY ETHAN AAMES
Q: What interested you about "The Devil Wears Prada"? STANLEY: The part, first of all. It’s a great part, and I’ve never
played a part like this before. And Meryl, and Annie, who I’d seen but
didn’t know. I knew Meryl, socially. And it’s shot in New York. I live
here, that made it really easy. I could go home and go to bed at night.
Q: Is there a line you worry about crossing when playing a gay character? STANLEY: That was the hardest part. I was cast a few days before we
started shooting so I had no time to do any research or repair or
prepare from the last film. My fear was… it was very well-written.
There was not a caricature on page, you could make it that way if you
wanted to but you don’t to because it has to be credible. It has to be
believable so what you don’t want to do is create a caricature. You
don’t want to send this person up, you don’t want to comment on him.
We’ve seen, and I hope that we’re past the point of seeing the very
flamboyant queer guy, enough is enough, so the goal was to make it as
real as possible and he can be flamboyant but he has to be flamboyant,
I can’t be flamboyant, you know what I mean? You can quote me on that. Q: Do you like playing the nicer or the snobbier side of Nigel? STANLEY: They’re both equally satisfying but neither of them would
be satisfying without the other. The balance is what makes it great.
The very sweet sort of, ‘Let me take care of you’ gay guy, you know.
It’s much nicer to have... you create a complete person and that’s all
you ever want in a character. Q: Can you talk about working with Anne? STANLEY: Anne was great. As I said, I didn’t know her, but she’s so
good. Her transformation is incredibly believable and complete. On a
superficial level, the look of her from the beginning to the end… she
really becomes this… she’s beautiful. Her sweetness comes across and
her intelligence. She played, what is a very difficult role because
it’s so passive and that’s a difficult thing to do in a leading role
and she pulled it off just beautifully. Q: Did you do research with anyone in the fashion industry? STANLEY: No, I had no time. They cast me and literally went into
costume fittings a few days later and started shooting. I knew the
fashion industry a little bit, I had some friends in the industry but
there wasn’t much time for that. Q: Have you ever had a boss like Miranda? STANLEY: No, thank God. I’d last about a half-hour. I have had
directors who were really contentious or whatever. It’s usually the
directors who are… somebody like Meryl’s character, well first of all
it’s an incredible performance as we know, but the thing about it is
the person is like that. The character is very good at what she does
and that’s the hard part for the assistant. If the person is like that
but they’re really not very good at what they do, you know, you have
that director who does all that stuff but they really have no talent,
you know. But if somebody’s the best there is, it’s kind of hard. Not
that there’s ever an excuse for that behavior, I don’t believe there is
a reason to be mean to somebody but it does make it a little more
difficult to argue with. Q: Are you a fashionable person to begin with? STANLEY: I love clothes. I love to be fussed over. I love it. I love
to go shopping, I love to dress well. My wife hates it, hates it. She
would go bungee jumping before she would go shopping. I’m not the same.
I love clothes. This role was very enjoyable for me and also as a
director, the look of the movie is very important and I spent a lot of
time with the actors in costume fittings and the designer, because it’s
crucial I think to the actor’s process and it’s also an integral part
of the film. There’s nothing worse when you see a movie and you see the
way the production is designed and you have the costume designer and
the cinematographer and none of them meet, the palates are off, the
look is too shiny, the clothes are too flat. It’s very important that
all those elements be integrated. It’s one of the things I try to do in
my own movies so spending time with the costume designer makes me more
than happy. Q: Was it ever hard to keep a straight face? It seems that with a
lot of the lines in the film, you could be cracking up because of the
humor. STANLEY: It was hard. I’m telling you, it was hard. With Meryl,
Annie and I think, in particular, Emily Blunt. Emily Blunt and I
laughed so hard. There were times when I’d have to say, ‘Alright
everyone, calm down, we’re trying to make a movie.’ She’s funny. Q: Meryl actually said that she felt she had to separate herself
from the three of you. She said that ‘Stanley, Anne and Emily were over
there having their own little party, and I had to be away.’ STANLEY: She did. I noticed that at one point. There was one day in
particular, I remember, when she kind of disappeared into a corner. And
I thought, ‘What’s Meryl doing over there in the corner?’ Then I’d
think, ‘Oh, she’s actually trying to make the movie.’ Q: You were saying before that you were attracted to your
character because he isn’t a caricature. Do you find that you’re often
fed those one-dimensional roles, especially in comedies? STANLEY: Sometimes, yeah. There’s not a tremendous amount of
imagination out there. You’ll play a role in a movie that people like
and then you’ll get four scripts that are the same role and you’ll
think, well, I did it. It’s not something you’ll rule out, but it’s not
something you want to do again right away. A lot of writers, how do I
put this… A lot of writers are writing for, either unconsciously or
consciously, for producers. They’re not actually writing for actors or
writing for the story. And this is because so many movies have become
commodities, as opposed to pieces of cinema. So there is a one
dimensionality that you’ll see in characters in a script because they
want everything to be clear so that the movie gets made. It’s your job
then to say, ‘Okay what can we do with this to make it more complete?’
