Stanley Tucci - 'Tucci in Italy' & 'The Devil Wears Prada 2'

31:17Is it good? Sometimes. Do you know what I mean? How's the role? It's good. Or I need a bit of dosh. Do you know what I mean? But American Actors, it was this weird class system. And I never understood it. And so for me, once HBO started doing that, I was like, oh, I'm sort of strangely vindicated in a way. But yeah, I think there were more, the role in Stephen's movie was amazing. But there were more opportunities at that point on television. Sure. including, I'll just note, in 2006 you won an Emmy with your old pal Shalhoub for a monk. But this leads up, as everyone's been talking about and is talking about this very week, it is go back 20 years to a movie called The Devil Wears Prada.

32:07And it's interesting because first, just to remind folks, you're playing this art director for Miranda Priestly's magazine runway, kind of Vogue-like publication. Everybody assumes that this movie changed your life and career. People love the movie. They love you in it. Here we are 20 years later with a sequel, and yet you have said that it did nothing of the kind. Nothing. Nothing. How's that possible? I have no idea. But Hollywood is a fickle whatever. Yeah. I mean, for Annie, for Meryl, for Emily, not for me. Like literally nothing. Couldn't get a job. My wife was sick. We were in the house that eventually she passed away in.

32:59And I was like, I need a job. And I ended up doing... ER, right? Yeah, I ended up doing ER, but I had done something before that, which was a show called Three Pounds for CBS that was really beautifully written. But it aired. We shot eight episodes. This was before the streaming. Yeah, sure. And it aired basically the same week as House did, and it didn't get the ratings that House did. So CBS just dumped it. they showed three episodes, I think. I don't even know what they did with the rest of them. They put them online. I don't know at the time what they were, you know.

33:47And I quite enjoyed doing it because it was very well written. But then, you know, ER came to me and said, do you want to... And I will admit, at that point, I had never seen ER. It had been on television for a long time, but I'd only seen bits and pieces of it. And I did it, and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I fell in love with it. The cast was amazing. The directors were great. You know, I got to work with Maura Tierney, whom I just think is a truly great actress. Yeah, and another Emmy nomination for that. You just racked them up. I do want to go back for a moment, though, to Delworth's Prada, because you were cast at the last minute, thrown into the deep end with Meryl Streep.

34:34I would imagine it's a little intimidating. At least now you guys have done a lot together. But at that time. Well, I knew her socially. Okay. Through friends. So we knew each other a bit. But I was still very nervous. I mean, come on. It was Meryl. And, you know, you're always nervous the first day on set. You're always like. And especially I had like no preparation. I was like, how am I going to do this? And I just practiced at home for a few days. And then I was like. And then the first thing I did was like this, you know, climactic moment for the character where he's like oh I'm going to become the head of blah blah blah and I'll be able to get to go be in Paris and actually see Paris and it was this really pivotal moment and oh god I was quite nervous but it all worked out also because you're you know you don't want to you know you're playing what we believe is a gay character though it's never really stated and you have to do right by that.

35:35You can't send it up. It has to be absolutely truthful. Well, your monologue towards the end there where you're talking to Anne Hathaway's character about it, Runway being not just a magazine but a shining beacon of hope for, let's say, a young boy growing up in Rhode Island with six brothers pretending to go to soccer practice when he was really going to sewing class and reading Runway under the covers at night with a flashlight. That was a beautiful moment in the film. It's a beautifully written monologue, yeah. Were there real-world models for this character that you played and are now still playing?

36:08I mean, was there somebody that you were thinking about? No, there was a guy that I knew. We became friendly with him through some friends in Westchester, and he was a designer. He had worked at Knoll, I think. And then he sort of did freelance stuff. He would design furniture and design. But he was always very beautifully dressed, and he had glasses like that. I said, I want glasses like this. And it was slightly based on him, but then just other people that I'd met over the years who were really funny, really smart, really snarky, but in the end, really sweet. Sure. You mentioned coming off of Delaware's Prada, go to ER for 10 episodes.

36:54there memorably. And then this kind of crazy 2009 professionally, but also at a time that, as you've alluded to earlier, you're dealing with tough things at home with your wife's illness. But in that same period, the child molester and serial killer in Peter Jackson's adaptation of the book, The Lovely Bones. And then right after that, back with Meryl in Julie and Julia. I just want to quote one review of Julie and Julia. This was David Thompson, great critic and author, who said that, described your performance as, quote, one of the loveliest acting jobs yet delivered to film. Not since James Mason stood to one side to get a better view of Judy Garland and her strenuous acting in A Star is Born has a spectator in a picture so effortlessly walked off with the whole shebang.

