Stanley Tucci

Stanley Tucci: I love doing my own projects; that's what I've always wanted to do.

Stanley Tucci: (on his character on 3 Lbs.) It is a joy to play a character that is a bit of a mystery.

Stanley Tucci: (on balancing a personal life with work) It's hard but I've gotten better at it over the years. I have three little kids. You just don't ever want to miss their growing up. You just have to be careful not to overwork yourself so that you end up pulling away from them. I think, also, your work is better if you step away from it from time to time.

Stanley Tucci: (on hanging out with models) It is very different worlds. An actor's world, being an actor so much is about talking and your personality and your variety of personalities. With a model, it's not that. It's about image.

Stanley Tucci: (on the lessons learned from "The Devil Wears Prada") I learned I definitely don't want to work in the fashion industry. I learned a lot from Pat Field, the costume designer. I learned a lot from her.

Stanley Tucci: (on the difference between 3 Lbs. and other medical dramas) It will be so much better than all of them. No, I know what you're saying, I guess it's about the brain which is, as I was reading last night, since I know nothing about the brain, they say that the brain is the most complex organ on the face of the earth, or in the universe even, as far as they can tell, but what do they know? I do have one other movie set in England that I hope to direct next year with Emily Blunt. Damien Dibben wrote the script.

Stanley Tucci: (when asked if he is a fashionable person) I love clothes. I love to be fussed over. I love it. I love to go shopping, I love to dress well. My wife hates it, hates it. She would go bungee jumping before she would go shopping. I'm not the same. I love clothes. This role was very enjoyable for me and also as a director, the look of the movie is very important and I spent a lot of time with the actors in costume fittings and the designer, because it's crucial I think to the actor's process and it's also an integral part of the film.

(when asked if there was a line he worried about crossing when playing a gay character) Stanley Tucci: You don't want to send this person up, you don't want to comment on him. We've seen, and I hope that we're past the point of seeing the very flamboyant queer guy, enough is enough, so the goal was to make it as real as possible and he can be flamboyant but he has to be flamboyant, I can't be flamboyant, you know what I mean? You can quote me on that.

(on what interested him about the movie "The Devil Wears Prada") Stanley Tucci: The part, first of all. It's a great part, and I've never played a part like this before. And Meryl, and Annie, who I'd seen but didn't know. I knew Meryl, socially. And it's shot in New York. I live here, that made it really easy. I could go home and go to bed at night.

(on watching a real neurosurgeon for research for his role on 3 Lbs.) Stanley Tucci: I haven't done that and I keep saying that I'm going to do it, but I believe that there is a part of me that won't do it because I'm more squeamish than I think. I have read a fair amount and talked to a number of neurosurgeons as we've been working on this. The thing you have to remember is that a lot of times jobs are given to you very swiftly and there is not that amount of time that you need or would like to prepare and every role is different. I approach every role differently. The thing you have to remember when playing that character, no matter what that character is, you have to decide what's best for you as an actor to make this thing truthful and that varies of course with every role and every script.

(on his character on 3 Lbs.) Stanley Tucci: It's awfully fun, I have to say. I'm very impressed with Peter's writing and that was the thing that brought me onboard to begin with. It's a joy to play a character who is a bit of a mystery. You never quite know what you're going to get, and he's quite complex. Those are always the most interesting characters to play.

(on his favorite designers) Stanley Tucci: I wear a lot of Hugo Boss. I think Dries Van Noten is really interesting. One of the pieces I took from the movie is a Dries Van Noten tie that is so cool. And my wife bought this pair of Dries Van Noten shoes that are just the greatest pair of shoes. She's not a shopper, but she loves these shoes.

(when asked if he ever had a tyrannical boss) Stanley Tucci: No, I never was an assistant, and I never want to be an assistant—particularly after doing this movie. I've had bad directors, who were rude and offensive, but I don't sit there and take it—and usually those people are not talented. The thing about Miranda (Meryl Streep) is she is talented—she's the best. It's harder to argue with somebody who's vicious when they're so good at what they do. Picasso was a genius, but according to a lot of people, he was also a prick. But I don't think you have to be a prick to be true to your talent.

(on the fact that his character in the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" (2006) was gay) Stanley Tucci: That's the way it was written. To me there was no other way to play it. He's gay. No need to spell it out.

(on his character in the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" (2006)) Stanley Tucci: I don't know how true that is. I've never met Andre Leon Talley—I didn't even know who he was. When I was cast they were already shooting. It really was a matter of culling from my memory and experience different people whom I've met over the years and turning them into one person. It's not based on one particular person. My goal was not to make this a caricature. We don't need it. It's insulting, enough is enough. This had to be a real person to work. I love fashion, and I like to dress people, so that part of it was easy.

(on compressing your performance in acting) Stanley Tucci: First of all, it starts with the script. If the script is good, that aspect should be in there. I hope you feel the character's presence throughout the film. Also, you have to bring a lot of different levels to the performance, but maybe a little more so with "Road to Perdition" because I had such a small period of time to get the character across.

Stanley Tucci: (on directing) I love it very much. I haven't done any more since Joe Gould's Secret. There have been a few things I thought I wanted to do since, but haven't yet happened.

Stanley Tucci: I'm always looking around for another play, but only for a short run. I did Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire de Lune onstage with Edie Falco for six months, and it was very hard. Once you get past 14 weeks, I go crazy.