WEBVTT - Everybody Loves Stanley Tucci 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:06.080 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:09.959 Stanley Tucci is one of the most beloved actors and 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:13.840 directors working today. He has a great reputation both as 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:18.239 an artist and as a deeply decent guy. We've worked 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:22.439 together twice, and that reputation is well deserved. Even over 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.520 a zoom after a decade, it's my pleasure to have 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:31.800 time with him again. Motherfucker. Now let me just say. 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:33.760 Let me just say that, of course, one of the 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.880 fun bonuses of zooming. As you can see the room 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:39.879 they're in. The room you're in right now looks like 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.640 those scenes in a thriller when they go to the 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:46.640 killer's house. There's like a lot of sketches on the wall. 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:50.559 Where are you? What room are you in? Now? This 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.280 is my room, and my family doesn't let me have 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.680 another room, So this is my room and it's where 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:03.400 I prepare you know, two people. Tucci's the first to 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:07.480 say he's sometimes been typecast as an ethnic heavy the 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:12.360 ambiguously Arab assassin in The Pelican Brief, for example, but 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.559 he's done plenty of roles worthy of his immense talent. 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.280 From Puck and Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream to 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:24.440 fashion editor Nigel Kipling in the Devil Wears product, not 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:29.399 to mention his cult classic directorial debut, Big Night steeped 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:33.720 in his love for Italian cooking. After becoming a widower 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:37.640 with two school aged children in two thousand nine, Tucci 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.800 fell in love with an English literary agent, and the 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.959 two married a few years later. The couple and their 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.520 new kids now live in London, which is where I 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.240 found my old friend for this conversation. I always wanted 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:51.840 to live in Europe because I lived in Italy when 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:53.360 I was a kid, you know, for a year when 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.840 I was twelve, and it completely changed everything, Like it 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.600 totally changed the way I saw the world and everything, 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.200 and and I always wanted to go back and live here. 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.160 And and Kate, my my late wife, she and I 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.000 always talked about maybe we would go live in France, 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.440 or maybe we go live in Italy or something. And 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.880 then obviously that didn't happen. But when I met Felicity, 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.200 we did. And I'll tell you it's like the place 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.360 I was supposed to be, but I didn't know it. 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.720 There was a slight intimidation of you know that sort 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:29.280 of upper crusty British e stuff. But once you're once 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:33.440 you're here for a bit, it's it's fine. It's incredibly comfortable. 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:35.760 I know why you would feel comfortable here when I 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:37.800 would shoot there. I shot a couple of things there, 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.880 and I would shoot there. I would say, even a 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:45.480 taxi driver has a grasp and a kind of facility 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.079 with the English language. That's like a college professor back here. Yeah, 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.079 there's an understanding the language, no matter what social status, 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.880 somebody is right. But also there is a profound sense 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:01.119 of irony here that unfortunately America is great lacking in. 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:07.120 And and that's simply because it's an incredibly old country 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.520 and we're not. When you met Felicity, how long were 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.280 you together when you made the decision to move over there. 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.080 We were together for a couple of years because she 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.600 came and lived with us. She came and lived with 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.880 me and the kids for two days city. No, No, 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.520 we were up in Westchester. Yeah, we're in west That's 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.639 where I was living and had a house there and um, 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:34.040 and then we rented an apartment in the city for 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:36.440 I don't know, like a year or something, just because 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:38.960 she worked so much in the city. It was easier 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.560 for her, um, but it was it was great, you know, 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.280 and it's a really hard role. I mean, I I 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.160 you know, having been a step parent, I mean, and 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.760 then for her to be a step parent at that 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.920 young age with three kids was you know, it was 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:58.920 really tough. I mean they're now, they're the twins of 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:01.520 twenty Camiliz a team and then we have two little ones. 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.600 So who pitched the idea of moving to the u K? 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.320 You or her? She did? She did. She was like, look, 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.320 you know, I have a full time job. You know, 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.320 you sometimes have a job. How about we go there. 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.000 I was nervous about the kids, although the kids had 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:19.880 spent a fair amount of time here already, and I 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.880 was nervous about leaving my parents because I was very 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:24.920 close to my parents. There's still a lot, a lot. 