Stanley Tucci names his most unfairly overlooked movie: “That made me sad”
Stanley Tucci‘s cultural reverence is ever-changing, based on which generation is at the centre of discussion.
Perhaps to the younger, more social-media-shaped generation, Tucci is a bastion of Italian cuisine. Usually immaculately clad in well-tailored clothing and standing amidst his enviously well-equipped kitchen, he cosplays as an Instagram chef who rustles up homemade pasta dishes that are, to his mind, a surefire way to win over your date.
Then there is my generation, those on the cusp of being labelled a millennial, who know him best for his supporting role in the universally beloved The Devil Wears Prada. For people of a certain age, this film is a cult classic, and a mere glimpse of Tucci’s face serves as a stylish reminder of that.
Ultimately, his charisma in terms of whatever project he feels connected to makes him the centre of audience attention, and they hinge their understanding of the topic on him as the orator. But beneath his iconic turnouts, in both the culinary and fashion worlds, is an actor who crafted a diverse career of intensely character-led roles.
Whether it was the creepy serial killer in The Lovely Bones, the passionately progressive Cardinal in Conclave or the delicately portrayed Tusker in Supernova. The latter serves as something of a brutally underrated movie in Tucci’s filmography, having got caught up in the void of Covid, it never really seemed to garner the acclaim it warranted.
“It’s an absolutely beautiful film,” Tucci stated, before continuing to illuminate how unjust its oversight was. “I love that director [Harry Macqueen], and it got wonderful reviews and everything, though there were no awards or anything like that. That made me sad for the director/writer because I think he’s extraordinary.”
Tucci starred alongside Colin Firth in the film, as the pair portrayed a couple who were navigating the painful reality of Tusker’s dementia, via a British road trip that serves as something of a long goodbye for Tucci’s character. He added, “Getting an independent film about that subject off the ground like that is hard, and I wanted him to have more. I wanted him to have more success afterwards.”
While Tucci’s concerns largely lie with the fact that Macqueen has been somewhat hard done by, by the lack of critical response, his own performance acts as collateral. Forgetting the direction and cinematography, Tucci turns in one of the best performances of his career on the 2020 film, somehow dancing between the heaviness of the grief and the lightness of the film’s romantic relief.
Ultimately, for all the participants of Supernova, I get the sense that critical acclaim isn’t in fact the number one motivator for a project like this. Instead, it was to speak to something more morally impactful, and so while it may have skipped the award season madness, it slowly garnered something more meaningful for its intended audience.
As director Macqueen simply put it, “If people thought the film was rubbish, but the representation of living with the illness had been accurate, Supernova still would have been a success in my eyes.”