And usually to make something like that more complete it’s about taking
away. Taking away lines and then playing against that. Q: Can you think of a role you’ve had to do that with recently? STANLEY: In the earlier drafts of "The Terminal," there were
elements of the character that were just too bad, too mean for the sake
of being mean and that didn’t make sense. So I talked about it with
Steven [Spielberg] when he offered me the part and he said, ‘Yes I
know, we agree on that. It’s being changed.’ And it was changed. Q: You talked about an interest in directing and writing. Are you working on anything now? STANLEY: Yes, I have three scripts. One that I’ve re-written and two
scripts that I’ve written, that I hope to make. I was going to make one
this fall but I’m going to do this television series. The pilot was
just picked up. It’s called ‘Three Pounds,’ and it’s about
neurosurgery. It’s a laugh a minute Q: Is it character-driven or procedural? STANLEY: It’s procedural, but I think the goal is for it to be
mostly character-driven. A guy called Peter Ocko wrote it, he’s very
good writer. We shot the pilot in the spring and we’ll start shooting
in August. We’ll shoot seven episodes and if CBS likes it, we’ll shoot
more. If they don’t, it will disappear. Q: What makes it different from all the other medical dramas? STANLEY: It will be so much better than all of them. No, I know what
you’re saying, I guess it’s about the brain which is, as I was reading
last night, since I know nothing about the brain, they say that the
brain is the most complex organ on the face of the earth, or in the
universe even, as far as they can tell, but what do they know? I do
have one other movie set in England that I hope to direct next year
with Emily Blunt. Damien Dibben wrote the script.
Road to Perdition
Road to Perdition DVD
Interviewed by Almar Haflidason
Interviewed by Almar Haflidason
Source : http://www.bbc.co.uk
With the movie about to hit DVD, Stanley Tucci talks about playing Frank Nitti in "Road to Perdition".
Did you draw any inspiration for your "Road to Perdition" character, Frank Nitti, from the graphic novel?
No I didn't see the graphic novel. I read a little about Nitti. They had sent me some stuff, I did some research and I knew a bit about him before, but there's not a tremendous amount about him. He was a real businessman; he wasn't a psycho killer as he's been portrayed in other films.
How do you compress your performance so that your scenes look like a snapshot of a much bigger story for that character?
First of all, it starts with the script. If the script is good, that aspect should be in there. I hope you feel the character's presence throughout the film. Also, you have to bring a lot of different levels to the performance, but maybe a little more so with "Road to Perdition" because I had such a small period of time to get the character across.
You've directed a few films yourself, so what's it like having Sam Mendes in the director's chair?
Sam was wonderful, actually one of the best directors I've ever worked with. He's kind, funny, very smart, and he knows exactly what he wants.
What's Paul Newman's acting method like? Can he snap in and out of character, or does he stay in the role?
He was very focused, but he could go back and forth too.
Do you think Mendes was nervous dealing with Newman at all?
Sam would talk to every actor the same way, no matter who they were.
Nearly every scene of the film is a woman-free zone. Did this make the shoot a little strange at all?
It's always more fun when there are women about! For me, though, it was a week of shooting so it didn't have a great effect by any means.
Is directing something you enjoy?
I love it very much. I haven't done any more since "Joe Gould's Secret" [2000]. There have been a few things I thought I wanted to do since, but haven't yet happened.
