Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Stanley Tucci is one of the most beloved actors and
Speaker 1: directors working today. He has a great reputation both as
Speaker 1: an artist and as a deeply decent guy. We've worked
Speaker 1: together twice, and that reputation is well deserved. Even over
Speaker 1: a zoom after a decade, it's my pleasure to have
Speaker 1: time with him again. Motherfucker. Now let me just say.
Speaker 1: Let me just say that, of course, one of the
Speaker 1: fun bonuses of zooming. As you can see the room
Speaker 1: they're in. The room you're in right now looks like
Speaker 1: those scenes in a thriller when they go to the
Speaker 1: killer's house. There's like a lot of sketches on the wall.
Speaker 1: Where are you? What room are you in? Now? This
Speaker 1: is my room, and my family doesn't let me have
Speaker 1: another room, So this is my room and it's where
Speaker 1: I prepare you know, two people. Tucci's the first to
Speaker 1: say he's sometimes been typecast as an ethnic heavy the
Speaker 1: ambiguously Arab assassin in The Pelican Brief, for example, but
Speaker 1: he's done plenty of roles worthy of his immense talent.
Speaker 1: From Puck and Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream to
Speaker 1: fashion editor Nigel Kipling in the Devil Wears product, not
Speaker 1: to mention his cult classic directorial debut, Big Night steeped
Speaker 1: in his love for Italian cooking. After becoming a widower
Speaker 1: with two school aged children in two thousand nine, Tucci
Speaker 1: fell in love with an English literary agent, and the
Speaker 1: two married a few years later. The couple and their
Speaker 1: new kids now live in London, which is where I
Speaker 1: found my old friend for this conversation. I always wanted
Speaker 1: to live in Europe because I lived in Italy when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, you know, for a year when
Speaker 1: I was twelve, and it completely changed everything, Like it
Speaker 1: totally changed the way I saw the world and everything,
Speaker 1: and and I always wanted to go back and live here.
Speaker 1: And and Kate, my my late wife, she and I
Speaker 1: always talked about maybe we would go live in France,
Speaker 1: or maybe we go live in Italy or something. And
Speaker 1: then obviously that didn't happen. But when I met Felicity,
Speaker 1: we did. And I'll tell you it's like the place
Speaker 1: I was supposed to be, but I didn't know it.
Speaker 1: There was a slight intimidation of you know that sort
Speaker 1: of upper crusty British e stuff. But once you're once
Speaker 1: you're here for a bit, it's it's fine. It's incredibly comfortable.
Speaker 1: I know why you would feel comfortable here when I
Speaker 1: would shoot there. I shot a couple of things there,
Speaker 1: and I would shoot there. I would say, even a
Speaker 1: taxi driver has a grasp and a kind of facility
Speaker 1: with the English language. That's like a college professor back here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's an understanding the language, no matter what social status,
Speaker 1: somebody is right. But also there is a profound sense
Speaker 1: of irony here that unfortunately America is great lacking in.
Speaker 1: And and that's simply because it's an incredibly old country
Speaker 1: and we're not. When you met Felicity, how long were
Speaker 1: you together when you made the decision to move over there.
Speaker 1: We were together for a couple of years because she
Speaker 1: came and lived with us. She came and lived with
Speaker 1: me and the kids for two days city. No, No,
Speaker 1: we were up in Westchester. Yeah, we're in west That's
Speaker 1: where I was living and had a house there and um,
Speaker 1: and then we rented an apartment in the city for
Speaker 1: I don't know, like a year or something, just because
Speaker 1: she worked so much in the city. It was easier
Speaker 1: for her, um, but it was it was great, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's a really hard role. I mean, I I
Speaker 1: you know, having been a step parent, I mean, and
Speaker 1: then for her to be a step parent at that
Speaker 1: young age with three kids was you know, it was
Speaker 1: really tough. I mean they're now, they're the twins of
Speaker 1: twenty Camiliz a team and then we have two little ones.
Speaker 1: So who pitched the idea of moving to the u K?
Speaker 1: You or her? She did? She did. She was like, look,
Speaker 1: you know, I have a full time job. You know,
Speaker 1: you sometimes have a job. How about we go there.
Speaker 1: I was nervous about the kids, although the kids had
Speaker 1: spent a fair amount of time here already, and I
Speaker 1: was nervous about leaving my parents because I was very
Speaker 1: close to my parents. There's still a lot, a lot.
Speaker 1: My father just turned ninety and my mother just turned
Speaker 1: in December. I love it. Where is she? My mom
Speaker 1: and my sister and then eventually my other sister. When
Speaker 1: my dad died in three my dad was only fifty
Speaker 1: five when he died. Oh my god. And when he
Speaker 1: died very young, my mother took a couple of years
Speaker 1: to divest of her Long Island home and so forth,
Speaker 1: and she and my sister, and then I mentioned my
Speaker 1: other sister and their families. They moved to Syracuse, where
Speaker 1: my mother was from, right near her siblings who have
Speaker 1: all since then, all of them have passed away. If
Speaker 1: you told me that my mother would outlive my father
Speaker 1: and all her blinks, I would have been a million
Speaker 1: dollars against that. You know, But my mother is not
Speaker 1: a health nut, you know what I mean. She she
Speaker 1: drank diet coke every day. She drank tab every day.
