You've got the Tucci, you've got the power.
Although Stanley Tucci's become more known for his sensual videos involving food and drink, the actor has had a diverse range of roles throughout his years.
From early roles in the likes of 'Miami Vice' and 'Wiseguy', through to the likes of 'Big Night' and beyond to 'The Hunger Games', 'The Devil Wears Prada' and 'Easy A', Stanley Tucci has brought a dynamic presence to screen in each of his roles. Whether they're comedic, dramatic, or even romantic, Tucci's ability to quietly inhabit a role has made him a presence in movies for the better part of three decades.
As he turns 61 this week, here's a rundown of our five favourite scenes. Take a look.
5. 'The Hunger Games' - "Well, I've lived here longer..."
In the hands of a lesser actor, it'd be easy to chalk Caesar Flickerman down as a supporting character. Yet, it's to Stanley Tucci's credit that even if he is merely an exposition device in this, he's going to as memorable as possible. Whether it's that manic, gleaming smile of his or the ridiculous hairdos, Tucci's performance as Panem's evil cousin of Graham Norton made for some of the most startling moments in the entire series of movies.
4. 'Margin Call' - "Did you know I was an engineer?"
In JC Chandor's debut movie, the typical Wall Street-type character is cast not necessarily as an asshole, or even a tragic figure, but rather as fallible, real, human characters. The movie shows how some fantastically smart people - rocket scientists, bridge engineers - were swallowed up by the capitalist engine and used their skills and trade to essentially help with rigging a gambling enterprise. This idea is zeroed in with precision by Stanley Tucci's character, where he calmly describes to shark-like trader Paul Bettany how he helped to build a bridge in the '80s, and rattles off the figures around it. After all these years, Tucci's character is still able to remember every detail of the bridge, and that in itself is kind of indicative of where each character is in this movie. They could be building bridges or helping rockets leave this planet, but instead, they're earning vast sums of money doing essentially nothing.
Charisma is often mistaken sometimes on screen for suaveness. It's absolutely correct to say that Stanley Tucci has played suave characters in the past, and in real life is probably just the same. Yet, charisma allows for something beyond surface-level aesthetics. It's a kind of warmth, a comfort in their own skin, that allows for scenes such as this to play in all of its foibles. It's a nothing scene really, just two intimate partners getting a little ratty with each other about sleeping in a tiny bed. Yet, through the ad-libbed dialogue, you get the sense of the years of relationship between them, and the deep care and affection they have for one another.
3. 'Supernova' - "I'll be a little bed rail, like for children..."
2. 'Spotlight' - "This city, these people, makin' the rest of us feel like we don't belong..."
At the Irish premiere of 'Spotlight', as the end credits revealed a massive list of other places beyond Boston where institutional coverups of sexual abuse committed by ordained priests of the Catholic Church took place, the audience sat in absolute silence. As people got up to leave, there wasn't a single word said. There's no particular scene in 'Spotlight' that stands out, because it's a movie made up of slow, deliberate progress. Here and there, moments tip the investigation forward. Stanley Tucci's character, Mitchell Garabedian, is presented initially as something of a chippy lawyer, but there's a moment when he and Mark Ruffalo's hard-driving journalist meet for lunch and you see that it's something more. Garabedian paints a picture of a city closed up to outsiders, but that for all their pretensions, the Irish-Americans of Boston are no better than anyone else. It's a damning, crushing observation and one that Tucci's performance delivers with such quiet power.
1. 'Big Night' - The scrambled eggs scene
'Big Night' is by far Stanley Tucci's most recognised and perhaps his most celebrated work to date. Set during the '50s inside a failing Italian restaurant run by two gifted brothers - Tucci and Tony Shalhoub - as they prepare a feast for jazz singer Louis Prima, 'Big Night' delves into Italian-American identity, artistic credibility, sibling dynamics, not to mention some absolutely exquisite food. The final scene of 'Big Night', however, is one that has no dialogue. It's merely Stanley Tucci silently making an omelette in real-time for himself, the waiter of their restaurant, and then later, his brother. The two have spent the entire night breaking their backs to cook a lavish feast that ultimately becomes their downfall and leads to a blistering, fiery argument between them. Yet, in the quiet of the dawn, they reconcile. To end a movie in this way could have been schmaltzy and sentimental. Here, however, with Tucci's writing and performance, it feels authentic and earned.