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:27.120 My father just turned ninety and my mother just turned 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.000 in December. I love it. Where is she? My mom 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.920 and my sister and then eventually my other sister. When 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.839 my dad died in three my dad was only fifty 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:38.880 five when he died. Oh my god. And when he 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:42.520 died very young, my mother took a couple of years 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.120 to divest of her Long Island home and so forth, 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:47.719 and she and my sister, and then I mentioned my 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.040 other sister and their families. They moved to Syracuse, where 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.960 my mother was from, right near her siblings who have 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:57.000 all since then, all of them have passed away. If 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.200 you told me that my mother would outlive my father 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.719 and all her blinks, I would have been a million 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:04.760 dollars against that. You know, But my mother is not 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:06.719 a health nut, you know what I mean. She she 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:09.960 drank diet coke every day. She drank tab every day. 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.280 You know, she was not a health nut. But when 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:17.040 you decide to go there, are you calculating the work thing? 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.240 You're thinking, how am I going to work from here? 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.800 Or do you just dive? No? No, I was nervous. Yeah, 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:23.760 there's no question. I was nervous. But I knew that 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.120 I had worked here before I saw that production. Now 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.520 this is seven years ago. Now there was a lot 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:34.240 being shot here. I had done Captain America here, and 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.000 I talked to the director and the producers about it, 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.919 and they were like, everything is moving here because the 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:45.000 tax breaks are so huge, the union structure is different, 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.240 and basically by shooting this movie, it was tens of 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.039 millions of dollars that they saved on that movie alone 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:56.080 shooting it here. And then, of course Atlanta change things 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:57.600 because you know, a lot of stuff is done in 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:01.440 Atlanta now, but still so much stuff. And at first 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.320 was a little slow going, but honestly, after a few months, 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.400 six months, it was not a problem at all. What 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.479 was the union particulars meaning? And and for you you 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.040 became a British citizen as well because you married her. No, 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.520 I'm not a British citizen. I might. I have permanent 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.360 leave to remain or whatever they call it, so I'm 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.080 a permanent resident. Had to take a test a little 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:27.080 while ago and proved that I knew enough about British history, 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.440 you know, which you know, yes, yeah, which I knew 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.479 nothing about, not really, but you know. And then but 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.920 the kids have that too, which is great for me. 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:38.880 It's wonderful because I was a lot of the stuff 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.280 I was doing anyway, was shooting either here or in 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.599 Europe or wherever, you know, because we don't make movies 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:48.919 in l A anymore, which is really I always told people, 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:50.599 you do a movie on a on a set in 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:54.240 New York, the prop guy would come to you and 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:56.120 he'd say, I want to pick out a watch with 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.000 you for your character, and he'd open up a box. 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.520 He had like forty watches. When you went to l A, 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:03.000 they say the propram, I want you to look at 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.360 a watch, and he brings like nine cases with five 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:10.760 hundred watches. In l A. Everything is just more more 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.120 because that's what it is. That's what it is. It's 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.680 nothing but that. The last time I worked there was 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:19.560 when I did the thing with them with Susan Surrandon 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:24.720 and Jessica Lang about Betty Davis and Jones that I 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.080 loved that so much fun Do you know that I 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.560 called each one of them. I called Jessica who I know, 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:33.280 and Susan, I mean Susan Surrandon. I literally got her 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:35.280 on the phone and she kind of had this tone 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:37.960 like how can I help you, Like like I'm just 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.280 I'm just completely puzzled as to why you're call me me. 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.800 Then I said, I'm calling you to tell you how 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.960 fabulous you were. I mean, no one could have pulled 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.520 it was impossible to pull that off. I loved that show. 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.720 They're great performances and they're both funny, and Susan I 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:57.400 knew I had made a lot of movies with Susan. 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.040 I had directed her in a movie, and but I 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.080 never met Jessica, and we really had one sort of 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:10.280 major scene together. It's just fucking amazing, amazing. You go there, 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.960 you're a permanent resident. And I'm imagining in terms of 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.480 the acting thing in the union thing, does that become 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:19.680 an issue as well? No, No, the union thing, as 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:22.320 far as SAG and all that, that's fine. What I 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.840 meant unions. What I meant is that the crew unions 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.120 and the driver unions and things like that are very 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.080 different here. And what they what they like here, as 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:33.640 you know, because you've shot here a lot, is that 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.400 they In America, it's very hard to shoot. And I'm 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:41.839 a big believer in unions. But America, you know, if 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.199 you try to do a continuous day, which is basically like, 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:47.920 you know, a ten hour day where you're not taking 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.200 a lunch break, you're you know, you're just you're in. 