UPDATED at 6:50 PM: Stanley Tucci has shed new light on his battle with cancer, describing in great detail how it impacted his work on CNN culinary series, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.
The Oscar-nominated actor’s comments came in an interview with the New York Times published Saturday. He explains in the interview how his recovery has affected his ability to enjoy the same dishes that he created with his Emmy-nominated travel documentary. “horrible” radiation treatments resulted in vertigo and mouth ulcers, along with a loss of appetite. After three radiation sessions, he said that all food tasted like cardboard to him. “slathered with someone’s excremement.”
Throughout his recovery, Tucci’s greatest fear wasn’t death, but rather the prospect of a life without taste. “I mean, if you can’t eat and enjoy food, how are you going to enjoy everything else?”He was curious.
He said that production had already started on Searching for Italy when he spoke. “could taste everything.” At the same time, though, he “couldn’t necessarily swallow.” Sometimes, he’d have to chew food “for 10 minutes” before being able to; other times, he’d have to give up his efforts altogether.
But even if “the smell of food”At one point, enough was enough to make Tucci “want to throw up,”He never thought of quitting his role as Searching for Italy host. “There was no way I wasn’t going to make it,”He stated. “I’ve wanted to tell for a long time the story of Italy and the disparate cuisine in every region.”
Tucci was diagnosed three years ago with cancer. A tumor was found at the base his tongue. He has made a full recovery. In an interview with Vera magazine earlier this month, Tucci first revealed his diagnosis.
With his latest interview, Tucci looked to promote Taste: My Life Through Food, a memoir set for publication on Tuesday, via Gallery Books. His other passion project, Searching for Italy, nabbed two Emmy nominations following its premiere in February, and has been renewed for a second season.
PREVIOUSLY, SEPTEMBER 4,:Stanley Tucci, who has many credits as an actor. The Hunger Games AndSupernovaIn a new interview, he discussed his diagnosis of cancer and treatment.
In an interview with Vera magazineTucci stated that he was first diagnosed with a tumor in the base of his tongue three years ago. The mass “was too big to operate,,”It could only be treated with “high-dose radiation and chemo.”
Having been through a cancer ordeal when his first wife, Kate Spath-Tucci, had breast cancer more than a decade ago, Tucci was wary of that.
“I’d vowed I’d never do anything like that, because my first wife died of cancer, and to watch her go through those treatments for years was horrible,” Tucci said. Spath-Tucci, 47, died in 2009
Tucci said that his treatment included the use of a feeding tube at one time.
“The kids were great, but it was hard for them,”He stated. “I had a feeding tube for six months. I could barely make it to the twins’ high school graduation.”
Tucci stated that his cancer treatment was successful. Tucci said that he feels older because of the experience.
“[Cancer] makes you more afraid and less afraid at the same time. I feel much older than I did before I was sick. But you still want to get ahead and get things done.”