Speaker 1: You know, she was not a health nut. But when
Speaker 1: you decide to go there, are you calculating the work thing?
Speaker 1: You're thinking, how am I going to work from here?
Speaker 1: Or do you just dive? No? No, I was nervous. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no question. I was nervous. But I knew that
Speaker 1: I had worked here before I saw that production. Now
Speaker 1: this is seven years ago. Now there was a lot
Speaker 1: being shot here. I had done Captain America here, and
Speaker 1: I talked to the director and the producers about it,
Speaker 1: and they were like, everything is moving here because the
Speaker 1: tax breaks are so huge, the union structure is different,
Speaker 1: and basically by shooting this movie, it was tens of
Speaker 1: millions of dollars that they saved on that movie alone
Speaker 1: shooting it here. And then, of course Atlanta change things
Speaker 1: because you know, a lot of stuff is done in
Speaker 1: Atlanta now, but still so much stuff. And at first
Speaker 1: was a little slow going, but honestly, after a few months,
Speaker 1: six months, it was not a problem at all. What
Speaker 1: was the union particulars meaning? And and for you you
Speaker 1: became a British citizen as well because you married her. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not a British citizen. I might. I have permanent
Speaker 1: leave to remain or whatever they call it, so I'm
Speaker 1: a permanent resident. Had to take a test a little
Speaker 1: while ago and proved that I knew enough about British history,
Speaker 1: you know, which you know, yes, yeah, which I knew
Speaker 1: nothing about, not really, but you know. And then but
Speaker 1: the kids have that too, which is great for me.
Speaker 1: It's wonderful because I was a lot of the stuff
Speaker 1: I was doing anyway, was shooting either here or in
Speaker 1: Europe or wherever, you know, because we don't make movies
Speaker 1: in l A anymore, which is really I always told people,
Speaker 1: you do a movie on a on a set in
Speaker 1: New York, the prop guy would come to you and
Speaker 1: he'd say, I want to pick out a watch with
Speaker 1: you for your character, and he'd open up a box.
Speaker 1: He had like forty watches. When you went to l A,
Speaker 1: they say the propram, I want you to look at
Speaker 1: a watch, and he brings like nine cases with five
Speaker 1: hundred watches. In l A. Everything is just more more
Speaker 1: because that's what it is. That's what it is. It's
Speaker 1: nothing but that. The last time I worked there was
Speaker 1: when I did the thing with them with Susan Surrandon
Speaker 1: and Jessica Lang about Betty Davis and Jones that I
Speaker 1: loved that so much fun Do you know that I
Speaker 1: called each one of them. I called Jessica who I know,
Speaker 1: and Susan, I mean Susan Surrandon. I literally got her
Speaker 1: on the phone and she kind of had this tone
Speaker 1: like how can I help you, Like like I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just completely puzzled as to why you're call me me.
Speaker 1: Then I said, I'm calling you to tell you how
Speaker 1: fabulous you were. I mean, no one could have pulled
Speaker 1: it was impossible to pull that off. I loved that show.
Speaker 1: They're great performances and they're both funny, and Susan I
Speaker 1: knew I had made a lot of movies with Susan.
Speaker 1: I had directed her in a movie, and but I
Speaker 1: never met Jessica, and we really had one sort of
Speaker 1: major scene together. It's just fucking amazing, amazing. You go there,
Speaker 1: you're a permanent resident. And I'm imagining in terms of
Speaker 1: the acting thing in the union thing, does that become
Speaker 1: an issue as well? No, No, the union thing, as
Speaker 1: far as SAG and all that, that's fine. What I
Speaker 1: meant unions. What I meant is that the crew unions
Speaker 1: and the driver unions and things like that are very
Speaker 1: different here. And what they what they like here, as
Speaker 1: you know, because you've shot here a lot, is that
Speaker 1: they In America, it's very hard to shoot. And I'm
Speaker 1: a big believer in unions. But America, you know, if
Speaker 1: you try to do a continuous day, which is basically like,
Speaker 1: you know, a ten hour day where you're not taking
Speaker 1: a lunch break, you're you know, you're just you're in.
Speaker 1: You start shooting at eight and you're and you're out
Speaker 1: at six. Okay, so you're in at six thirty, in
Speaker 1: makeup at seven o'clock whatever. In America, you can't do that.
Speaker 1: You can't do it. You can only do it if
Speaker 1: it's location dependent or like dependent. Here, if they go, oh,
Speaker 1: we're doing a lunch break today. If you go to
Speaker 1: the pudish, you go, why are we taking a lunch break.
