Stanley Tucci reveals he lost his appetite while going through his cancer treatments: ‘Everything tasted like wet cardboard’
Stanley Tucci is opening up about his cancer treatments, and how he lost something very precious to him: his appetite.
The 60-year-old actor revealed in September that he was diagnosed with cancer three years earlier, after a tumor was found at the base of his tongue.
He revealed in a wide-ranging interview with New York Times that everything he ate during that time tasted like, ‘wet cardboard slathered with someone’s excrement.’
Stanley speaks: Stanley Tucci is opening up about his cancer treatments, and how he lost something very precious to him: his appetite
He added that his biggest fear was losing his sense of taste, adding, ‘I mean, if you can’t eat and enjoy food, how are you going to enjoy everything else?’
‘It was hard because I could taste everything, but I couldn’t necessarily swallow,” he added, recalling a time he tried a Florentina steak.
‘I had to chew it for 10 minutes to get it down my throat … [sometimes] I just had to get rid of the food,’ he added.
Biggest fear: He added that his biggest fear was losing his sense of taste, adding, ‘I mean, if you can’t eat and enjoy food, how are you going to enjoy everything else?’
Still, despite this unfortunate condition, he didn’t want to stop working on his CNN show Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy.
‘There was no way I wasn’t going to make it. I wanted to tell for a long time the story of Italy and the disparate cuisine in every region,’ Tucci said.
The interview was to promote his new novel Taste: My Life Through Food, which will be published on Tuesday.
No way: ‘There was no way I wasn’t going to make it. I wanted to tell for a long time the story of Italy and the disparate cuisine in every region,’ Tucci said
The book is described as an unconventional memoir where he writes about many things, including the dreadful food he’s eaten on film sets.
‘The only thing that makes Italian set catering bearable is that wine is always served. Tragic for a country that is a culinary oracle,’ he said.
When asked why he didn’t discuss his acting career at all in the book, Tucci added, ‘All that’s terribly boring stuff.’
Unconventional: The book is described as an unconventional memoir where he writes about many things, including the dreadful food he’s eaten on film sets
What’s far more interesting, he said, ‘is you’re going through life, you have this trajectory and this vision, then suddenly this whole other good thing is like a sidecar attached to you, and you’re off in another direction.’
His CNN show was renewed for another season, though it’s unclear when production may begin, though he did discuss what was on the dinner menu.
‘Just some pasta, with fresh tomato and shrimp, a little shrimp stock, some basil, and then we can throw a salad on the side,’ Tucci said.
Renewed: His CNN show was renewed for another season, though it’s unclear when production may begin, though he did discuss what was on the dinner menu