Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor, director, writer and food lover known for films like The Devil Wears Prada and The Hunger Games, and the Emmy-winning series Stanley Tucci: Searching for
On the island
Eight records
"I've chosen this song, Let It Be, by the Beatles. I mean, how many times has it been said, but they were you know, they changed so many people's lives for the better. They changed music. And when I hear them, I just think, Oh my god, it's so sophisticated. And what they did in such a short period of time is astounding."
"It's called Compared to What? And it's Les McCann and Eddie Harris at the Montreal Jazz Festival. And I remember hearing this on an album that my cousins had and they were so cool, my cousins. … I've never heard anything like that. You know, the rhythm of it, because I was a drummer. I played the drums when I was younger. And when I just heard the rhythm of it, it just stuck right into my heart."
Clarinet Concerto in A major, Adagio
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra, Karl Leister, Sir Neville Marriner
"Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major. … I took these films, these Super 8 films … and put them to music and … this is the piece that came up and I would keep playing it and I put those films like on a I think I put them on tape on like a you know a VHS and would just play this piece over this one image like a piazza in Paris and in Venice I think."
"Oh, The Weakness in Me by Joan Armatrading. And I heard this so many, many, many, many years ago. … I just think it's one of the most beautiful songs about love and about the complexity of love."
What a Wonderful WorldFavourite
"this is a song that Kate loved and this is what she wanted played at her memorial funeral service. I just loved that she chose that song because that's the way she saw the world."
Serenade for Strings in C major
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
"Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C major. … George Balanchine set a ballet to it, and I used to go to the ballet like three times a week in New York, New York City ballet. … Every time I saw this piece, I'd start to cry."
"A Foggy Day in London Town … Frank Sinatra. This was Felicity and my first dance at our wedding."
"It's Not Dark Yet by Bob Dylan. … I just love this because it's about, well, I'm saying it's about just getting older and knowing that there's only so much time left."
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:11So for you, Stanley, food is about more than just the dish itself. It's everything else at the table — the kind of mise-en-scène of a perfect meal. Can you talk me through that?
Yeah, it's the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Sitting around a table with the people that you love and having good food, whether you made it yourself or you're in a restaurant or something, it's just one of the best things anybody could ever do.
Presenter asks
3:37Were you surprised by the, at times, very lusty reaction that the negroni-making clip received? One commentator called it [RM: the most erotic thing in the world].
Surprised isn't the word. I was shocked. And we were reading the comments and crying with laughter. … You know, their father as a sort of post-60 sex symbol.
Presenter asks
8:57Your mother Joan was the person who ignited your love affair with food. How did it happen?
Watching her cook, um watching her cook with her mother too, uh, when we would go see my my grandmother. She never stopped learning and she never stopped watching cooking shows which were s starting to sort of blossom there.
The keepsakes
The book
S. J. Perelman
Thinking about it, it's ridiculous. It's him and Al Hirschfeld, who was a great cartoonist, and it's them traveling in the 1930s on a ship to Europe and around the world. It's just one of the funniest things I've ever read. And whether any of it's true, I have no idea, but it doesn't matter.
The luxury
Art supplies (paper and watercolor pencils)
I would just have some art supplies. Paper and art supplies. Yeah, I'd probably have if you have watercolor pencils, you can do quite a bit.
Presenter asks
14:33You went to drama school, but after you graduated, you were frustrated by the types of roles coming up for you over and over again. What was going on?
Yeah, over and over again. You know, because I was Italian American, you were cast as a as a bad guy. You were darker. So you were bad. So I got to a point where I said, I'm not going to play any mafiosi anymore.
Presenter asks
17:23In 2005, [your first wife] Kate was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer and very sadly died just four years later. How were you able to deal with your grief while continuing to care for your family?
With the support of my friends and family. Um you know, I didn't work for almost a year. It uh it was hard. It was awful. And it still is sort of awful in a way. You never really get over it.
Presenter asks
27:10In 2017 you were diagnosed with oral cancer and went through a gruelling course of treatment. How do you look back at that time?
It was horrible for everybody. Felicity was pregnant with Amelia, and so we went to New York to have the treatments done. Emilie was born in the same hospital. … Yeah, it was really, really hard. It was a terrible, terrible time.
“I feel much safer on stage than I do in my real life, sometimes walking into a cocktail party or a dinner party, I get very nervous.”
“I think I see her sometimes. And there's a part of you that goes, oh no, no, that's not her, and then you think, maybe it is her. Maybe she didn't really die, you know. And I have so many dreams and things like that.”
“You never really believe that a person is dead. You don't. And I'm coming to understand that now.”
“I kept trying to break it off … because I'm 21 years older than she is, and I didn't want to feel old for the rest of my life.”
“It humanizes you. I wasn't fully aware of my mortality. Even after Kate's death, and so many friends have passed away from cancer or from whatever.”