Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Stanley Tucci

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

Stanley Tucci has been one of Hollywood’s most prolific and versatile actors since he started out in the industry over 30 years ago. In this week’s Sunday Sitdown, Willie gets together with the star to talk about his roles from The Devil Wears Prada to The Hunger Games to his latest series Citadel, and his hit culinary travel show Searching for Italy. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I am thrilled to bring you my conversation this week with the great Stanley Tucci. Who doesn't love Stanley Tucci? If you hadn't already fallen in love with him in, oh, I don't know, Big Knight, his 1996 film that put him on the map, which he wrote, directed, and starred in. Maybe you fell in love with him in The Devil Where's Prada. Maybe you loved him in Julie and Julia.

Maybe you loved him in the Hunger Games movie. Maybe you were, well, chilled and frightened by his performance, but admired it anyway, in The Lovely Bones. He played a serial killer, was nominated for an Academy Award there. If you weren't already there on Team Stanley Tucci, probably searching for Italy, the travel and food show that he hosted as himself on CNN for a couple of seasons, where he took us during the pandemic on an escape on a trip when we needed it most to Italy. to eat the food, to drink the wine, to show us the culture, to explain the complexity that is Italy, and just to really sit back and enjoy it. He was so good on that show. And we get into whether there's going to be a third season, it's not unseen it anymore. It might pop up somewhere else.

Stay tuned to hear what he has to say about that. His latest project, though, is something completely different. He is starring alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas in the show Citadel. This is a highly anticipated show on Prime Video, highly anticipated because they've been talking about it for several years, and it is produced by the Russo brothers who do all the Avengers movies. So a big spectacle, you know, explosions and car chases and there's a lot going on, big budgets, which is a little bit different than what Stanley's done before, and he's really good in it, is he isn't just about everything he steps into. So we talk about all of that. We talk about the public's recent obsession with him, partially because of those Instagram,

videos of him making Nogronies for his wife Felicity during the pandemic. Also searching for Italy. People just like the guy and I think you will too. So sit back, relax. Enjoy a conversation

with Stanley Tucci on the Sunday Sitdown podcast. Stanley? It is a pleasure. It's a pleasure for me. Great to see you. Likewise.

So we were just talking about the Citadel universe that you have stepped into. Something a little new for you. Yes. Explosions. Shoot them up. Action.

A little bit of James Bond. a little bit of Jason Bourne. What appealed to you about this? That, all that. And the fact that I liked it, it was a sort of twist on the usual spy genre. And the character was a twist on the usual character in the spy genre.

You know, usually you have, in that genre, you have the spy, the handsome spy, and then you have the femme fatale, then you have the tech guy, and then you have the, handler of the spy, right? Like Felix Leiter. Right.

Whereas this character, Bernard Orlik, he has three of those, not the femme fatale, but he has three of those, although I try. Yeah, they're flat. Yeah. He's three of those all wrapped into one. He's the tech guy. He's the handler of all the spies, but he's also somebody who's out in the field. And you enjoyed this sort of big budget universe created by the Russo Brothers.

We can talk about them in a minute, but stepping into this sort of machine where there are car chases and all kinds of that fun stuff that you could play with that you don't always do in a role that you seek out. No. No, I'm not cast in those for some reason. I don't know why. But it's really fun to do. I mean, obviously, a lot of it is, you know, they have the technology today to do stuff that they've never done before. So, you know, a car chase can, a lot of it's happening on a stage with the green screen behind you or something. And certain things, you know, props can be put in digitally later, all that kind of stuff.

It's kind of incredible. So it's not as uncomfortable shooting those things as it once was. Although I'm sure that Richard and Priyanka wouldn't say that. They had to do all that real stunt stuff. Yeah, those scenes. Incredible. On the train at the beginning? Wow, unbelievable.

What a way to open the show. I know. So smart. The Russo Brothers, who people will know from a million other huge successful movies, are the executive producers of this as well. To the layman, to someone watching, what does that mean exactly? What is the Russo Brothers experience? I think the Russo Brothers mean superior technology and superior storytelling all at once.

You know, we know what they did with the Avengers franchise. It's kind of incredible. What I really love about them, and I just did a movie with them, too, is that, you know, they're so good at all that action stuff, so good at all the technical stuff that just keeps advancing more and more and they're on the sort of forefront of that. But also, they're really great actor-directors.