Speaker 1: We're shooting inside, we're shooting in the studio. Why are
Speaker 1: we doing that. Let's do it. Let's do a continuous day.
Speaker 1: He goes, yeah, all right, The crew goes, yeah, let's
Speaker 1: do that. We're done at six o'clock. We get to
Speaker 1: go home and be with our families. And it's a
Speaker 1: completely different People say, like work ethic. It's not really
Speaker 1: an ethic, it's simply logic. I mean, the crews are incredible,
Speaker 1: the drivers are incredible, but they're not interested in being
Speaker 1: there for fifteen sixteen hours a day. I mean in America,
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it. I couldn't do continuous days. I tried.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't let me. Um, but I still would finish
Speaker 1: at six o'clock because how long do you really want
Speaker 1: to be on a movie set. I mean, let's face it,
Speaker 1: you know, it gets tedious and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: fasting about that goes on, when really we don't need
Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff. Let's just get to it.
Speaker 1: Unless you're doing an action sequence or something quite complex.
Speaker 1: It's not that complicated. And I did like a day,
Speaker 1: maybe two. I don't remember it. So long ago when
Speaker 1: Peccino did Richard the Third and the documentary that he
Speaker 1: made about it was looking for Richard, and the first
Speaker 1: day we shot, we did this scene that Paccino gathered
Speaker 1: all the cast and crew around. He said, I want
Speaker 1: to ask you all one favor, and everyone leaned in,
Speaker 1: like what is it? And Peccino said, don't tell anyone
Speaker 1: how fast we worked here. They don't tell anybody how
Speaker 1: quickly we did this. Then they'll then they'll make us
Speaker 1: all work at the space. I have been on sets
Speaker 1: where we were really you have an efficient director is
Speaker 1: really good in America. And they finish what you're done
Speaker 1: like four and they're like, let's get out of here,
Speaker 1: and they go, no, we can't leave, and you're like why.
Speaker 1: They're like, well, the studio actually needs you to stay.
Speaker 1: They need to They need the crew to stay, so
Speaker 1: you need to stay, or if you want to go,
Speaker 1: it's fine, but the crew has to stay because otherwise
Speaker 1: it looks like you're not getting the job done. You're like,
Speaker 1: the job's done. That was Lament's reputation. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: admire that. One thing I feel in the time that
Speaker 1: I've fantasized about even moving there for like a year
Speaker 1: or two. That's my dream, like just a camp out
Speaker 1: there for like a year or two. The mountain i'd
Speaker 1: want to at least try to climb would be the theater.
Speaker 1: Have you done theater over there? No? Because I have
Speaker 1: little kids, I think what I would prefer to do
Speaker 1: is direct again in the theater and not go on
Speaker 1: stage again. Every now and again I get a yearning,
Speaker 1: but then I think, you know, I don't get to
Speaker 1: see my kids. You don't put them to sleep, you
Speaker 1: don't have breakfast with them in the morning, because you're, like,
Speaker 1: you know, completely out of it. The one thing about
Speaker 1: it is that you can do shorter runs here in
Speaker 1: a substantial theater. You can go to the old VIC
Speaker 1: and do a short run. And that's pretty cool. And
Speaker 1: where are the older kids. They're here, they're here, Well,
Speaker 1: they go to un there, two of them go to
Speaker 1: The twins go to university here. And because we all
Speaker 1: moved over, the twins were only thirteen and Camilla was eleven.
Speaker 1: For listening, and I had Matteo in the first house,
Speaker 1: and then now we have our second house, which is bigger,
Speaker 1: thank god. So you have you have Felicity have one, No,
Speaker 1: we have two, Matteo and Amelia who's she just turned
Speaker 1: two and he's five, and then the twins of twenty
Speaker 1: and Camilla is eighteen. So you have five children, yes, right,
Speaker 1: And I have five children, including my older daughter Ireland,
Speaker 1: who lives in Los Angeles. So it is weird to
Speaker 1: have kids and think about. You know, my dear friend
Speaker 1: who's ten years older than me and had a ten
Speaker 1: year old he said, don't worry, it's great. Besides, by
Speaker 1: the time they're saying things that really bother you, you'll
Speaker 1: be deaf anyway, So it doesn't even well, it's so
Speaker 1: true I think about. I mean, I think I can
Speaker 1: hear them now screaming in the house, screaming. I think
Speaker 1: it's screaming or singing. I don't know which. Who knows.
Speaker 1: Literally the older I get a loud noises to make
Speaker 1: me very jumpy, like if you hear a crash or
Speaker 1: or a loud everything that goes along with having children.