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:53.079 You start shooting at eight and you're and you're out 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.800 at six. Okay, so you're in at six thirty, in 0:08:55.840 --> 0:09:00.320 makeup at seven o'clock whatever. In America, you can't do that. 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:02.679 You can't do it. You can only do it if 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:06.720 it's location dependent or like dependent. Here, if they go, oh, 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:08.199 we're doing a lunch break today. If you go to 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:09.840 the pudish, you go, why are we taking a lunch break. 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.360 We're shooting inside, we're shooting in the studio. Why are 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:14.560 we doing that. Let's do it. Let's do a continuous day. 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:17.800 He goes, yeah, all right, The crew goes, yeah, let's 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.800 do that. We're done at six o'clock. We get to 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:24.600 go home and be with our families. And it's a 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.720 completely different People say, like work ethic. It's not really 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:33.920 an ethic, it's simply logic. I mean, the crews are incredible, 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:38.200 the drivers are incredible, but they're not interested in being 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.559 there for fifteen sixteen hours a day. I mean in America, 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:46.800 I couldn't do it. I couldn't do continuous days. I tried. 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:51.959 They wouldn't let me. Um, but I still would finish 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:57.000 at six o'clock because how long do you really want 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.679 to be on a movie set. I mean, let's face it, 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.920 you know, it gets tedious and there's a lot of 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.839 fasting about that goes on, when really we don't need 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.200 a lot of that stuff. Let's just get to it. 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:14.080 Unless you're doing an action sequence or something quite complex. 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.360 It's not that complicated. And I did like a day, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.720 maybe two. I don't remember it. So long ago when 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:24.960 Peccino did Richard the Third and the documentary that he 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:28.079 made about it was looking for Richard, and the first 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.880 day we shot, we did this scene that Paccino gathered 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:33.719 all the cast and crew around. He said, I want 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.880 to ask you all one favor, and everyone leaned in, 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.720 like what is it? And Peccino said, don't tell anyone 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:45.360 how fast we worked here. They don't tell anybody how 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.040 quickly we did this. Then they'll then they'll make us 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.920 all work at the space. I have been on sets 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.400 where we were really you have an efficient director is 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:58.040 really good in America. And they finish what you're done 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:00.800 like four and they're like, let's get out of here, 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:04.520 and they go, no, we can't leave, and you're like why. 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.080 They're like, well, the studio actually needs you to stay. 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.600 They need to They need the crew to stay, so 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:13.440 you need to stay, or if you want to go, 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.800 it's fine, but the crew has to stay because otherwise 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.040 it looks like you're not getting the job done. You're like, 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:22.680 the job's done. That was Lament's reputation. Yeah, yeah, I 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.840 admire that. One thing I feel in the time that 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.319 I've fantasized about even moving there for like a year 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:31.199 or two. That's my dream, like just a camp out 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:33.520 there for like a year or two. The mountain i'd 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:35.600 want to at least try to climb would be the theater. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.000 Have you done theater over there? No? Because I have 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.840 little kids, I think what I would prefer to do 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.840 is direct again in the theater and not go on 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:47.040 stage again. Every now and again I get a yearning, 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.000 but then I think, you know, I don't get to 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:53.040 see my kids. You don't put them to sleep, you 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.320 don't have breakfast with them in the morning, because you're, like, 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:58.080 you know, completely out of it. The one thing about 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:01.920 it is that you can do shorter runs here in 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:04.319 a substantial theater. You can go to the old VIC 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.439 and do a short run. And that's pretty cool. And 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.280 where are the older kids. They're here, they're here, Well, 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.160 they go to un there, two of them go to 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:16.160 The twins go to university here. And because we all 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:20.200 moved over, the twins were only thirteen and Camilla was eleven. 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.720 For listening, and I had Matteo in the first house, 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.240 and then now we have our second house, which is bigger, 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:29.440 thank god. So you have you have Felicity have one, No, 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:34.040 we have two, Matteo and Amelia who's she just turned 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.520 two and he's five, and then the twins of twenty 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.480 and Camilla is eighteen. So you have five children, yes, right, 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:44.679 And I have five children, including my older daughter Ireland, 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:49.040 who lives in Los Angeles. So it is weird to 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.600 have kids and think about. You know, my dear friend 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:54.400 who's ten years older than me and had a ten 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:58.559 year old he said, don't worry, it's great. Besides, by 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.840 the time they're saying things that really bother you, you'll 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:05.320 be deaf anyway, So it doesn't even well, it's so 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.319 true I think about. I mean, I think I can 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.280 hear them now screaming in the house, screaming. I think 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.120 it's screaming or singing. I don't know which. Who knows. 