In other words, they, you know, a lot of directors don't know how to communicate with actors, which is one of the reasons I started directing many years ago. But these guys really know how to do it, and they're just wonderful. Their direction is minimal but succinct, and they're incredibly nice people, and they shoot very quickly.

So you don't have those days that you can have on some movie sets that are like 17 hours long. I mean, they're very efficient. It's great. You're not sitting in the trailer for six hours. Come out, get some coverage, go back to the trailer. No, you're lucky you can get to your trailer.

I mean, you go like, okay, you rehearse, you go, I'm going to go to the trailer. By the time you get to your trailer, they go, we're ready. That never happens. So what does it mean Stanley to be a good actor-direct? It's just the way they communicate what they want from you. Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, they're kind. There's not a lot of screaming and shouting and all that sort of nonsense. They're very calm. And they'll just say, you know, I think maybe give a little bit more here, you know, because later on that scene's going to happen. You go, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, you're right. I forgot. Yeah, good, yep.

And then just a little bit more. Or do one like you did when do the funny one again or something. You know what I mean? But that's the kind of direction I love. I love that. And they'll let you play. They'll keep it rolling and just let you sort of play around with lines and stuff. It's great.

You've got, as you said, you're all those types of characters, those three that you describe wrapped into one. And it is full of action, of course, but he's funny, too. He's funny. Right? He always has the line, which I imagine makes for a fun character. It does. It's no fun to do things without that.

No, it was great. and it became more so as we worked on it. And then, of course, I would just throw stuff in to see what happens. Yeah, I thought I heard a little of your personality. Yes, yeah, a little bit. Seeping into the character there. Yeah, my cynicism, yeah. The idea of a series to you, who does mostly movies,

obviously he's done a ton of TV episodes as well. Did you like this serial type of shoot where it's, you know, six distinct sort of hours that move it along instead of one big movie? I do like that. And I think, obviously, that's where, you know, entertainment is headed or it's already there. I think it's great. It allows you to tell a story, obviously, over a longer period of time, so you can tell, you can give it more depth.

You can make the characters more complex. Not all that information has to be squeezed into an hour and a half, two hours. So it's much more interesting. And a lot, you know, unfortunately, you know, the model of, you know, making a film and putting it out there has changed so distinctly because of streaming, but then also because of the pandemic. So independent movies, which are the kinds of movies that I directed, and I've been in many of them as an actor, they're very hard to make and get out there now.

Where are you going to put them? You're going to put them in a few theaters, and maybe if you're lucky, some people will see them. The good thing about the streamers is, and one thing is they have to be careful not to just keep making the same shows over. and over again. But the visibility of the product is 10fold, a thousandfold. Right. You know, and when you see small movies that are made to, like more intimate films that are made for streamers, so many more people see them. And I think it's a really,

it's a good thing. You're an interesting person to talk about that because you look at a series like this and then go back to Big Night in 96. Do you think Big Night would be made today or is the world so different that it would be difficult to get that off the ground? I think in a way, it might have been easier to make big night today. People are more obsessed with food than they ever were. There was no food network or whatever. There weren't, like Anthony Bourdain didn't have his show. You know, people are much more food aware than they used to be.

I suppose the only thing you'd probably run into trouble with is that, which is what we did run in trouble with anyway, which was, you know, they always want to have. happy ending. And we were like, no, no, that never happens. Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Stanley Tucci right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Stanley Tucci. Well, speaking of food awareness, searching for Italy was absolutely a phenomenon. No, thanks. It truly was. Clearly it came along. at the right time.

We're home. We had a captive audience. We need to be taken somewhere, all of us. But I think that in some ways that minimizes how good the show was. It wasn't just because of that. It was because people love you and they love food. So how did the idea for that show come to you? Was it your own idea?

Yeah, I had the idea in that house that you now own. Off the bedroom, I had a little office there. I don't know if you... Yeah. So I was in the... And I was thinking, I really, I think there's a way to tell the story of Italy through food, but not just, yum, that's delicious. But everything can be connected to, everything has to be connected to food, but those stories, we need to break it down region by region. And that was about 15 years ago.