37:46There is a chemistry between Streep and Tucci enough to require they're making at least one film a year together from now on, close quote. I don't remember that one. It's pretty good, right? Well, you send that to me. Absolutely. No, totally. But, I mean, it's interesting because you couldn't have two more different projects. You've said it was absolute. You hated, is the word you used, doing the Lovely Bones. And I think my sense is that you loved doing Julie and Julia. Can you just compare? I hated doing Lovely Bones because of the character, not because of Peter or anybody like that. I hope that that is clear.

38:21I loved Peter. And I, you know, I had, it was such a wonderful group of people. And we got to go to New Zealand and see New Zealand. And that was pretty exciting. And my wife was sick at the time. She was going through chemo. But in New Zealand, the health care system was incredible. And they were so incredibly generous and helpful, the nurses. And anyway, so doing that was hard. And then, you know, when we were sort of preparing to do Nora's movie when I was in New Zealand doing the other film, I was really happy to do it because I got to be with Meryl. And it was an antidote to The Lovely Bones.

39:01Yeah. It was the complete opposite. And a return to food-centric films after Big Night. After Big Night, yeah. And then, you know, people talk about kind of best of times, worst of times. you're dealing with all this stuff at home and you receive for the first time an Oscar nomination for Lovely Moans. And just, I guess, another, that's quite a milestone in a career. Yeah, it was really, really exciting. I mean, my wife had just died the year before. So I was in L.A. making Burlesque. Oh, yeah. With Cher. Yes. Which was fun. My kids were with me and my parents were with me. because that was the first job that I really took after she had died.

39:46Not EZA? EZA, but that was like three days. I mean, the first job job. Sure, sure, sure. And EZA, that was fun. Oh, God, I wish they'd made another one of those. That was a gas. But for going away for a long period of time, I still didn't want to go away. And so everybody came with me and found out while I was shooting Burlesque that I was nominated. And it was great. It was great. It was really exciting. And then my mom came with me. My dad was there too. It was really exciting. Nice. It seems that in the years immediately after that, I guess maybe this could be projecting, but it seems like you had a lot of fun doing quite a few of these jobs where you pop in for a little while on a big, big project.

40:32So that would include, I believe, your first taste of Marvel with Captain America, the first Avenger, 2011, and then this run of the Hunger Games movies 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 as the creepy TV host on that. But I guess just how did you feel about working on that scale? I don't think you had previously, right, in terms of just the size of a production. Yeah, it made big movies, but movies were changing. You know, so technology of movies was changing. So doing Captain America, doing Captain America was actually one of the best experiences that I've ever had. Wow. I got to work with Chris, who's great, Hayley Atwell, who's become a very close friend of ours, Dominic Cooper, who's so funny you can't even stand it, and he doesn't even know it.

41:24But no. And Joe, you know, who, you know, directed it. And I also got to work with Tommy Lee Jones, and I was beside myself. But the character was so good, so interesting, and the script was superb. And the way Joe shot it, like, it was really a wonderful experience. And that was when I had just met, I had just been to Emily and John's wedding in Italy. I re-met Felicity there. I said well let's have dinner when I get to London and then we did we started dating and then that was it we started dating but doing those movies part of that was you know I was able to go I had directed a play on Broadway so doing that you're not going to make a lot of money but it kept me home and I had always wanted to direct a play it was a wonderful success it was great Tony Shalhoub was in it and Anthony LaPaglia.

42:27There were just some amazing actors. But going in and doing those movies like that, those were ways of me getting these really nice, meaty roles. But I didn't have to be away for a long time. And also, no one was going to, nor will anyone, ever cast me in a big studio movie as the lead. And you just go, again, you go where the work is yeah right so here's this juicy role in Captain America how much money are they going to pay me perfect yeah you know I'm raising three children you know by myself obviously with help you know what I mean and you've got to get in and you've got to get out yeah because you got to be home and you and it probably begets a lot of other work because so many people see them.