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:17.000 Literally the older I get a loud noises to make 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:19.199 me very jumpy, like if you hear a crash or 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.720 or a loud everything that goes along with having children. 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:28.200 So if I if I come and very quietly and 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.080 very patiently, I try to lay down the law with 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.080 my kids. They look at me and then they go, mom, 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:39.040 and yeah, because I know what you mean. I mean, 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:45.520 I suddenly I'm gonna turn sixty in November, and I 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:52.040 suddenly feel like I'm doing things and I'm saying things 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:57.800 that I always watched old people do and say, and 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:00.079 how is that possible? Like, how is it possible that 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.120 that just came out of my mouth? How is it 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:05.080 possible that I went how is it possible that hair 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.600 is growing out of places where it just shouldn't and 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.679 not on my head. There's a lot more creaking and cracking, 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.079 and I believe me, there's a there's every night I 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.480 do my push ups in my bedroom and the creaking 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:22.360 and cracking is just so it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing when 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:24.200 you go into a store and you're like if you're 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:25.760 looking to it. Let's say you're going to a shoe 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.320 store and you bend down to look at those shoes 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.760 like on a slight lower, you know, and you're just 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.960 here like, you know, this fucking cracking, and you're like, 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:38.760 and it reverberates and you see like the salespeople kind 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.640 of look and go like it's embarrassing. But I don't 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:45.320 remember all that time passing so quickly, and that was 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.520 it possible that my attitude towards work has shifted so 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.200 dramatically as it has now. You know, people will send 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:53.880 me things and I'll go and I'll say to myself, 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:56.040 well that's a movie I'd like to go see, but 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.200 I wouldn't want to go make like I can't be 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:02.880 on a set in uh Costa Rica for six weeks. 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:05.480 I don't care how much money you pay me. I 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:07.880 need to live my life right now. Yeah, you can't. 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:10.680 I mean I feel the same way. I mean obviously, 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.560 I mean I have to work because I have this 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.800 overhead and I have a mortgage here, so I have 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.800 to do it. But if I had my choice, I 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.520 would do it a lot less. I am much more 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.440 discerning now. But the problem is you've done it so much, 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.840 like you just know it. You see the script and 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:34.240 you go, that's a nightmare. That is a nightmare right 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.800 there waiting to happen. I can feel it as soon 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:39.800 as I say, well, no, they think they're going to 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.120 be able to get helicopters to get like, No, I'm 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.080 not doing that. No, I'm not doing even the role 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:47.760 itself but they'll send me a role and I'll go, 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:50.880 oh god. I think I did that summer years ago. 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.680 So what it takes for me to get as excited 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:58.000 about a script to forego this part of my life? 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.920 I remember when I was making films and before I 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.680 did thirty Rock for seven seasons and really parked myself 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.440 in New York and got into TV and got into 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:09.840 a schedule that was friendly for my visitation with my 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:15.280 daughter I was commuting to I remember I used to 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:19.320 sit on sets and people would FedEx me my mail 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.960 from New York and I opened up my mail that 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:24.720 would come every couple of weeks and I literally sit 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.880 in my room kind of very sad and go, oh god. 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.680 I missed the Bacon exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. So 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.480 many things I wanted to see and do, and field 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:39.920 going by because I'm shooting up in Canada. Now you've directed, 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.760 Obviously you're very known as a director for one big movie, 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:47.600 you did Big Night, but you've six different things. Correct. Yeah, 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.040 I made you go back. I love doing it. I 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:52.680 did three in a row and did Big Night, and 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:55.680 I co directed it with Campbell and co wrote it 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:59.920 with my cousin Joe Tropiano. And then I did The Impost, 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:02.720 which was a force that seven fewer people saw it 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.239 than were actually in the cast. And then I did 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.879 Joe Gold Secret with Ian Home that was sort of 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.119 dumped by the company that made it, unfortunately, because it 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.720 is actually quite a nice movie and Ian is brilliant. 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:19.040 And then I didn't make a movie for eight years 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.000 as a director, and then I did a tiny movie. 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.080 There was a remake of a Theo Vango movie, a 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:28.560 very dark, weird, kind of sucked up movie called Blind 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:33.520 Day with me and Patty Clarkson about this couple that 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.600 had lost a child and this is very bizarre, dark relationship. 