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Job instability in Hollywood? Not so groundbreaking — even for Stanley Tucci.
The actor, 63, looked back on the ups and downs of his career in recent conversation with Vanity Fair, sharing that he “couldn’t get a job” after his turn as the sardonic Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada.
“And I didn’t quite understand that, but that’s just the way it was,” Tucci said. “So I went and did stuff that I didn’t necessarily want to do, but I did it.”
The Searching for Italy host said his career “has always gone through these fluctuations, and sometimes it’s just the business.” Added Tucci, “Sometimes it was personal reasons why you can’t work. Having been sick six years ago, that threw a wrench into the works for a while, and then you slowly get back.”
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He continued, “But I had to start doing things. I needed to work because I needed money. I probably started working too soon. I didn’t really have the energy to do it after the treatments, but you had to do it, and eventually you climb back up again.”
Tucci was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2017 and underwent extensive treatment. He told Willie Geist in an interview last year that he was now in good health, and that his wife Felicity Blunt — the sister of his Devil Wears Prada costar Emily Blunt — “had to drag me, kicking and screaming” to get through the treatment. “But now, I wouldn’t be around if I hadn’t done that,” he said.
As Entertainment Weekly previously reported over the summer, a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada — about employees at a fashion magazine headed by the daunting Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) — is currently in the works with original director David Frankel and stars Tucci, Blunt, Anne Hathaway, and Streep in talks to return. Not much else has been confirmed since. When asked for updates, Tucci told VF, “I can’t answer that. No one will let me answer that.”