43:20Exactly, exactly. And they're fun roles and the same. Now, The Hunger Games came about because I was filming Jack the Giant Slayer. That one did take a long time, but the kids were with me. But Felicia and I were properly seeing each other then. And when Gary sent the script for The Hunger Games, I didn't even, she's a literary agent, my wife, I didn't even finish my question. I said, you know, Gary Ross sent me this script called The Hunger. She goes, do it. And I was like, well, she goes, those books are enormous. It'll be a huge hit. Do it. And I was like, okay. And I loved it. You know what I mean?

43:59I was like, this is like right up my alley. You're having fun there. Oh my God, it was so much fun. I wanted more to do in the other movies and they didn't give me enough. I was fucking furious. At one point I think said you were approaching it as a cross between Wayne Newton and Graham Norton. Now I see it. You see it, right? Yeah, totally. You're just like the guy's out of his mind. And then you have clearly with Captain America with that German accent. You could choose some seed, have some fun there too. Yeah, loved it. Loved it. Now, at the same time, sort of overlappingly with these big ones, you would occasionally go in and crush a smaller part in a really quality indie movie.

44:44So I want to mention a few of them because they're really, they stand out. There's J.C. Chandor's directorial debut, Margin Call, was great. Gorgeous film. Gorgeous, yeah. Then two that I wonder if they were at all personally conflicting or difficult for you to do because I believe you were raised Catholic. And then you're in these two brilliant movies that are tough looks at the church with Spotlight, where you're playing this real guy, the courageous lawyer who takes on the cases of the survivors against the church. Wins Best Picture, not a small thing. And then just more recently, Conclave.

45:26Almost won Best Picture. You guys won the best ensemble set. These are great, great films. but I wonder, is something like that tough? No, not at all. No, I was raised Catholic, but I'm not a believer. I had no problem with that. I think particularly spotlight. Because those cover-ups, well, they've been going on for centuries. Centuries. Millennia. Yeah, that was not a problem at all. I think for people who are devout Catholics, great, but let's not pretend that those things weren't happening. And with Conclave, too, I mean, it's a political thriller, right? The church is politics, as unfortunately we're seeing.

46:12Now, the only thing that would make me go back to the Catholic church is the guy who's up there now. I think he's amazing. The current pope, you mean. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh. He's great. Yeah. Especially with the Chicago accent. I just think it's really funny. Totally. With a Midwest accent. He's the Pope. That's funny. A couple of these other, just I have to at least mention for our listeners to go make sure they add to their watch list of the smaller but really quality movies. A Private War, Matt Hyman's movie, 2018, you and Rosamund Pike. She's playing Marie Colvin, the war correspondent.

46:47You're kind of the lover of her character who's seeing her change. Worth, I think, is underappreciated. I do, too. You and Michael Keaton together. It's a wonderful movie. No relation to Scott Feinberg, but Ken Feinberg, the guy administering the 9-11 victim compensation fund. And then you mentioned Colin Firth, Supernova, I think maybe because of the pandemic or whatever got a little lost. But a gay couple who one of the members of the couple who you're playing has early onset dementia. Yeah. That was an incredible experience. I loved that film. Really good. Yeah, the guy sent it to me. Harry sent it to me.

47:29And I read it, and I thought, my God, it's so beautiful. I don't know that I've ever received a script that was so sort of tight and poignant. And I said, Colin Firth has to play the other guy. And he went, you think? I go, yeah, I'll call him. And so Colin, of course, took forever to decide. But once he did, I don't know if it's interesting, But we started, we did a read-through of it. And then we were like, hmm. And then Colin called me a couple of days. He goes, don't you think we should switch roles? And I was like, yes, I do. Wow, wow. I do. So we did. Last film I'm going to ask you about before we really close here in the homestretch with the wonderful food-related work of the last few years.

48:15Yeah. I don't believe there's any precedent in your career of revisiting a character, certainly not 20 years later, but to do that with the new Devil Wears Prada 2, with the same director, the same key people, was it sort of just putting on an old pair of shoes that still fits, or is there, did you have to, how do you prepare to do that? Yeah, I mean, it really, obviously, it has to do with the script, and you just read it and you go like, and you still know, you're like, no, Nigel wouldn't say that, you know what I mean? Or he's speaking too much there, he can say less, it has to be sharper. Do you know what I mean?

