"All right, everyone. Gird your loins!"
Sometimes, the best talent is forgotten about.
While multiple websites track down and rank birthday boy Leonardo DiCaprio's top roles and establish some order to his film role catalog, I am going to take a look at another Nov. 11 talent. A face you may not be able to put a name to, but definitely know. A familiar one. The one you point at the screen and quietly mutter to your friend, "there's that guy!"
Happy birthday, Stanley Tucci. One of my favorite and most reliable actors turned 58 years young today, so taking the time to sift through his list of performances and find five gems was a good use of time on a cold Sunday evening. Officially, Tucci has a part in 127 different movies and television roles, and it all started with Prizzi's Honor in 1985 with a part simply titled, "Soldier".
Let's dive right in as I pour another Bloody Mary over ice and search for more green olives.
5) Frank Nitti in Sam Mendes' Road To Perdition (2002)
Now, Tucci only had a handful of scenes as Al Capone (an unseen Anthony LaPaglia), but in a classic display of make use of what you got, the actor owned those scenes and held his own with some powerhouse talent. There are two definitive scenes, one with Tom Hanks' hitman and the other with Daniel Craig's adolescent grown-up who sparks the events of the entire movie. "You'll never make it, not with a little boy," Tucci's Nitti's warns Hanks' Michael Sullivan. In the other scene, he puts Craig's Connor Rooney's in a vice with a line so hot and rough, it is unsuitable for this outlet. Sometimes, an actor gets pages. There are other jobs where he gets one page. Tucci owned a role in a small amount of time. Instantly convincing.
4) Caesar Flickerman in Gary Ross' The Hunger Games (2012)
Flamboyant yet sinister with his words, Tucci's game show host gave the audience a fair dosage of levity in a teenage wasteland of violence. Playing the man who interviewed the tributes, interpreted the action for a large audience, and looked like a way down the rabbit hole version mixture of The Mad Hatter, Don King, and David Bowie, Tucci perfectly personified vulnerability inside a larger than life character. He showed us Caesar's real frustrations and anger amid the outlet of entertainment. Fine work in a big budget film.
3) Ted Swenson in Richard Levine's Submission (2017)
One of the few leading roles for Tucci saw him play the brilliant yet flawed professor and acclaimed novelist who gets in too deep with one of his students (Addison Timlin), who may or may not be using him for ascension. A helping hand getting to plunge both hands into the cookie jar for the first time in years, Tucci didn't waste the opportunity to push in playing the fall guy in Levine's cautionary tale on the faults of man. In a role that others would have chewed down the bone, Tucci decided to throw Swenson into a pot to simmer. It was a criminally underseen gem that I enjoyed mostly for the Tucci showcase.
2) Nigel in David Frankel's Devil Wears Prada
In the majority of his roles, the viewer should be begging for Tucci to come back on camera. For me, Prada ranks near the top of that list. Nigel was something else, a cynical diva slaving away for an unlovable Queen who didn't value him enough. In taking Anne Hathaway's fish out of water Andy under his wing early on in the film, Tucci gets the fair share of the film's comedic moments, none more blunt than a cafeteria assessment. Staring down a belt-stretching bowl of carb-loaded soup. Nigel only needs a couple lines to translate career doom for the young up and comer. It's a role that only Tucci could turn into something so deep and involving. It holds up twelve years later.
1) Eric Dale in J.C. Chandor's Margin Call
There's a scene near the end of this stock market retelling where Tucci's fallen architectual genius gives a speech about the long-standing value of a highway built in the right place that gives the film an extra layer of power. Without it, Chandor's film still resonates deeply and gets the job done. Jeremy Irons' speech near the conclusion can move the table, but Tucci's sad but true tale of an investment bank's mortality and how it affects the ordinary person holds more weight seven years later. You can pull that scene out and play it in colleges across the world and people would learn something. How good is Tucci? Those college students may think it's a documentary. That's how real he makes it.
Tucci is a true actor. Old school in construction and built for the long haul, the actor has five projects in the works and will begin work on at least five more. He takes roles and doesn't care about vanity or attention. To this hard-boiled actor, the work is the backbone of a career, not the cover of a magazine or Entertainment News segment.
In a day and age where true actors are forgotten and movie stars carry a film to the promised land, Tucci should be celebrated. When he is in a movie, there's no doubt it will be worth a viewing. He managed to class up Transformers: Age of Extinction a few years ago. Now that's a real talent.
Thanks for reading and happy birthday, Stanley.
