The 1998 movie Stanley Tucci wants to delete from history: “Every now and then, someone will come up to me”
While it’s all a matter of taste and personal preference at the end of the day, it’s not unreasonable to consider Stanley Tucci as part of the exclusive club of actors that nobody seems to have a bad word to say about.
It’s rarefied air occupied by a select few, with Keanu Reeves, Tom Hanks, and Denzel Washington among them, but Tucci feels as if he belongs in such illustrious company. After all, beyond his undoubted credentials as one of the industry’s finest character actors, he’s a man of many talents.
A regular scene-stealer and one of those stars everyone can rely on to deliver a memorable performance regardless of whether it’s drama, comedy, action, thriller, or sci-fi, Tucci also happens to be one hell of a stylish fella, a viral mixologist, and found his niche as a staunch proponent of homecooked Italian food.
He snaffled an Academy Award nomination for a chilling turn in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, hammed it up as Nigel Kipling in The Devil Wears Prada, somehow managed to emerge from a Transformers sequel with his dignity intact, won a Golden Globe for playing a Nazi, and melted hearts in Supernova.
On top of all that, he’s also an accomplished filmmaker. Since making his directorial debut on 1996’s dramedy Big Night, Tucci has gone on to helm another five features, all of which have secured stellar reviews from critics, with the exception of 2009’s Blind Date, which wasn’t very good.
However, he wouldn’t necessarily agree on all counts. His sophomore effort from behind the camera, 1998’s The Imposters, was a longtime passion project. Tucci first conceived the idea when he was studying acting at Yale alongside Oliver Platt and Tony Shalhoub, both of whom appeared in the film.
Channelling the spirit of Laurel and Hardy, the period-set farce drafted in a star-studded ensemble that included Alfred Molina, Steve Buscemi, Richard Jenkins, Isabella Rossellini, and Billy Connolly. A throwback to ‘Golden Age’ screwball capers, it was even selected to screen at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
Sure, it bombed at the box office, but it wasn’t a bad movie by any stretch. Not that Tucci cared, though, explaining to Variety that he questioned the mindset of anyone who enjoyed it. “Every now and then, someone will come up to me and say they love the second movie I made, which was called The Imposters,” he said.
Despite its reception, the film occupies an unusual place in Tucci’s career. It was clearly a project driven by passion rather than commercial ambition, drawing on his love for classic comedy and collaboration with close peers. That personal investment, however, also meant that any perceived shortcomings landed harder than they might have on a more detached effort.
In hindsight, his criticism seems rooted less in the film’s objective quality and more in the gap between intention and outcome. Having poured so much of himself into the project, Tucci viewed it through a far harsher lens than audiences or critics might, turning what was a modest misfire into a lingering creative frustration.
“They say, ‘It’s my favourite movie of all time,'” Tucci continued. “And then I accuse them of having escaped from an asylum.” It’s a fairly harsh criticism, but he didn’t stop there, with the picture’s co-lead, writer, director, and producer conceding that The Imposters did have potential, but only if somebody else was at the helm: “Then I think it would have been a really good movie.”
Tucci not only refuses to believe that anyone who approaches him to sing its praises may not be of sound mind, but he wishes he’d never directed the thing to begin with. He’s been in plenty of worse movies, and it sounds like his thinking is being driven by the fact that he invested so much into the production only to be left devastatingly disappointed by the results.