And I kept thinking about it, and I'd sort of talk to people about it. And they go, yeah, it's a good idea, nothing would ever happen. And then CNN came to me. This is right after, this is about almost five years ago or so. And they came to me and they said, do you have any ideas for a show? And I said, yeah, I have three ideas. One was about cancer, about alternative treatments and standard of care. And they looked at me like, they were like, I don't think so.

What else he got? Yeah, yeah. And then they, another was about refugees in food, which is still something I want to do. And then I said, I want to break down Italy region by region and tell the story of that region and Italy as a whole through the prism of food. Socioeconomics, how food has affected the topography, you know, how the topography has affected, what you eat and so on and so forth. And they went, okay, and then we made it. It wasn't that easy, but yeah.

Well, and then it's released and it just catches fire. I know. I mean, it was a phenomenon. I'm sure you couldn't have expected it to be received the way it was. How do you account for that? I don't know. I really don't know. Like we say, the pandemic.

But I think also one of the things we did was, you know, I didn't want it to be like a regular travel log. And I didn't want it to be like a cooking show or a food show, like food porn. Right? That's just like, who cares? And also the way we shot it, and particularly as it went along, I was more adamant that when we shoot stuff, we need to, if we have wide shots, as opposed to these series of close-ups, cutaways to this and that, there's more connectivity between me and who I'm talking to

and the two of us and the food. So if we're doing a three-shot, I always want to have that three-shot. And then we can have the other stuff, but it can't be too tight because you need to see people's bodies, you need to see a sense of place, and it always has to, that food has to be a constant thing. If you're in the same frame, if I'm just cutting to food and then to your head,

it doesn't, there's no connection. And we lose that connection. And that's when we look at so many cooking shows today, that's what you see. And I find it very disconcerting. And I think also that what I wanted to do also was sort of dispel the myth that, you know, everything in Italy is sunny and everyone's eating pasta and pizza and it's only pasta and pizza. And it's all great. Well, that's not true. It's not true.

There is pasta and there is pizza. And some people are smiling. But it's, and it's not like that all the time. And to give, we can eat a pizza, but then we can also say, well, where did pizza actually come from? What's the real history of that? And we had amazing researchers who would do research, and then I had my own ideas, and I'd say, I went to this place once, I want to go to that place again, and this is the reason. And, you know, it would be this pasta thing,

and these people were this, and it connects to this and connects to that. So you have to be able to tell the story. There has to be a thread through each region. I said, what is the story of this region? And that's what researchers, and we end up doing all together, and then we film it. It's a beautiful show, and you're right, it's not food porn, although there are a few times when you'd eat a beautiful piece of cheese and your eyes would roll back into your head. So there was some element of that. Yeah, there is some element of that. Yeah. Yeah.

So that raises the question about another season, because it was so beloved for those first two seasons. Are we working on the third? Is it going to end up somewhere? We are. Yeah, it was really unfortunate what happened with CNN. No one understood it. But that was the new. management came in and just said goodbye to everything that was, even stuff that was about to be released. They just nixed it. It was over. So it was a real shock to us. And we were preparing for another season. So now I think, I should know in the next couple of weeks, it'll end up someplace. And I'm going to, I'll end up probably going back to Italy. for a bit. But the plan was always that we do the UK as well. And I'll do the UK, but also to do spinoffs. Like CNN, we did Eva, Longoria, Mexico. And what I want to do is Scandinavia.

I want to do Japan. I want to do France. I want to do. But we do them with people like me. I can't do them because, well, I would never see my family. But also, you have to have the The thing is you have to have a connection to the country. You have to speak the language. And you have to really love food, not just, oh, I love to eat, but, like, really have a knowledge of food and a deep interest in it. So we have to just, and you have to have some sort of, I guess, international profile that helps because then people will watch it.

So that's the plan. So the idea is to move forward with all those different, you know, facets of it. I think the show was so good. I think most people would have been shocked if it didn't end up somewhere. It has to. I'm sure you have some suitors, hopefully. I didn't even think I wanted to do it anymore. I was tired.

You know, it's tiring. Yeah? I mean, it sounds funny. You know, people go, put me in your suitcase. I know what you mean. But you're like, it's exhausting. Yeah. I was like, I'll just want to go to Italy without cameras following me.