48:49But those were early drafts. And then once we started doing it, you refine it. I'm very much about taking things away, dialogue away. But I thought, yeah, no problem. This will be great. So I get to New York, and it's the day before I'm going to film. And we'd had all the fittings and all the stuff. And I go to bed, and I'm like, oh, no. I don't know how to do that I suddenly panicked I was like do you know how to do this and I was like oh god so then we get to the set and I I can't remember what scene it was and I thought okay and I just said like the first line and I was like oh yeah okay now I know how to do it I suddenly panicked I don't know why and I had read it out loud but suddenly I was like I felt like an imposter And then, well, then it was fine.

49:47Now, over those intervening decades, were you always, people approach you or whatever and talk about things they love that you've done, would you have always assumed throughout that 20-year period that there would be an appetite for, like, it seems like it's going to be huge? Like, does that surprise you at all or you kind of expected it? No, I don't expect anything. After being in show business for 45 years, I expect nothing. Nothing.

50:21yeah I don't I thought all I knew is that I loved the first movie even if I'm flipping through channels I'll stop and watch it do you know what I mean although it's always hard to watch yourself that could have been better but I think it's become this classic film and there had been rumblings like are we going to make another one and remember years ago people going and they were like, well, and it was obvious, like if Meryl doesn't do it, nobody's doing it, right? So they're not going to just come to us and go, hey, you three. The spinoff. I mean, yeah, I mean everyone's, you know, Emily and Annie are like huge movie stars and everything, but it's not, it can't do it.

51:04So when it was all about to happen, you know, you read the script, you go like, yeah, okay, great, and then it happened. But I didn't think it was really ever going to happen. And all I can say is I'm thrilled. Awesome. Well, we mentioned going through this chronology that along the way you had this very tough period with your wife's illness. What we did not talk about is that back in 2017 you had your own really difficult bout with oral cancer. So cancer as well. And what I wonder if you can talk about is just – I don't know that I, and therefore I don't think many people knew how horrific this was for you this period that I've just learned a bit more about recently.

51:52And I wonder if you can just describe the effect that it had on you physically and also that how you wound up in a sense. I mean, this to me seems like the last thing that a lot of people might have wanted to do during that kind of a period. But you're watching that. You started watching cooking or food-related programming. Yeah. The show that I did first on CNN and now, which they canceled. Yes. For some unknown reason. Even though we'd won. Three in a row. And it was heralded by, it was the weirdest. That's searching for Italy. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about show business.

52:29Yeah, yeah. Don't expect anything. Insane. Yeah. Hope for the best, expect the worst. Yeah, yeah. That was an idea that I had about, now it's almost 20 years ago, which was to break down each region in Italy and talk about that region through the food because nobody had ever done that before. And I had talked to a couple people about it, and no one was interested. CNN came to me and said, would you be interested in doing a show for us? And I was like, I don't know, I guess. So I had three ideas. One was refugees and food, which is something I'd still like to do. Yeah. The other was cancer because I had just, I had only finished my cancer treatments like a year before.

53:21And I wanted to look at standard of care and alternative medicine together and follow like five people or something. And then they went, they sort of looked at me like horrified. And then with both of those, then I said, well, I've always wanted to create a show where you break down Italy. And they went, you saw, I was on one of those big Zoom calls with a huge screen. There was this pause and these huge smiles came on their face. They said, OK, we'll do that. It was like literally happened like that. But prior to that, so a year or so before, I had been in a lot of pain for like two years, and I was misdiagnosed many times.

54:11Finally, I got a proper diagnosis, and I had a tumor at the base of my tongue. And luckily, I was really lucky because it hadn't metastasized. Now, my wife, when she was diagnosed, she was diagnosed at stage 4. If you're diagnosed, and the primary cancer being breast cancer, if you're diagnosed in stage four breast cancer, forget it, right? Better today, but 15, 16 years ago, no. So my wife insisted that I do standard of care. I didn't want to do standard of care, which I wouldn't be here today if I hadn't. That means like radiation? Yeah, I did. So we found a doctor in New York. She found a doctor, and I did all the treatments at Mount Sinai in New York.

55:02And they were incredible. And my oncologist is still, is now a friend. That's great. And I really admire him. He's making huge progress. And I had also been on the board of a company in Boston. and I still am, working with standard of care, but creating alternative medicines that are working with standard of care to help a lot of people with cancer. And now these guys are making huge, huge inroads into like, you know, glioblastomas and pancreatic cancer and blood cancer. I mean, it's like kind of amazing. So, and some of it just as a monotherapy, even without standard of care. And the FDA is being very supportive of it, which is great.