Speaker 1: So if I if I come and very quietly and
Speaker 1: very patiently, I try to lay down the law with
Speaker 1: my kids. They look at me and then they go, mom,
Speaker 1: and yeah, because I know what you mean. I mean,
Speaker 1: I suddenly I'm gonna turn sixty in November, and I
Speaker 1: suddenly feel like I'm doing things and I'm saying things
Speaker 1: that I always watched old people do and say, and
Speaker 1: how is that possible? Like, how is it possible that
Speaker 1: that just came out of my mouth? How is it
Speaker 1: possible that I went how is it possible that hair
Speaker 1: is growing out of places where it just shouldn't and
Speaker 1: not on my head. There's a lot more creaking and cracking,
Speaker 1: and I believe me, there's a there's every night I
Speaker 1: do my push ups in my bedroom and the creaking
Speaker 1: and cracking is just so it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing when
Speaker 1: you go into a store and you're like if you're
Speaker 1: looking to it. Let's say you're going to a shoe
Speaker 1: store and you bend down to look at those shoes
Speaker 1: like on a slight lower, you know, and you're just
Speaker 1: here like, you know, this fucking cracking, and you're like,
Speaker 1: and it reverberates and you see like the salespeople kind
Speaker 1: of look and go like it's embarrassing. But I don't
Speaker 1: remember all that time passing so quickly, and that was
Speaker 1: it possible that my attitude towards work has shifted so
Speaker 1: dramatically as it has now. You know, people will send
Speaker 1: me things and I'll go and I'll say to myself,
Speaker 1: well that's a movie I'd like to go see, but
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to go make like I can't be
Speaker 1: on a set in uh Costa Rica for six weeks.
Speaker 1: I don't care how much money you pay me. I
Speaker 1: need to live my life right now. Yeah, you can't.
Speaker 1: I mean I feel the same way. I mean obviously,
Speaker 1: I mean I have to work because I have this
Speaker 1: overhead and I have a mortgage here, so I have
Speaker 1: to do it. But if I had my choice, I
Speaker 1: would do it a lot less. I am much more
Speaker 1: discerning now. But the problem is you've done it so much,
Speaker 1: like you just know it. You see the script and
Speaker 1: you go, that's a nightmare. That is a nightmare right
Speaker 1: there waiting to happen. I can feel it as soon
Speaker 1: as I say, well, no, they think they're going to
Speaker 1: be able to get helicopters to get like, No, I'm
Speaker 1: not doing that. No, I'm not doing even the role
Speaker 1: itself but they'll send me a role and I'll go,
Speaker 1: oh god. I think I did that summer years ago.
Speaker 1: So what it takes for me to get as excited
Speaker 1: about a script to forego this part of my life?
Speaker 1: I remember when I was making films and before I
Speaker 1: did thirty Rock for seven seasons and really parked myself
Speaker 1: in New York and got into TV and got into
Speaker 1: a schedule that was friendly for my visitation with my
Speaker 1: daughter I was commuting to I remember I used to
Speaker 1: sit on sets and people would FedEx me my mail
Speaker 1: from New York and I opened up my mail that
Speaker 1: would come every couple of weeks and I literally sit
Speaker 1: in my room kind of very sad and go, oh god.
Speaker 1: I missed the Bacon exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. So
Speaker 1: many things I wanted to see and do, and field
Speaker 1: going by because I'm shooting up in Canada. Now you've directed,
Speaker 1: Obviously you're very known as a director for one big movie,
Speaker 1: you did Big Night, but you've six different things. Correct. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I made you go back. I love doing it. I
Speaker 1: did three in a row and did Big Night, and
Speaker 1: I co directed it with Campbell and co wrote it
Speaker 1: with my cousin Joe Tropiano. And then I did The Impost,
Speaker 1: which was a force that seven fewer people saw it
Speaker 1: than were actually in the cast. And then I did
Speaker 1: Joe Gold Secret with Ian Home that was sort of
Speaker 1: dumped by the company that made it, unfortunately, because it
Speaker 1: is actually quite a nice movie and Ian is brilliant.
Speaker 1: And then I didn't make a movie for eight years
Speaker 1: as a director, and then I did a tiny movie.
Speaker 1: There was a remake of a Theo Vango movie, a
Speaker 1: very dark, weird, kind of sucked up movie called Blind
Speaker 1: Day with me and Patty Clarkson about this couple that
Speaker 1: had lost a child and this is very bizarre, dark relationship.
Speaker 1: And then another ten years went by or eight year,
Speaker 1: I can't remember. And then I did this movie I
Speaker 1: had written about Alberto dracom Eddie with Jeffrey Russian Army Handra, Yeah,
Speaker 1: which you know, which I had written fourteen years ago.