You know what you mean? Yes. But I really, you know, the story's not done. I haven't finished the story. And I also know how happy it made people. and I feel an obligation to the audience to continue it because it makes them so happy. People all the time on the street, everywhere I go,

they're like, I can't tell how much I love that. We're in Italy because of you. We got married in Italy because of you. We're on our honeymoon here. There was this kid we ran into the other day. Do you remember that, Lottie? The kid? Are you here?

Are you asleep? She's asleep. Yeah, she did. I was in the people. Gatsa Nivona in Rome, and this family, and I saw them sort of looking, and the woman came up to me and she said, my son is, he was like eight, probably. I said, my son just loves your show so much, like he can't believe that you're here, and he kept trying to pull her away because he was so embarrassed and shy and everything.

And I was like, oh, thank you. It's so sweet. And then I went over, I said, do you want to take a picture? And he didn't. I mean, he was just like beside himself. But the fact that this eight-year-old kid was obsessed with this show, it just makes you happy. Well, you opened a lot of people's world, I think.

Oh, this is what Italy looks like. That's something for me to aspire to or go to someday. Yeah. And I do think the format is great, but there's something about you that drew people in. I have no idea when I was. I'm doing. That's what you're one of us in that way. But it was part of this. You had the viral Nogroni post that the whole world saw and loved. Yeah. And this show and you, I know you're

proud of this, even though it was a silver medal, the second sexiest bald man in the world. True. We're all chasing Vin Diesel. Yeah. That's fair. For years. But he's too fast. But what do you make of this? But what do you make of this? this fascination with you. I know it's probably an uncomfortable thing to talk about, but it's been ongoing, but really feels like it's accelerated in the last couple of years. I don't know.

I really don't know. And, you know, I'm 62 years old. This is a very odd time for people to go like, hey. But it's, look, what are you going to say? It's great. You know, it's great. You'd be an idiot to go, like, I hate it, you know. But, look, my wife is the one who sort of,

said, why don't you make a, you know, make a cocktail. We'll do it in-house for our agency that she works for that I'm with in England. Just like, you make everybody happy. I was like, great. So we did. And then she said, put on your Instagram. You know, at that time, I had seven followers, all of whom were related to me. And we did it.

And then it just went crazy. You know, and then Chris Evans, like, retweeted it or whatever you do. And it just went crazy. And that just changed everything. And I think that and the combination of the show, it just blew up. And that's great. I mean, I really, I love it. I love doing this stuff.

I love anything connected to food. It's fun to watch. You feel like you've earned it, you know? Yeah, yeah, good. Yeah, absolutely. So the other challenge you had, of course, challenge puts it mildly. But while you were shooting, searching for Italy, is that you'd been diagnosed with cancer. And so you couldn't taste a lot of the food, among many other complications from that.

What did that diagnosis do to you? In what ways did that sort of jar you? Well, it was terrifying. I mean, my first wife died of cancer. I had a lot of friends who died of cancer. I was on the board of – I still am on the board of a company that is – dealing with standard of care treatments, but their drug is completely non-toxic. So they'll use it as a monotherapy, but also use it as in conjunction with standard of care.

And so I knew a lot about cancer. And my late wife and I, we traveled all over the world trying to find a cure for her. So when I got it, I was completely shocked. I just didn't get it. You know, I'm very healthy. I don't. But it's very common cancer in my age. And I was terrified, absolutely terrified.

And luckily, it hadn't metastasized, which is a big, that's a big deal. But the treatments were brutal. They couldn't operate because the tumor was too large. So I did high-dose radiation for 35 days and then six rounds of light dose chemo. And it was awful. I lost 35 pounds. I couldn't eat. I had a feeding tube for six months.

And everything tasted like, you know what, and smelled like, you know what. And it took months and months and months for finally for me to be able to eat again. and then taste properly again. And now it's five years. It's actually going to be five years in about in a few days when I finished treatment. And I can actually taste and smell better than I could before. Is that right? Yeah, it's really weird.

And I don't know what that is. And the doctors are like, that's impossible. And I'm like, no, I swear I can tell you. And even Felicity, my wife, she sees it. she'll go, is this? And I go, from there, I go, no, no good. Is that right? Yeah, it's really weird.

