Italy remains Stanley Tucci‘s first love. But a man can travel, right? After winning three Emmys for CNN’s “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” followed by two nominations (including this year) for Nat Geo’s “Tucci in Italy,” the star is on the move. Tucci tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast that he’s currently filming his new season in the United Kingdom, where he lives full time.
“I wanted to do the U.K. because I just feel like there’s so much here,” he says. “I’ve been here for almost 15 years now, and London was just voted the best food destination in the world. But I’m not just talking about fancy restaurants and all that. I’m talking about the U.K. as a whole. I think that the produce that’s here — the seafood that’s here, the meat that’s here, the devoted people like these fishermen or lobstermen, or a guy who raises pigs that will be like the best pork you’ll ever eat — that kind of stuff is amazing. And then, really amazing chefs that are devoted to farm to table or farm to fork, I guess is the new expression.”
Having now done travel shows for a while, Tucci says he considers it “a great honor to meet so many of these people, because they’re just extraordinary. Their devotion to what they do. Amazing chefs and home cooks alike, farmers, cheese makers. I mean, their whole life is invested into this one thing. This singular focus is really so impressive to me.”
Tucci is once again nominated as executive producer and host of “Tucci in Italy,” nominated for outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special. He talks to the Awards Circuit Podcast about what it was like to become a host, the skills he has developed in interviewing everyday people, and whether he’s OK with us calling him “The Tooch.” He also takes our 10 Questions quiz, and looks back at his first time in the pages of Variety.
But first, on the Roundtable, Gold Derby editor-in-chief Debra Birnbaum joins us to give her takes on the Emmy race, including how “Widow’s Bay” has become the comedy front-runner. Listen below!
“Tucci in Italy” comes at an interesting time for Tucci, who remains busy in front of the camera as well — including this year’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” “I’m really happy about having a lot to do, and yet at the same time, at the age of almost 66, I think, ‘how long can I do this?’” he says. “There’s a part of me that wants to spend more time at home, and so I’m trying to orchestrate things so that I can do that without compromising my career. Because there are still things I want to do, stories I want to tell, movies I want to make, plays I want to direct. It’s finding that correct balance.”
Hosting a travel show didn’t seem like part of the plan, but Tucci notes that he first came up with the idea of traveling through Italy and breaking it down by region about 20 years ago.
“I’d never seen a show like that,” he says. “I brought it up to a few people, and everyone looked at me like I was crazy. And then six or seven years ago, CNN came to me and said, ‘Do you have any ideas for a show?’ And I did. I had two other ideas: One was about refugees and food, and the other was about cancer, finding a balance between standard of care and alternative treatments. No one seemed very keen on either of those. So, and then I said, ‘Oh, I want to go through Italy and break it down region by region.’ And they went, ‘OK!’”
So here’s the big question: What’s the most underrated region of Italy that we should check out? “I think Le Marche is a really beautiful region, which is right next to Tuscany. I shouldn’t even be saying this because I know that people will go to it. But it’s a really beautiful region, and it’s not packed with a huge number of tourists. The seaside is really pretty. The food is absolutely wonderful, and it’s not crazy expensive. But it’s gorgeous.”
As for hosting, Tucci says there was a learning curve at first. “I was very nervous when I first did it. I thought, ‘What am I doing? I don’t know how to do this.’ I know how to memorize lines, or I know how to improvise, but with an actor, not with a normal person. But now I’m much better at it, and I feel more comfortable.”
The secret, he says, is to listen. “If you’re not listening in the scene and responding truthfully, it’s not going to work,” he says.
For Tucci’s first time in Variety, it was Oct. 6, 1982, in a review of Broadway’s “The Queen and the Rebels.” Tucci was listed as one of the travelers/soldiers, alongside his pal Campbell Scott.
“I had just graduated from college,” he says. “I felt very lucky. I grew up with Campbell, and his mom was doing the play, and she cast us. He had one more year of university to do, I think. We were doing the play in the summer, so it was amazing for me. I understudied a role, and we were cast as extras for all practical purposes, and it was great because it got me my equity card and health insurance. That made a big difference. I was paid $550 a week, and I was in heaven. I thought this is the greatest thing ever. I got an agent, so I had all those things right out of college, SUNY Purchase. That’s a huge thing for an actor starting their career.”
10 QUESTIONS WITH STANLEY TUCCI:
1. Childhood nickname: “Tooch.”
2. Something you loved as a kid but can’t believe you were into it now: “Velveeta.”
3. Go-to karaoke or sing-in-the-shower song: “You don’t want to hear me sing. If you’ll notice in those reviews you spoke of, there’s not a single musical in them, and in a 40-45 year long career, and there’s not a musical. But I sing in the shower, thinking I’m brilliant. Something like ‘Our Love is Here to Stay,’ which is a song that I always sang to my kids when they go to sleep.”
4. Give me an alternate title for your show: “Oh God, you don’t know how long it took us to come up with the simplest title in the book. ‘Tucci Eats Italy’? Just bad.”
5. What’s your secret talent?: “I would say drawing and painting.”
6. Favorite ice cream flavor: “I don’t really eat ice cream. If I had to say, it would be chocolate. It’s so boring. I’m so sorry.”
7. The one item you couldn’t live without: “A knife that I have. That sounds scary, doesn’t it? But no, it’s a chef’s knife.”
8. What TV show in all of history do you wish you were a cast member of?: “Wild Wild West.”
9. Fictional character you most admire: “I really loved doing ‘Captain America.’ I did it like 15,16, years ago, and it was one of the best work experiences I’ve ever had. And I absolutely loved playing that role, even though when I was sent the script, it said, ‘German scientist in his 70s,’ and I was 50. I was like, ‘Oh man, come on!’ But it was so well written, and I just loved it. I just watched it again with my kids the other day.”
10. Your favorite piece of advice: “My acting teacher George Morrison, who passed away a number of years ago, said, ‘go beyond what’s comfortable.’ And the second one is that ‘the undoing of something is as important as the doing of it.’ That was from my father who told me that. And Alberto Giacometti.”
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.