Speaker 1: What about directing made you keep coming back? The whole
Speaker 1: point of directing is that you're able to control old
Speaker 1: time and space, and as an actor you can't do that,
Speaker 1: so you can control only what you're doing basically, but
Speaker 1: as a as a as a director, you can control
Speaker 1: it all. The palette the shape of it, the space
Speaker 1: in between people, the tone of it, the time that
Speaker 1: that that scene takes, but also the amount of time
Speaker 1: that you want to shoot during the day. So on
Speaker 1: the Jacob Meti film, I would start shooting by the
Speaker 1: time Jeffrey got out of makeup. It would be about
Speaker 1: nine thirty and I would shoot eight pages. Granted it
Speaker 1: was quite contained, but I would shoot eight pages and
Speaker 1: I'd be done by four o'clock in the afternoon because
Speaker 1: I would rehearse it, rehearsed in advance, and I knew,
Speaker 1: I knew what I wanted, and I had to had
Speaker 1: this incredible DP Danny Cohen um, and it was so
Speaker 1: satisfying and so wonderful, just wonderful. That's why I like
Speaker 1: it because and I don't I have I really don't
Speaker 1: have an interest in making sort of big Hollywood movies.
Speaker 1: I should, but I don't. I have only an interest
Speaker 1: in making smaller movies that tell the story I want
Speaker 1: to tell, like one that I want to make now
Speaker 1: about George Bernard Shaw and his relationship with this woman
Speaker 1: Mrs Patrick Campbell at the when they were rehearsing Pigmalion
Speaker 1: the very first time in the in the early nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: It's a fascinating, weird, intimate, funny love story. But I'm
Speaker 1: not a hard I'm hardly a technical person. I can create,
Speaker 1: I can create. I'm interested in creating shots. I'm interested
Speaker 1: in in creating really interesting masters and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to the mathematics of it, there's
Speaker 1: no way I could even Everything to me is is
Speaker 1: by I Do you know what I mean? It's the
Speaker 1: guy who who, instead of measuring to put a painting
Speaker 1: up on the wall wall, I'll just kind of look
Speaker 1: at the wall and go, there's the middle of the wall,
Speaker 1: and inevitably I'm right. Actor and director Stanley Tucci, if
Speaker 1: our conversation has put you in the mood for a
Speaker 1: sixty year old Italian American character actors from Greater New
Speaker 1: York here in luck John Tuturo joined me at a
Speaker 1: live event of two thousand and seventeen and talked about
Speaker 1: the inspiration of seeing a movie star who didn't look
Speaker 1: like Robert Redford. You know, it wasn't until I saw
Speaker 1: Dustin Hoffman, actually, which when I saw clips for the
Speaker 1: Academy Award, I was too young to see Midnight Cowboy.
Speaker 1: I was shocked. I was. I remember seeing him. I
Speaker 1: saying like, wow, this guy looks like someone in our family,
Speaker 1: you know what, you know, what's he doing in the movie?
Speaker 1: How can he be in a movie? You know? And
Speaker 1: I was like kind of shocked to see him. And
Speaker 1: it was kind of shocking because he sort of opened
Speaker 1: the doors for these other Paccino and you know, the
Speaker 1: Narrow and all those guys. For our full interview text
Speaker 1: to Turo, I know you need this one t U
Speaker 1: R t U R R O two seven zero one.
Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and this is Here's the thing. Stanley
Speaker 1: Tucci as a director creates truly beautiful tableau. Change some
Speaker 1: details in a still from the lush, chaotic dinner scene
Speaker 1: and Big Night and it could be a Toulouse l trek.
Speaker 1: It's not an accident. Tucci takes inspiration from painters as
Speaker 1: much as his fellow directors. Yeah, because my dad is
Speaker 1: a retired our teacher and we lived in Florence for
Speaker 1: a year. He went to Florence to study sculpture, bronze
Speaker 1: casting and figure drawn. When he had a sabbatical, he
Speaker 1: was teaching and he used to teach in Chappaque and
Speaker 1: so I grew up with somebody who painted all the time.
Speaker 1: It did sculpture all the time, and we're constantly looking
Speaker 1: at the time slides, remember the old slide machines and stuff.
Speaker 1: He would, you know, and I would go to his
Speaker 1: classes sometimes, you know, as I got older, and he
Speaker 1: was a great, great teacher. Um. But so all that
Speaker 1: stuff just sort of seeps into you, and those images
Speaker 1: just become a part of you. And then when I
Speaker 1: was in New York, when I moved to New York,
Speaker 1: I you know, I was unemployed for extended periods of time,
Speaker 1: and I spent a lot of that time in museums
Speaker 1: and just reading about art. I didn't really read about film.
Speaker 1: I didn't really read about I went to films, but
Speaker 1: I didn't really read about film. I read about art.
Speaker 1: And I became a sort of autodidact. And so those
Speaker 1: images are there, and they can't help but frame what
Speaker 1: you frame because they're so beautiful. Everything comes from those images,
Speaker 1: whether we know it or not. Well, obviously, Ignite is
Speaker 1: such a cult movie. It's always those movies that people
Speaker 1: in the business love, Yeah they do. Ye, people in
Speaker 1: the business love Big Night. They that they say, oh God,
Speaker 1: what a great movie, and of course food in your childhood.