How fascinating. Yeah, it is fascinating. Like you developed a superpower. Yeah. It's really weird. We were shooting in Venice. We went to this restaurant, and we were filming, we were eating a duck ragu, which was really good.

And I asked the chef, I said, so what's in this? Because I watched him make a little bit of it. I was like, what's in this? And he told me, it was this, this, this, and this. And I was like, and what else? And he said, no, that's it. I said, is there a nutmeg in it? And he went, oh, yeah.

He goes like that much. Wow. It was weird. Even the guy I was eating with was like, what? It was really interesting. That is. And it's great. But I still can't eat everything, unfortunately.

I don't have the ability to just swallow everything. You know, you lose a lot of your saliva and stuff like that. But there are so many people who are going through this. And, you know, the good thing is if you catch it, catch it early. If you feel like there's something, people just have to go get checked. Don't let it. Don't sit around and wait. And you let it go a little while.

I did. And I was misdiagnosed, too, for like two years. The fact that it didn't anesthetize was amazing. And you're in good health now? Yeah, I'm fine. Good. Yeah. Good.

And did your experience, as you said, you traveled the world, your experience with Kate color the way you sought treatment and the way you handled it? Absolutely. I didn't want to do standard of care. I was adamantly against it. I was so afraid. I saw what it did to her. But Felicity was very insistent.

And then when I looked at the statistics, you go, yeah, I'll do it. I mean, they had to drag me kicking and screaming. But now I wouldn't be around if I hadn't done that. Thank God. Sounds like Felicity got you through that time. She did. She continues to. Yeah, she was incredible. Still is.

Incredible, yeah. Stick around for more of my conversation with Stanley Tucci right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Stanley Tucci. You know, since we have a Westchester connection, I have to briefly go back to the beginning of where this all started. This fully formed star, Stanley Tucci, at John Jay High School and Cross River, New York.

That's right. Just around the intersection of 35 and 121 right there. Yeah. You were an athlete, but it seems to me reading and listening to you that your heart was in the drama club

on the stage. Is that a fair assessment? Absolutely. I loved it. I loved playing soccer. And that was just, I loved it, loved it, loved it. And I almost went to university to play something.

soccer. But I really loved acting. And I auditioned for Sunni at Purchase and ended up getting in and going there for four years. Yeah, it was great. But we had a great, it was a great drama teacher at John Jay at the time. He was a really wonderful guy and he encouraged so many people to just, you know, embrace that, whether you were to sing or you wanted to act or you wanted to whatever work behind the scenes. He was amazing. He was amazing. Of course, look, it was also the 1970s, and things were a lot more relaxed, and there was a lot more importance put on the arts. Right.

Isn't it interesting, though, to think back, maybe that one person, that one drama teacher steered you where you are? If he hadn't been there, maybe you do go play college soccer, and your life is entirely different. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So when you were a young actor here in New York, early days, getting some gigs here and there, the famous Levi's commercial, just a strapping.

Son of a gun. Right. Yeah. What were those early years like for you? Was it the classic struggling actor story? Yeah. Yeah, it was. I mean, I, you know, I'd paint apartments to make money or I'd, you know, work in a restaurant as a bartender or, you know, I'd work down in the basement peeling shrimp or whatever.

I didn't want to, I didn't want to be a waiter. I don't know why I don't want to be a waiter. I just, I wanted to, because I wanted to be able to get in and get out if I needed to. And then I started to get some work. And, I mean, I originally started. I was lucky enough to, out of college, I understudied a play and had a small part in a play on Broadway. And that gave me my equity card. And I had an agent.

So that's, that was, those were two really great things. But then you just audition for stuff and you get it or you don't get it. And then eventually you start getting little like TV roles, guest spots on Miami Vice or, you know, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And then you start to have these little sort of climb, and then things go like that. I mean, before we made Big Night, I had just bought a house. It was the first house I'd ever bought. I had literally no money after that.

And I couldn't get a job. And then we got the money for Big Night, and I ended up doing Murder One. So those two things together completely changed the trajectory of my career. But then, you know, it does this again. It keeps going up and down and up and down. You know, after I did the Devil Wears product, I mean, I was hard-pressed for work. Is that true? I've read that.