55:50So it was a really scary, scary time. I'm glad I did it. I still am quite different because of the treatments. I have a lot of scar tissue. I can't really eat. It takes me like half an hour to eat a sandwich. I mean, I can't dig into a big piece of steak. Everything has to be, everything is kind of softish. and has to have some sort of moisture to it. I had a shrimp cocktail before I came over here. Nice. To get through one piece of shrimp sometimes is just like, yeah. So, but you just do it because, well, you love food. And, you know, my taste buds disappeared and were completely destroyed. The sense of smell, everything.

56:41I had a feeding tube. I couldn't eat solid food for like six months. I had a feeding tube right here. In my gut, I lost 30 pounds, could barely walk. You know, you're on morphine for a while because the pain in your mouth is so excruciating. It's horrible. But I have recovered very well. But I also started shooting the show for CNN. Like, I don't know, I was like a year and a half out of treatment maybe. And I couldn't even eat half the stuff I was eating. That's what I want to underline here is that you're the person that's kind of verbalizing and illustrating for everyone else all this wonderful, the wonderful charms of food at a time when you yourself could barely consume it.

57:34Yeah. The pastas were easy. Risotto can sometimes be hard. Steak, that's really hard. I can't have any spice even to this day, the slightest, slightest amount. But then forget it. I mean, if you look at the first episodes, I also look very different. My face is different. I had to have teeth fixed, you know, because it all, it damages you. But in the end, what happened was, so the taste buds, everything disappears, right? Yeah. What happened was, not only did the taste buds come back and sense of smell, the olfactory sense, they're heightened now, like a super taster. Yeah. I can taste everything more than ever.

58:21That's amazing. I can smell. If you open a bottle of wine and it's over there, I'll go, that's mine's no good. And I saw that you said that like your allergies have gone away. Yeah, this was interesting too because your body resets, I guess, is what I've been told. Because you're not intaking anything. You're not drinking any alcohol, right? I never could really eat dairy very well. And you're just taking in the minimal amount of calories and slowly, slowly then adding to your diet. But then I could eat dairy. I could eat. It was weird. And then now it started to go back again. Oh, really? So now it's going back again.

59:07So now my stomach's like, no, that was just for a while. Well, it was two seasons, but the second season split in two, which made it possible for you to win three Emmys in a row, which is incredible for each season of the show, which then, by the way, a review there from The Guardian, quote, this is the sort of show he was made to host, close quote. Again, three Emmys, all this stuff. And then I guess as just part of a CNN getting out of the business of nonfiction sort of programming. Yeah, it was the fellow who came in. Yes. And just obliterated everything. Yeah, yeah. And then he left. Yes. And then they reinstated everything.

59:45You're like, that's a terrible waste of money and jobs and awful. Was it upsetting to you, though? Or were you, you know, having, you seemed to, you enjoyed those years that you were doing the show? Yeah, they were hard. It's hard. It's not, I mean, we make it look like, isn't this fun? But it's a lot of work, you know. And I'm very specific about what I want and what I want it to look like, what I want it to. And now with these, now I just direct them. It's easier. Even though before we, you know, Tucci in Italy started last year. Now it's season two about to drop. But in between, during COVID, you had your, you became a phenomenon, a viral phenomenon with the lockdown cocktails.

1:00:31Yes. Which not only themselves were great, but now there's these hilarious, I think you've met Matt Friend who does these great impressions. Yes, I've seen, yes. But, I mean, those took off. You wrote a memoir, a food diary, what I ate in one year in this period, sort of in the first. Oh, yeah, I wrote Taste during the first part of COVID. I don't remember. So a couple of these books. I wrote a couple. Yeah, I can't remember. And then just how did this come about that, you know, CNN dropped the ball, but a different show, but another kind of thematically similar show here, one that's now more about how the region and the food, I think, shape each other, right?

1:01:15Like the – of different parts of Italy, five regions each of the two seasons. Yeah. Seems like a lot of the same crew, same seminar. Oh, it's all the same. Yeah? Yeah. But just how did it come about? Well, so CNN dumps us, and then we're like, oh, no. And then there was one company that was very interested in it, which I would have happily gone with. But the problem was the people at CNN would not allow us to keep the name, and they would not allow us to have the back catalog. so nobody wanted it because they're like, well, it's successful. If you're not going to keep the name and we can't have the other episodes, why would we want it?

