Riding
a Rising Tide:
Q
& A with Actor Stanley Tucci
by
Susan Krawitz
Stanley
Tucci may be one of the most ubiquitous faces on screens large and
small, but in the leafy green reaches of upper Westchester, he’s
just another Hudson Valley local. It could be out of respect for
his privacy or because of his ability to blend in, but he seems
to get no special attention in the town of Katonah, where we’ve
agreed to meet for this interview. But then a woman comes to an
abrupt stop on the sidewalk in front of him. “Mr. Tucci, right?”
she says. “I watched Shall We Dance last night and you were
marvelous!”
Tucci
grew up in this town and went to college down the road at SUNY Purchase.
After a sojourn in the city, he returned to raise three children
with his wife Kate. Hometown connections were instrumental to the
start of his acting career; in 1982, high school buddy Campbell
Scott’s mother, actress Colleen Dewhurst, helped him get a
role in a Broadway play she was starring in, and the rest, as they
say, is history.
His
career has taken him into nearly every cranny of the acting world:
he’s done voices in animated movies and performed in television,
film and on the Broadway stage. He has also directed, produced and
written films, and he’s done it quite well, most notably with
Big Night, a beautifully nuanced and critically acclaimed movie
about two Italian immigrant brothers that he produced, starred in,
co-directed, and co-wrote (with cousin Joseph Tropiano, another
Katonah resident).
The
roles he takes on are sometimes leads, but more frequently he’s
a story pillar, providing crucial load-bearing support to the entire
narrative edifice. Whether he’s giving voice to a cartoon
or portraying a TV surgeon, Tucci seems to give each role 100 percent
of his trademark intensity. And his reach is wide as well as deep;
from Nigel, the razor-tongued fashion editor in The Devil Wears
Prada...CONTINUE...
|