I can't believe it. Yeah. No, but it's just the way it is. Yeah. You know, so now I save my money. Sorry. Let's put it that way. In case, it happens again.

Well, Murder 1 was a big deal. You got an Emmy nomination. People sort of said, okay, there he is. But it seems to me, with Big Knight, you took matters into your own hands. You say, let's make the thing that I really want to make. We're going to raise a bunch of money and we're going to have to write it and direct it and be in it. But it'll be worth it in the end. That must have been so gratifying to have it pay off the way it did.

It was so gratifying. It was so gratifying. And it was Kendall Scott who had been working with this company that's no longer in existence as far as I know. And they were the ones who put the money in. But they were doing other movies, too. They were doing like bigger budget movies. They paid no attention to our film, which is probably, A good thing.

No studio executives, watch the dailies. We would invite them to set or into the editing room. They were like, whatever. It just weren't interesting. There's just a little movie. Who cares? And then they saw a screening of it. I wasn't there.

And they said, they watched it. They went, oh, great, we'll win best foreign film, you know. But then people try. Then we went to Sundance. It was a big success, incredible reviews and everything. And then, excuse me, MGM was interested in buying it, even though it was already at Samuel Goldman. That distribution deal had been done in advance,

which was a shame because they could have sold it for a lot of money. And MGM, at the time, they said, you know, we really like this. They screened it, test screened it without us knowing. And they said, you know, the test screening results came back. And we said, yeah. they said, you know, well, 50% of the people like it because it's like a foreign film, and 50% of the people don't like it because it's like a foreign film. And I was like, uh-huh, and what did you think was going to happen?

Did you think that everyone was going to like it? Because it was like, I was like, yeah. And they were like, well, we were thinking that maybe you could change the ending. And I was like, you couldn't do it. There were no sets left. Like, nothing was left. Do you know what I mean? It was like, there's no way.

The movie cost, you know, and I was like, you know, we thought about that. But when we wrote it, they mentioned an idea. I said, we thought about that idea. It's a good idea. But ultimately, this is probably the best way for it to end. And they couldn't argue because all the reviews had come out saying this is the best ending in a movie in the last 15 years or something like that. So, I think I'll change that. Do you know what I mean?

It's like the one part everyone agrees. He's going to change it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's great because people still love it. People still watch it. And, you know, it opened a whole new world for me. And I think people connected back now to searching for Italy. Oh, right.

The Italian food, the thread through his life, his real life. I'm obsessive. Yes, you are. It's always there. So that was not, given its success, that was not the springboard. Do you think into your career from there? Yeah, it helped. I did work quite a bit after that.

And I directed a couple of movies after that that did not do. well at all. One in particular, really was a failure. Still stays with you. Some of the worst reviews you've ever read. Which one does that come out? The Impostors, which is sort of like a cult film almost now. It's a very odd film.

I wrote it and I directed, but I never should have directed. I should have had someone else directed. But there was one review. This is when you used to get the reviews. They'd send them to you with like a big, you know what I mean? Like these tomes would arrive. and one review said, the only thing I can say about Stanley Tucci's second movie

is that I wish he hadn't made it. And then after I read that, I laughed. I thought, okay, fine, whatever. I mean, I was like, all right, take it. It's only a movie. Relax. It's a little direct to do something else. Don't go.

Don't watch it. Oh, my gosh. Well, that, obviously the role that people, I think, view as your breakout role, was Devil Works Prada. And what fun that must have been with Merrill and Emily and everybody who was on that set. Incredible. Yeah.

I mean literally one of the best. I remember the last day when we filmed, it was my last day of filming and they still had some more to go. I wouldn't leave. I didn't want to leave. I was like, I don't want to go. This has been too much fun. That never happens. Usually I'm like, got to get out of here.

It was just amazing. David Frankel was amazing. Absolutely beautiful writing. writing and Merrill and then Merrill and I worked together after that, Julian and Julia and now Emily's my sister-in-law. How about that? That's weird. That's weird.

She's so lucky. No, I love her. I just saw her. You know, I feel very lucky to have her in my life. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, man, that movie just became such a phenomenon. It's incredible.