1:02:06And so finally, luckily, Nat Geo said, okay, we'll do it. And we had to change the name and we have no access to those other episodes. I mean, they're still out there. People can watch them but it'd be nice to have them sort of paired. And then we teamed up with a different production company, BBC Studios. And now this time we did 10. Yeah. And if I'm going to do more, but I won't. When you say 10, 5, 5 and 5. 5 and 5. But we did them all in one. Oh, you did? Yeah. Not back to back because you couldn't. Right. It's impossible. Too much travel. No, you'd be dead. Well fed, but dead. I was saying, I don't know how you're not like a blimp.

1:02:48No, you got to wake up and just work out in the morning and then you're fine. You know, we did the 10 and then they wanted to release them, you know, five, which is great. I love that. And so if we do do it again, it'll be a different country, but I'm not telling you what's happening. But that itself is interesting because I was curious, like, was it, is your interest in food limited to Italy or it's everywhere? No, my interest in food is everywhere. But I will only, I'll only do it if I feel connected. to the place. Otherwise, it's just some guy wandering around who doesn't speak the language and who really doesn't know the food.

1:03:28And I'm not... It can be good depending on who it is, but that's not me. I've seen where you said, quote, I have not traveled extensively in Asia or been to South America or Africa, so my knowledge is only of Europe for the most part, close quote. So you're saying it definitely will continue beyond Italy or if it does continue beyond Italy, it would be somewhere else. I mean, if it does continue at all, it would be beyond Italy. Yeah. And there are other shapes that I kind of want the show to take. So there might be some episodes that I'd create that would be very different. It won't be necessarily geographically based.

1:04:06Oh, interesting. Yeah. And it's also, I mean, people might assume if they haven't yet seen Tucci in Italy that it's the same as searching for Italy, but by a different name. But of course, this is much more, it seems like, about the people and the culture and the history than that was. And then the other thing, your cinematographer said, quote, one of the things Stanley and I discussed was to not shoot anything too tight. We rarely used anything tighter than a 50 millimeter lens. We never wanted the viewer to feel that Stanley was disconnected from the person he was talking to or from what they were discussing, close quote.

1:04:42So I guess, you know, we're seeing not just even with the other person talking about food, but these are the historical context. You're going skiing and fishing and riding. I'm trying to think back to the first season. It was the, what do you call those ancient, the horse corralling steak or corralling cows to make the steak, whatever. Oh, the buttery. The buttery. Yes. The buttery. But it seems like, does that interest you? the cultural context is as interesting. There's no question. That was in the first series that was there. But we have a slightly more latitude now with Nat Geo. And we're not doing as...

1:05:25We're able to... CNN was very strict about... It's very hard, like the format of a 42-minute thing, right? Because you have the commercials and you're like... So you're trying to tell this huge story. Even if it's about just a woman making this pasta, you're trying to tell this big story in six minutes, between six and eight minutes. That's really, really hard. When you've probably spent days with her, right? Yeah. Well, no, not necessarily, but there's been a huge amount of research that's gone into it. So you're also, that's one of the reasons why television shows are shot and edited the way they are, right?

1:06:01Because you need to have all the coverage because you've got to chop that thing down and you just need to have your options. I do my best to have the coverage I need, but I also think more in terms of cinema in the sense that I want, and I was very specific with Matt and the crew, that I always want a three shot of that person, me, and that food on the table. and I can always cut to that. And then I have the negative space, which creates, then we see the whole environment. If I just have a shot of the food and a shot of you and a shot of me and boom, boom, boom, it's doing this thing. It's completely disconnected.

1:06:49Nobody cares. Nobody cares. What I want to see is that connection between people and that connection happens in the negative space. But also, I want to see you eat it and I want to see people eat together. It's not food porn. That's different. Do you know what I mean? This is about interaction. And the food is a character. But the thing that makes the whole play is the three people or four people or whatever it is and that food. Well, and what really makes it is that you could have you could put anybody as the host, but if the host is not doesn't seem to be genuinely interested, enthusiastic, knowledgeable you're speaking to them in their own language you're you're willing to try anything you're totally engaged charming i mean it's really it would not it couldn't just because i'm genuinely interested if i'm not genuinely you can tell when somebody's like well they don't really know anything about food right you know what i mean it's like i wouldn't it'd be like me hosting like a show about mechanics.