Stan the Man
Stan the Man : An Interview With Actor Stanley Tucci
After years of playing gangsters and other Italian stereotypes, actor Stanley Tucci was fed up. So in 1995, he co-wrote, co-directed and starred in Big Night, a film that put him on the map as a filmmaker to watch. The Katonah, N.Y., native, subsequently wrote and directed The Imposters, a 1998 screwball comedy, and recently adapted, directed and starred in Joe Gould's Secret, based on a famous pair of articles in The New Yorker from the 1940s and 1950s. He chose Joe Gould's Secret out of a love for its writer, Joseph Mitchell, a legendary New Yorker scribe whose work has been collected in the book, Up in the Old Hotel. Mitchell would spend months researching an article, taking notes on everyday conversations and spinning them into detailed portraits of vanishing bits of Manhattan life. Says Tucci, "He had to have had a photographic memory--unless he made it all up--and I don't think that was the case." In the film, Tucci plays Mitchell, who meets and writes about an eccentric Greenwich Village denizen named Joe Gould (played by Ian Holm). They develop a relationship that changes both of them, forcing the two to come to terms with uncomfortable truths about themselves. Slight, balding, and dark-eyed, Tucci is a witty, thoughtful conversational companion. He spoke with drDrew.com recently in New York.
ST: It lets you know what's really important. Hopefully, the movie will be successful so I'm able to feed the children.
After years of playing gangsters and other Italian stereotypes, actor Stanley Tucci was fed up. So in 1995, he co-wrote, co-directed and starred in Big Night, a film that put him on the map as a filmmaker to watch. The Katonah, N.Y., native, subsequently wrote and directed The Imposters, a 1998 screwball comedy, and recently adapted, directed and starred in Joe Gould's Secret, based on a famous pair of articles in The New Yorker from the 1940s and 1950s. He chose Joe Gould's Secret out of a love for its writer, Joseph Mitchell, a legendary New Yorker scribe whose work has been collected in the book, Up in the Old Hotel. Mitchell would spend months researching an article, taking notes on everyday conversations and spinning them into detailed portraits of vanishing bits of Manhattan life. Says Tucci, "He had to have had a photographic memory--unless he made it all up--and I don't think that was the case." In the film, Tucci plays Mitchell, who meets and writes about an eccentric Greenwich Village denizen named Joe Gould (played by Ian Holm). They develop a relationship that changes both of them, forcing the two to come to terms with uncomfortable truths about themselves. Slight, balding, and dark-eyed, Tucci is a witty, thoughtful conversational companion. He spoke with drDrew.com recently in New York.
drDrew.com: All of the movies you've made--Big Night, The Imposters, and now Joe Gould's Secret--are set in the past. Why not make a film set in contemporary times?
Stanley Tucci: I just couldn't see anything I wanted to
write about that was happening now, although I am working on a script
that's set [in the present].
drDrew.com: What is it about the past that you like?
ST: Well, my parents always spoke lovingly about their
childhood, so maybe I was trying to live parts of my father's
childhood. I was always attracted to the past as a kid. Like Joseph
Mitchell, I would scour the streets of New York and find little pieces
of what other people think of as junk--and collect it. I'd go to these
wrecking yards and find stuff like old signs or light fixtures and
bring them home. I could stay there for hours. Things just seemed to be
more personal in those times. I like the aesthetic of the times.
Everything wasn't mass-produced--things were more individual and not as
homogenized. I also like the formality of the times, that people would
dress differently for different occasions, that they'd dress up to go
to the theater. Now everybody dresses the same for everything. People
wear shorts to the Broadway theater. There should be a law against
that.
drDrew.com: Your wife recently had twins. You've been a stepfather
for a few years, but this is the first time you've had a baby--or
babies--of your own. What's the most surprising thing to you about
being a new parent?
ST: I didn't know you had to change diapers so often. I
couldn't believe it--we must change them 10 times a day--each. So
that's 20 diapers a piece a day. I don't know how people did it before
they had disposable diapers, let alone how they did it with twins.
drDrew.com: Where were you when your wife went into labor?