I mean, right? And to this day, I have a 15-year-old daughter who's seen it, and it carries through the generations. it holds up. And it's interesting, too, because you think the demographic is just young women or something like that or teenage girls or whatever. And it is, but then you also have, like you'd be walking down the street and there'll be like a construction work when he goes, you know, I love the devil wears product. You know, and you're like, really? Not just like that. And I love, like, I love that. It just crosses, you know, over to everyone.

I think the variation in your career is part of what's so fascinating about you, that you can do Big Night and you can do The Hunger Games and you can do the series Citadel. Do you have a rule for how you pick and choose things because they're always a little unexpected and they're always interesting? Yeah, I mean, there was the, I wrote about this in the book. I think it was Edward J. Robinson who said he did three movies a year. One was for the art. one was for the money

and one was for location so it's not quite that but yeah it has to be interesting and it has to have some depth to it but sometimes you do it because it's like oh the Russo brothers are doing it do you know I mean and sometimes you go like I have five children I have to make some money

and other times it's like I absolutely love that director I love this role there was this little movie I did soon about a year after I was sick and it was called Supernova with Colin Firth. And it was this young director, writer-director, sent it to me. It was one of the most beautiful scripts I'd ever read, and he made it for like $5.

And I asked Collins to do it with me, and it was still one of the greatest experiences. And it's a movie that I'm incredibly proud of. And it wasn't a huge hit or anything, but it was a critical hit. And people who see it just are very moved by it. to work with a friend of yours. Yeah, I get to work with my friend.

And then you go do something where you're like shooting people and, you know, whatever. And you have a big trailer and you're making money. And then the next time you're doing a little thing and you're in the middle of nowhere and freezing and, you know, making no money. Nice to have those choices, though, that they'll call you for both. Yeah. And also, I think the thing is, too, you know, I'm not, I never was a leading man. You know, I. And so I'm a true.

Yeah, I don't, never. No. No. And I think that. If I was a lead in a movie, it was because I wrote it and directed it for me. So, do you know what I mean? So I think that for me, I always, the whole point of being an actor, I don't want to be the same guy every day, the same thing.

I want to do different stuff. And that makes you a character actor, I guess, which I always thought was a redundant phrase. Right. you know. So, but to have that flexibility is something that you strive for. You want to be able to do something comic. You want to do, you know, something dramatic like supernova. You want to do something like high octane like Citadel. It's great. And you want to do, you know, be able to play characters from all different walks of life, different sexuality, different, whatever. That's the whole point of it. Otherwise, hmm. What are we doing? It's boring. Yeah.

You wrote in your book, in Taste, you wrote something to the fact of acting eventually gets thinn. I want to do other things. But, boy, it sure does not seem like it's thinning out for you. You seem as busy as you've ever been. Busier than ever. No, which is great. Listen, the only thing about acting is great. It's really exciting.

It's not as glamorous as people think, you know. The only thing about doing films is that it just takes so. long and you end up waiting for extended periods of time in your trailer and it's sad like you just get sad you're like well why am i i've been here for six hours you know you just think you i could be doing so many other things i could be accomplishing so many other things i can be with my kids but that's your job you get paid to wait that's what you get paid for so does that mean you're looking at other things maybe theater Broadway coming back and doing things like that no i I don't, I want to direct a play.

I just wrote a play. So I'm, I want to direct a play again. I directed a show on Broadway before I moved to England. And I absolutely loved it. And I want to do that again. Going on stage, I'm not so sure I want to do that again. That is a grueling. Yeah, it's grueling.

And you're completely off, especially with little kids. Like people go, you do a play. You work three hours a night, two hours a night. You're like, no, it doesn't work that way. You know, by the time you finish, you're, eating dinner at 11 something at night, you're going to, you're not going to sleep until 1 in the morning. You have to sleep, especially at my age. You have to sleep later. You can't get up and take the kids to school. And then you miss their, you know, you miss their dinner,

you miss their bedtime and all that. No, thanks. No theater for you. No, I think so. I'll just get you back to it. Maybe a short run. Okay. Stanley, it's a joy. Thank you so much for your time. This is so much fun. Oh, you're wonderful. Thank you. It's great to meet you finally. Thank you. I know. At long last. I know. I'm glad. Thank you. Thanks.

My big thanks again to Stanley for a great conversation. You can catch his new series Citadel streaming now on Amazon Prime Video. And my thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of these conversations with my guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down Podcasts.