{"id":15467,"date":"2026-05-13T08:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/15467\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:20:15","slug":"stanley-tucci-on-tucci-in-italy-i-am-just-the-conduit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/15467\/","title":{"rendered":"Stanley Tucci on \u2018Tucci in Italy\u2019: \u2018I am just the conduit\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stanley Tucci is delighting fans<\/a> on the big screen as the stylish Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/a>and returns to the small screen with Season 2 of his food-and-travel show, Tucci in Italy, on Nat Geo on May 15.<\/p>\n

Like Season 1, the follow-up to the Emmy-Award winning (Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special), Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, Tucci in Italy sees the American actor-director visit five regions in Italy \u2014 Naples and Campania, Sicily, Le Marche, Sardinia, and Veneto (where he weighs in on the origins of tiramisu!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tucci, who made his acting debut in the black comedy Prizzi\u2019s Honor (1985) went on to act in several films and franchises, including The Hunger Games where he plays the blue-haired master of ceremonies Caesar Flickerman (a character Tucci has joked resembles tiramisu) and as the serial killer George Harvey in Peter Jackson\u2019s Lovely Bones \u00a0(2009) for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.<\/p>\n

More recently, he played Cardinal Bellini in Edward Berger\u2019s Conclave. He has also directed films such as Big Night and Joe Gould\u2019s Secret.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: \u2018The Devil Wears Prada 2\u2019 movie review: Meryl Streep and the Runway gang try to jumpstart a mostly inert sequel<\/a><\/p>\n

Apart from writing The Tucci Cookbook, The Tucci Table: Cooking With Family and Friends, Taste: My Life Through Food, and What I Ate in One Year, and hosting a food-and-travel series, Tucci has worked extensively on the small screen as well. He received an Emmy nomination for his role as Jack L Warner in Feud and appeared as Bernard Orlick in the spy thriller Citadel, starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Family first<\/p>\n

The 65-year-old actor sees a similarity between India and Italy in the fondness for food and family. \u201cI\u2019ve never been to India, but from everything I\u2019ve heard, there are similarities, from the importance of family to the importance of sharing food, and the diverse, dialects and traditions throughout the country,\u201d Tucci says over a video call from New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia is a huge country,\u201d Tucci hastens to add, \u201cWhile Italy is only about 60 million people. Italians eat together, maybe more than any other culture. They certainly eat together a lot more than Americans or the British.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Maccheroncini<\/p>\n

\n

Maccheroncini di Campofilone being mixed with a red ragu on a board.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n Ruth Dhanaraj\n <\/p>\n

Nigel\u2019s return<\/p>\n

Nigel Kipling, Runway\u2019s creative director, has forgiven Meryl Streep\u2019s Miranda Priestly for nixing his chances to fly solo in Paris 20 years ago \u2014 as he tells Anne Hathaway\u2019s Andy in The Devil Wears Prada 2. Returning to Nigel, Tucci says it definitely felt like, \u201cmeeting an old friend\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked to pick a favourite costume from the movie, which features designers including Dries Van Noten (Miranda\u2019s tassel jacket), Sa Su Phi (Miranda\u2019s grey blazer and skirt), Christian Dior (Emily\u2019s structured shirt), Jean Paul Gaultier (Andy\u2019s pinstripe suit), Gabriela Hearst (Andy\u2019s maxi dress) and Balenciaga (Miranda\u2019s red gown), Tucci said laughing, \u201cI loved every one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tucci, who is married to his The Devil Wears Prada<\/a> co-star Emily Blunt\u2019s sister, Felicity, adds, \u201cThe British will come together on a Sunday for a roast, but the majority of people in Britain do not sit down to dinner all the time, because both parents are working, or for whatever reason. After World War II, that started to become the norm in so many countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

A time to decompress\"Stanley<\/p>\n

\n

Stanley Tucci in Sicily during production of National Geographic’s \u2018Tucci in Italy\u2019 series.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n Matt Holyoak\n <\/p>\n