ST: I was at the Sundance Film Festival with this movie. The
festival had had its opening night on a Thursday in Salt Lake City and
this movie was supposed to be the opening night show on Friday in Park
City. That Friday morning, my wife called me and said, "I think I'm
going into labor." She was six weeks early. So I jumped on a plane and
flew back to New York. I was afraid I wouldn't make it. I was calling
her every half hour from the plane. The doctors slowed her labor and my
plane even got in early. Then I actually got into a taxi and said,
"Lenox Hill Hospital--and step on it!" Just like in a movie. That guy
gave me the scariest ride I've ever had. He drove sooo fast. And when I
got there, the doctor said, "OK, let's go." And 45 minutes later, they
were born. It's amazing that it all worked so smoothly.
ST: It lets you know what's really important. Hopefully, the movie will be successful so I'm able to feed the children.
Director Stanley Tucci
Sep 1, 1998 12:00 PM, Matt Cheplic
http://digitalcontentproducer.com/mag/video_director_stanley_tucci/"I look for people who have a great sense of humor," declares Stanley Tucci. "People who can get something across comically are usually great actors. If you say 'Well, I only do drama'... then you're not a good actor. You haveto be able to do everything."
Such a credo might be evident in the funny, poignant Big Night, Tucci's critically lauded debut as a writer-director. But it comes bursting through in his second film, The Impostors. Much broader than its predecessor, The Impostors is a charming, frenetic romp that makes good use of not only Tucci's acting skills, but those of Oliver Platt, Steve Buscemi, Lili Taylor, Isabella Rossellini, and other notables. The story of unlucky actors trapped aboard an ocean liner brimming with surreal characters and even weirder circumstances, the film is set during the Depression and likewise invokes a golden-age sensibility.
"I like the distance the past affords. People are freer to enjoy themselves. It's more playful to me, more theatrical. It's also a tribute to films I grew up watching on TV: Things like The Twentieth Century, Marx Brothers' movies, Preston Sturges' stuff, His Girl Friday. It ultimately goes back to theater, like Comedia Dell'Arte, where you have all these stock characters." Content with the cast he had assembled, Tucci then endeavored to make them stretch a little. "I tried to cast them in roles that they'd never played on film. For instance, people might cast Hope Davis in Lili Taylor's role. But that's too easy."
Prior to Big Night, it was Taylor who introduced Tucci to Ken Kelsch, who would serve as DP on both films. Tucci was familiar with, among other things, Kelsch's work on a number of Abel Ferrara's movies. "When I saw Bad Lieutenant, I thought it was beautifully shot. It's so bizarre, but it has real beauty-but not Hollywood beauty, more like a European film. I liked the coldness of it. Actually, I was a little nervous to hire him at first, because Ken's a big personality."
But Kelsch lent Big Night the hardcore photography knowledge Tucci had never picked up ("I'm bad with film stocks-all those numbers..."), during his classical theater training. That, and the work of co-director Campbell Scott, helped Tucci make a relatively painless entry into filmmaking. And while The Impostors features Scott as a lovesick, fascist crew member, it is a solo directing job for Tucci. Taking the trend even further, he reveals he will not even act in the next picture he directs, a Howard Rodman screenplay adapted from New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel. But that does not mean he harbors an inflated sense of his directing talents. "When I'm acting, and I finish a scene, I'll walk right over to the director and the DP, just to listen. I can't help it. You have to be careful not to step on anyone's toes, but it's really just curiosity."
While his young filmmaking career is colored by shifts in style, tone, and setting, Tucci's work is informed by a straightforward, narrative quality often found in New York-area directors. "It has to do with irony. I see that more in New York scripts and people than I do in things that come out of Los Angeles. A lot of scripts that come out of Hollywood could only come out of Hollywood-they seem to come from other films, not from life."
"I just don't trust a place where the sun shines all the time," he continues. "In New York, if a kid goes to private school, he still has to get on the subway or the bus and have contact with people. In L.A., they get in the car, they go to school, they get back in the car. There's no, 'Let's walk to the museum.' I mean, the walk to the museum a lot of times is a lot more fascinating than the museum itself."
Others interviews
The terminal
You can watch, link here
Peter Sellers :
http://www.hbo.com/films/petersellers/inside/inside_tucci.html
ER :
http://www.nbc.com/ER/video/index.shtml#mea=158135
You can watch, link here
Peter Sellers :
http://www.hbo.com/films/petersellers/inside/inside_tucci.html
ER :
http://www.nbc.com/ER/video/index.shtml#mea=158135