Speaker 1: On reading this article where you're talking about how you
Speaker 1: had an egg plant parmer gan sandwich you take to
Speaker 1: school that was the size of you know whatever, I'm
Speaker 1: like a two by four and I am the same way.
Speaker 1: I crave a good Italian food and that becomes such
Speaker 1: a part of your identity. Is there more or is
Speaker 1: there always a lot of cooking in a Tucci household
Speaker 1: or has it gone to another level now because of
Speaker 1: the COVID No, it never, it literally never stops. So
Speaker 1: I was cooking for eight people every day. So you
Speaker 1: got to twenty year olds plus a friend of theirs
Speaker 1: who's also twenty who went to university with them, and
Speaker 1: an eighteen year old. Do you know how much food
Speaker 1: they eat? Like in one sitting, not just one sitting.
Speaker 1: I mean, so they come down, then they need a
Speaker 1: dinner or before dinner, you know, not to mention lunch
Speaker 1: and breakfast. I have three brothers, so I yeah, you know, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: But now three of them have gone back to school
Speaker 1: to study, which is good. But I also love to cook.
Speaker 1: Tonight I'm making Paya I love I bet she does. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you've done too much. I've done too many movies. Well,
Speaker 1: you've done a lot of films. When you look back
Speaker 1: on your career, who were the people you work with?
Speaker 1: It you go, that was really a dream come true
Speaker 1: to work with this one and this one. Well, I
Speaker 1: had a great time working with you, first of all,
Speaker 1: and I'm saying not saying that to be warm and fuzzy,
Speaker 1: but I had a wonderful time working with you, um
Speaker 1: merrill without the question. I had to remember not to
Speaker 1: watch her like I had to remember to be in
Speaker 1: the scene because I was so fascinated. Do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? I mean I'd go like, oh, ship,
Speaker 1: I have to say a line now, because I would
Speaker 1: just be watching her thinking I was really good? Did
Speaker 1: you do that? I had that with DeNiro when I
Speaker 1: did Good Shepherd. You would hear cut and he would
Speaker 1: talk to Bob Richardson. Uh I shot with a couple
Speaker 1: of times he talked to Bob and then he'd approached
Speaker 1: Matt Damon and I and he would give us the
Speaker 1: directions and he was about sixty seconds into talking to
Speaker 1: us and I'd say, I'm sorry, could you repeat everything
Speaker 1: you just said? I wasn't really listening. I was a kid.
Speaker 1: There was a film screening in my mind the whole time,
Speaker 1: just watching that person that you've watched for so long.
Speaker 1: And I think, also, I did this movie a long
Speaker 1: time ago with Joe Pesci, and there's a movie called
Speaker 1: The Public Eye. Uh, and I was I was quite young,
Speaker 1: and I was very excited to work with him. But
Speaker 1: one of the things that was so impressed me about him,
Speaker 1: and it still does every time I watched him, is
Speaker 1: that I have never seen an actor listen the way
Speaker 1: Joe Pesci listens to another actor. And I was watching, um,
Speaker 1: you know that I wishman and I said to I
Speaker 1: said to my son, I said, watch him, now, watch
Speaker 1: what he's doing. Nobody else listens like that. And that's
Speaker 1: what makes him so captivated is that he's actually fucking
Speaker 1: and I like, in the middle of the scene, I'd
Speaker 1: be talking to him and I thought, he's really listening
Speaker 1: to me, like I've never had an actor really listened
Speaker 1: to me like that I had. I gave him his
Speaker 1: award from the New York Film Critics Circle for The
Speaker 1: Irishman in the Fall, and I gave this speech and
Speaker 1: I said that you know Strasburg and Santa Slowski and
Speaker 1: those guys would always say, we're never the character. We're
Speaker 1: the character, and there's a little piece of us out
Speaker 1: of the corner of our eye that's watching us perform.
Speaker 1: And we're at these knobs and dials, adjusting them a
Speaker 1: little bit more of this, a little bit less of this.
Speaker 1: And you see Pesci someone who goes to these outer
Speaker 1: extremes of kind of this craziness and rage, but he
Speaker 1: knows exactly what he's doing. It's all these settings he has.
Speaker 1: He's very deft. He's so deft, he's so deft. Who
Speaker 1: else that you've worked with that you I did this
Speaker 1: movie at the Edge with Tony Hopkins. De Niro originally
Speaker 1: was supposed to do the film. Mammock wrote the screenplay
Speaker 1: and Art Linson, whose DeNiro's friend, was the producer, and
Speaker 1: we did a reading and the character's name was Charles
Speaker 1: Morrise and I think that Bob realized that he was
Speaker 1: more Adriatic than than he was Plymouth Rock, so he
Speaker 1: left the film. I was on vacation with my ex
Speaker 1: wife and the phone ring and they said they got
Speaker 1: Tony Hopkins to do the film, and literally tears started
Speaker 1: running down my face. I thought I can't believe I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go make a movie with Anthony Hopkins. And it
Speaker 1: was one of the great that the film was not
Speaker 1: a great film, that was a very missed opportunity, but
Speaker 1: it was the greatest experience I've ever had, was working
Speaker 1: with Tommy. What about Sean Connery, Well, Sean was a
Speaker 1: lesson in um, you know, one of the first big
Speaker 1: movies I made. And John mcteern and the director said
Speaker 1: to me, because why can't you just stand there and
Speaker 1: say the lines? He said, he said, you always need
Speaker 1: to be like packing a briefcase and and and folding
Speaker 1: your trench code because because you were very proppy. This
Speaker 1: is early, early, couple of days of shooting, he says.