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:42.639 And then another ten years went by or eight year, 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.720 I can't remember. And then I did this movie I 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:50.119 had written about Alberto dracom Eddie with Jeffrey Russian Army Handra, Yeah, 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.920 which you know, which I had written fourteen years ago. 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.440 What about directing made you keep coming back? The whole 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.200 point of directing is that you're able to control old 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:06.040 time and space, and as an actor you can't do that, 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:11.919 so you can control only what you're doing basically, but 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.480 as a as a as a director, you can control 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.800 it all. The palette the shape of it, the space 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:23.240 in between people, the tone of it, the time that 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.879 that that scene takes, but also the amount of time 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.199 that you want to shoot during the day. So on 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.080 the Jacob Meti film, I would start shooting by the 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.080 time Jeffrey got out of makeup. It would be about 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.879 nine thirty and I would shoot eight pages. Granted it 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:41.400 was quite contained, but I would shoot eight pages and 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:47.040 I'd be done by four o'clock in the afternoon because 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:51.120 I would rehearse it, rehearsed in advance, and I knew, 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.160 I knew what I wanted, and I had to had 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:59.040 this incredible DP Danny Cohen um, and it was so 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:04.280 satisfying and so wonderful, just wonderful. That's why I like 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:08.320 it because and I don't I have I really don't 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.199 have an interest in making sort of big Hollywood movies. 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.399 I should, but I don't. I have only an interest 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.600 in making smaller movies that tell the story I want 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:19.520 to tell, like one that I want to make now 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:24.119 about George Bernard Shaw and his relationship with this woman 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.560 Mrs Patrick Campbell at the when they were rehearsing Pigmalion 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:30.840 the very first time in the in the early nineteen hundreds. 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:35.800 It's a fascinating, weird, intimate, funny love story. But I'm 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:40.560 not a hard I'm hardly a technical person. I can create, 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:43.760 I can create. I'm interested in creating shots. I'm interested 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:47.840 in in creating really interesting masters and stuff like that. 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:50.680 But when it comes to the mathematics of it, there's 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:54.080 no way I could even Everything to me is is 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:56.199 by I Do you know what I mean? It's the 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.359 guy who who, instead of measuring to put a painting 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:01.440 up on the wall wall, I'll just kind of look 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:03.760 at the wall and go, there's the middle of the wall, 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:12.200 and inevitably I'm right. Actor and director Stanley Tucci, if 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.000 our conversation has put you in the mood for a 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:18.640 sixty year old Italian American character actors from Greater New 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:22.399 York here in luck John Tuturo joined me at a 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.400 live event of two thousand and seventeen and talked about 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.680 the inspiration of seeing a movie star who didn't look 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.560 like Robert Redford. You know, it wasn't until I saw 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:35.600 Dustin Hoffman, actually, which when I saw clips for the 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.120 Academy Award, I was too young to see Midnight Cowboy. 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:40.600 I was shocked. I was. I remember seeing him. I 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:42.960 saying like, wow, this guy looks like someone in our family, 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:45.280 you know what, you know, what's he doing in the movie? 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:48.760 How can he be in a movie? You know? And 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.840 I was like kind of shocked to see him. And 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:54.760 it was kind of shocking because he sort of opened 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:58.119 the doors for these other Paccino and you know, the 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:02.760 Narrow and all those guys. For our full interview text 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.480 to Turo, I know you need this one t U 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:19.840 R t U R R O two seven zero one. 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:25.560 I'm Alec Baldwin and this is Here's the thing. Stanley 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:30.760 Tucci as a director creates truly beautiful tableau. Change some 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:34.520 details in a still from the lush, chaotic dinner scene 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:37.640 and Big Night and it could be a Toulouse l trek. 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:42.360 It's not an accident. Tucci takes inspiration from painters as 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:45.680 much as his fellow directors. Yeah, because my dad is 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.879 a retired our teacher and we lived in Florence for 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.280 a year. He went to Florence to study sculpture, bronze 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:56.520 casting and figure drawn. When he had a sabbatical, he 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:59.720 was teaching and he used to teach in Chappaque and 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:03.680 so I grew up with somebody who painted all the time. 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:06.399 It did sculpture all the time, and we're constantly looking 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.160 at the time slides, remember the old slide machines and stuff. 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:12.199 He would, you know, and I would go to his 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.560 classes sometimes, you know, as I got older, and he 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:19.199 was a great, great teacher. Um. But so all that 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:21.960 stuff just sort of seeps into you, and those images 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:25.159 just become a part of you. And then when I 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:27.040 was in New York, when I moved to New York, 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.920