Italy, Tucci says, has maintained the tradition of eating together, although it is starting to fade. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely important because it\u2019s a time to decompress. It\u2019s a time to interact with one another, even if that interaction might be people having an argument over the table, at least you\u2019re interacting,\u201d he says, laughing gently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives you time to connect with one another, and separates you from the daily grind. It\u2019s a nice way to commune with people you love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting comfortable<\/p>\n

This season, Tucci says is a more personal journey. \u201cEvery time you go, you\u2019re discovering more and more. Over the years, I\u2019ve become more comfortable doing the show. Sometimes revisiting places has an emotional effect on you because you\u2019re drawn to places that make you feel happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sardinia forever<\/p>\n

The series draws a clear line between landscape, history, and the food on the plate. While saying that no one region stood out above the others, Sardinia holds a special place in Tucci\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

\"Shot<\/p>\n

\n

Shot of Uliassi’s signature dish: veal shank cross-cut with cod fish tripe, topped with parsley, basil and celery seeds.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n Ruth Dhanaraj\n <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is interesting because it\u2019s almost like a different world, not even a different country. It feels and is older than old. There are all these ions and myths and ancient sagas of Sardinian culture that go back thousands of years. There were people living there 7,000 years ago, that\u2019s pretty amazing. There\u2019s a lot to unpack there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Le Marche and Sardinia also required a different kind of listening, Tucci says. \u201cEverywhere you go in Italy, the dialects are so distinctly different that even if you speak some Italian, like I do, you can be hard-pressed to understand what people are saying. There\u2019s a depth to Sardinia that you could keep digging into forever, discovering more and more things. It\u2019s so interesting to me. Even the mafia had a difficult time trying to get a foothold in Sardinia, because they are incredibly tough people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Naples and Sicily carry heavy histories alongside exuberant food cultures, Tucci does not see the regions as different from any other part of Italy. \u201cEvery country and every part of Italy has a dark history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning to listen<\/p>\n

Stepping back and letting other people tell their stories took some getting used to for Tucci. \u201cI had to learn how to do it. I was nervous when I first started doing this about six, seven years ago. Once you do it, you just know it\u2019s the right thing to do. They\u2019re the ones who have to tell the story. I\u2019m just the conduit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stanley<\/p>\n

\n

Stanley Tucci, left, walks with food writer Valeria Necchio. She is a passionate advocate for the area’s culinary history.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n MATT HOLYOAK\n <\/p>\n

Talking about the production, Tucci says, \u201cA lot of times you get a producer who might say, \u2018Ask for this,\u2019 or, \u2018Have her say that again,\u2019 and it doesn\u2019t work. There are certain bullet points we want to hit in an interview, but I need to let the person keep talking until they get there. They\u2019re not performers. They might be nervous in front of the camera, so you have to be aware of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Language matters<\/p>\n

A lot of times, Tucci says, the producers might say, \u201c\u2018Why do they have to speak in Italian?\u2019 Because they\u2019re Italian, that\u2019s why,\u201d he laughs. \u201cEven though they say they can speak English, they can\u2019t really speak English, and they\u2019ll be uncomfortable, and we\u2019ll be here for days, and then they won\u2019t be happy, and we won\u2019t get the story we want. So then let them talk in Italian, and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The takeaway from the series Tucci hopes for is for people to see how culturally diverse and complex Italy is. \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as an Italian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tucci in Italy streams on JioHotstar, with Season 2 episodes airing every Friday at 7 pm on Nat Geo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stanley Tucci is delighting fans on the big screen as the stylish Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,5062,11406,7090,5063],"class_list":{"0":"post-15467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"tag-italy","9":"tag-stanley-tucci","10":"tag-stanley-tucci-interview","11":"tag-the-devil-wears-prada-2","12":"tag-tucci-in-italy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}