Speaker 1: He says, because he was used to working with stars
Speaker 1: where you just stand there and say the lines. You know,
Speaker 1: it's I'm enough. We need a minimum of acting. And uh,
Speaker 1: I thought about that. I thought that makes some sense.
Speaker 1: I guess that's kind of maybe some good advice. And
Speaker 1: then Sewan walked in and they've done his makeup test,
Speaker 1: and they've done his wardrobe test, and they did his hair.
Speaker 1: He had this beautiful hair piece they put on him.
Speaker 1: It was and he walked and I thought, I'm so fucked.
Speaker 1: I said, no, one's going to see me in this movie.
Speaker 1: I'm officially invisible. And he talked to me every day
Speaker 1: we shot. He was so kind to me and and instructive.
Speaker 1: He said to me, are you going to the rush
Speaker 1: his boy to the Russians, And I'd say, what he said,
Speaker 1: the Rushes that the film from yesterday? I say, no, no,
Speaker 1: I never go to the Rushes. I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: what's the point? But what am I going to give
Speaker 1: them my opinion? He said, well, how do you ever
Speaker 1: expect to larn anything? So we go to the Rushes
Speaker 1: to Laren. I was like, oh, okay, great. And then
Speaker 1: one day my favorite moment with him was I looked
Speaker 1: him and I said, He said, if you don't mind,
Speaker 1: I won't be off camera for you after five on
Speaker 1: on Friday. I said, no, no, that's fine. That's fine.
Speaker 1: So I have to get on a plane and fly
Speaker 1: to Vancouver for the weekend. I said, really, He said, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm a British tax exile, so I can only be
Speaker 1: in the States. In the States, so many days I'm
Speaker 1: leaving out the s and he goes in the States
Speaker 1: so many days and I said, wow, Is said, you
Speaker 1: fly up to Vancouver every weekend. He said, yes, I
Speaker 1: fly up to the coover every weekend. I said, what
Speaker 1: do you do when you're there in Vancouver? And he
Speaker 1: looked at me like I was a brain damaged child.
Speaker 1: I said, what do you do here there? He says, golf?
Speaker 1: You morong. I think I disappointed him on several levels.
Speaker 1: I like that. I like that movie, though. I have
Speaker 1: to say, I thought you were great in any of
Speaker 1: your kids have the Bug? No, No, thank god no.
Speaker 1: I think Nicolo did some plays in high school and
Speaker 1: he actually did a thing for BBC here too, but
Speaker 1: it's not it's not something he's really desperate to do.
Speaker 1: I think he's much more interested in documentary filmmaking. And
Speaker 1: I took him to see I worked with Matthew Hindeman.
Speaker 1: You know that wonderful director who did Cartel and he's extraordinary. Uh.
Speaker 1: And he became friendly with him from this movie that
Speaker 1: I had done with him, and and I took Nico
Speaker 1: to see this other movie he did called City of Ghosts,
Speaker 1: about um Syrian refugees in Berlin, and Nico was just
Speaker 1: so excited about it, so excited about it that he said,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Dad, that's incredible. That's what I want
Speaker 1: to do. So now he's studying politics at university, but
Speaker 1: I know that he wants to work his way into
Speaker 1: doing that, which I think that it is so exciting
Speaker 1: to me because that's an incredible life. That's a great life.
Speaker 1: Can any of them cook, Nico? Nico can cook. The
Speaker 1: girls no, they have no interest, none. But he came down.
Speaker 1: I did this. I just did this thing for CNN.
Speaker 1: I'm doing this thing about Italian regional cooking, a CNN
Speaker 1: documentary series. So we went to four different regions in
Speaker 1: Italy and Nico came down to Sicily with us and
Speaker 1: was you know, became part of the crew and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, and he was just thrilled. Plus, you know,
Speaker 1: the food is Felicity as happy as a clas. I'm
Speaker 1: is she happy to be home? Yeah, she's really happy.
