Stanley Tucci, whose acting credits include major blockbusters like “The Hunger Games” and cult classics like “Big Night” and “Margin Call,” has revealed a role he won’t be returning to.
“I’m not going to play George Harvey again in ‘The Lovely Bones,’ which is terrible,” Tucci told “Entertainment Tonight” reporter Ash Crossan on Tuesday on the red carpet for the London premiere of his Prime Video series “Citadel.” “It’s a great movie, but it’s a difficult experience. Just because of the role.”
Based on the 2002 book by Alice Sebold, “The Lovely Bones” by Peter Jackson centers on a serial killer and child rapist who sexually assaults and kills seven women. As a father of three at the time he was offered the role, Tucci said he was “reluctant.”
“I asked … Jackson why he cast me in that role,” she told ET. “I tried to get out of playing the role, which was crazy because I needed a job. But I was like, ‘Why do I want you?’ And he said, ‘Because you’re funny.’ And I thought, ‘OK.’ But I understand what he said.”
“I think what he means is that I can’t either — not that I’m not serious about it, but that I’m not overly dramatic about it,” he continued. “That I will throw a little. What do you have to do when you’re playing someone who’s horrible, right?”
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Tucci added that “you can’t play it” and turn a character as dark as Harvey into a caricature. Tucci, who once portrayed Adolf Eichmann — one of the top Nazi officials who helped orchestrate the Holocaust — told ABC News in 2009 that the goal was “to be evil, but human.”
He only agreed to portray Harvey, however, when Jackson agreed that he would not have to reenact the sexual assaults. While “The Lovely Bones” was critically panned and a box-office flop, the film earned Tucci an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
The new-found host of CNN’s travel show — whose “Search for Italy” series explores the country’s history and culture through the food of two seasons — seems to have no doubts about returning. to his other characters, though.
“I would happily play Nigel in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ again,” Tucci told ET. “It was a great experience. I’m going to play Paul Child again, when we did ‘Julie and Julia.’ Those are great roles to play. “