1:07:59Do you know what I mean? Like fixing cars. Like I don't, I, what? Are you also saying, hey, this is the region we should focus on or I? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we're all, yeah, yeah. It's a huge amount of prep. Yeah. I mean, you have to have researchers and you have to do this and then I'll say, oh, I went to this restaurant once and I really want to do this story because of this. Or we had the story in Milan in one of the episodes where there was a gay couple. Yes. And they had adopted, had a child with a surrogate in America. And I really wanted to do that story because Italian laws now are so strict.

1:08:36And that child is not recognized by the government as an Italian citizen. And if one of those, only one of them can be the legal parent, and if one of them dies, the kid becomes a ward of the state. Now, does that make any sense for a country that is so obsessed with family? and obsessed with their very low birth rate. Does that make any sense to you? I think it's great that you... It's crazy. So those are the stories. And then we have all these wonderful researchers going, hey, there's a guy this, oh, there's this person. And then you have to break it down and go like, okay, wait a minute, we have three pork stories in a row.

1:09:15We can't have three pork stories, that's gross. Do you know what I mean? Or what was the fourth stomach or whatever? The fourth stomach of the cow. What's it called again? Buddha Lampidesque no no Lampadotto now that was delicious now are you ever faking it are you is there anything that you eat I can't answer that question under the grounds that it'll incriminate no that and I'm not lying about that that was delicious I was kind of grossed out by it yeah yeah when we were going to do the story I was like I've heard about this I've never tried it I lived in Florence when I was a kid I've never tried it alright I'm going to do it And I was like, because awful doesn't bother me.

1:09:55But for some reason, this thing, I really had a thing about it. And then I saw it and I was like, oh, fuck that. That is disgusting. And then I was like, okay. I tasted it. It was so sweet and so delicious. Like I couldn't stop eating it. I mean. It's crazy. You're adventurous. I guess. Last minute here, if it's okay. I just want to ask you. I mean, do you, is it at all a concern? like when you go to a small food establishment in a remote place and highlight it, unintentionally of course, but like this place could get overrun with people who want to, and in some ways change the thing that makes it special.

1:10:36Yeah, that has happened. It has happened. Yeah. I guess what can you do? And some, I mean, there are a lot of restaurants now that I'll go back to and they won't let me pay. They're like, you changed our lives. it's not like they were hurting but now they're like they can't and half the restaurant is there because of our show and it's weird there's only one well there are some people who have made complaints that oh I ruined their special restaurant because of blah blah blah and you know it's just somebody who's annoying you're like how about you think about the restaurateur who has worked so hard to set up that restaurant and that now they're really doing really well.

1:11:21How about that? But there was one guy, a really nice guy, this incredible restaurant that I love to go back to. And I go, can I get a reservation? He goes, yeah, no problem. He goes, just so you know, we have 1 ,000 requests a day, 1 ,500 even. I was like, you do? Oh, that's wonderful. He goes, no, it's not. He goes, it's a nightmare, and it's because of you. You should be getting a commission. He was really angry. Oh, my God. Okay, rapid fire just here, almost done. There are now people who, after, as you say, four-plus decades as a public figure, who now know you, some people who now know you primarily, maybe even exclusively for non-acting where you're playing yourself.

1:12:10Does it change the way, the sort of interactions you have out in the street or whatever? Absolutely. I mean, people are very comfortable. Let's say that coming up to you. Yeah, a little too. Yeah, sometimes a little too comfortable. Yeah. Last one. If you ever, you know, really committed a heinous crime and wound up, you know, having to determine your last meal. Oh. What would be Stanley Tucci's, the thing that you would most crave as a way to go out? Probably, I think, my mother's lasagna bolognese. Not timpano? Not timpano. It's too heavy. Too heavy. You know. Well, thank you so much for this.

1:12:49It's been terrific and great to speak with you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks. It was really fun. Thanks.

1:13:02Thanks for listening to Awards Chatter. We really appreciate it and would really appreciate you taking just a minute more to subscribe to the podcast and to leave us a rating and review on your podcast app. And to follow us on Twitter and Instagram, where our handle is at Awards Chatter. On those platforms, we announce upcoming guests and provide details about special live recordings of the podcast that you can attend. Until next time, thanks again for tuning in.

1:13:30Stanley Tucci:Good energy in. Good energy out.

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