Speaker 1: Anything about America, she made some really good friends in
Speaker 1: America too, you know, through work and and then she
Speaker 1: became very good friends like with Aidan and Lizzie, you
Speaker 1: know Aidan Quinn and his wife Lizzie, and Steve Bussemi
Speaker 1: and now his late wife Joe. So that was really
Speaker 1: nice that you know she you know, she made a
Speaker 1: lot of really great friends and she really enjoyed part
Speaker 1: of working there, but she found the experience much more
Speaker 1: corporate than it is here. Um. But ultimately she's just
Speaker 1: happier here, much happier, much happier. Her parents are close by,
Speaker 1: you know, I get it. The one thing I don't
Speaker 1: want to overlook very important is tell me about Central Park.
Speaker 1: What's this project that's the buzzer here. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about your latest project. Josh Gad. We did Beauty and
Speaker 1: the Beast, lovely guy, really funny guy. And then he
Speaker 1: calls me up and he says, I want you to
Speaker 1: do this animated series with me. And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: sure whatever. I love doing stuff like that, you know,
Speaker 1: because if I wanted to play an eight year old woman,
Speaker 1: I was like, even better. Nothing makes me happier than that.
Speaker 1: And also, you know, you don't have to go on camera,
Speaker 1: you don't have to come any makeup, you don't have
Speaker 1: to do a costume. You go to the recording studio.
Speaker 1: It's incredibly fun. So Kristen Bell is doing it and
Speaker 1: it's a musical. I pretend to sing, but I'm singing
Speaker 1: as an eight year old woman. So it's fun share
Speaker 1: with us. I mean, you're considered a fantastic actor. Share
Speaker 1: one is the secret of how you access the singing
Speaker 1: voice of an eighty year old woman? What did you
Speaker 1: do for that? I just had a martini before I
Speaker 1: write I did it. Yeah, it's like if Rex Harrison
Speaker 1: were an old woman, like an angry, drunk old woman.
Speaker 1: That's the way I do. I talk it, except for
Speaker 1: one note every now and again. When this Central Park
Speaker 1: coming out. I think it's coming out in July. Now,
Speaker 1: last question, Yes, Joy, if there is such a thing
Speaker 1: as a role that you wish you could play marks
Speaker 1: you're kidding? Now, why because you used to do that
Speaker 1: as a kid. Fascinating you would do ground your invitations
Speaker 1: to your family when you're a kid. Correct? What about him? Why?
Speaker 1: He and his brothers completely changed the face of comedy.
Speaker 1: And also the periods that they worked through were incredible.
Speaker 1: When you think that they did vaudeville and then they
Speaker 1: went into movies just huge stars. Then there was a
Speaker 1: sort of decline, then movies again under Irving Thalberg, huge hit.
Speaker 1: Then it all starts to fade away. They're getting older
Speaker 1: suddenly at the cusp of the beginning of television. He
Speaker 1: has this enormous hit that went from radio, transition from
Speaker 1: radio to television and stayed on television for ten years.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's an incredible career. Not to mention that
Speaker 1: he was a real intellect and an incredibly complex person,
Speaker 1: not the happiest person, which also makes it much Well,
Speaker 1: that's what makes it much more interesting. Anybody's really happy.
Speaker 1: I mean, how you know, who wants to who cares?
Speaker 1: But when I always remember when I worked with you,
Speaker 1: which is a million years ago now it'll be thirty
Speaker 1: years ago next year. We shot that movie, and I
Speaker 1: remember shooting with you. I remember walking away and thinking that, um,
Speaker 1: you'd read this about certain actors where they had a
Speaker 1: career and nothing on screen could prepare you for what
Speaker 1: they were like in person. Like someone said that Vincent
Speaker 1: Price was a great host, and he hosted some of
Speaker 1: the greatest parties and dinner parties in Hollywood. He was
Speaker 1: a gourmand, he was a food he was a foodie,
Speaker 1: and the Vincent by people loved going to Vincent Price's
Speaker 1: house and he played these kind of cookie exotic characters.
Speaker 1: But in real life he was this elegant or bane guy.
Speaker 1: And when I think of that, although you have no
Speaker 1: resemblance whatsoever to Vincent Price in his career, I think
Speaker 1: the same thing. When I've been around you, You're one
Speaker 1: of the most elegant men. You play some tough, crazy
Speaker 1: people and they're not you at all. That's a real
Speaker 1: journey for you, the real I think it's nothing like that. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not a I'm not a tough guy. Now you're
Speaker 1: a Brit. Yes, that's what I like. Now I'm brit.
Speaker 1: Now it's all very different. You've been rehearsing your entire life. Yes,
Speaker 1: my son, my five year old, he literally speaks like
Speaker 1: he's from you know, like he just came out of
Speaker 1: you know, Windsor. Stanley Tucci is currently appearing in Central Park.
Speaker 1: That's a TV show, as villainous eighty year old mogul
Speaker 1: Bitsy Brandenham. We're going to do the biggest real estate
Speaker 1: deal in the history of the world. It's out now
Speaker 1: on Apple t be. I'm Alec Baldwin and this is
Speaker 1: here's the thing.