Stanley Tucci thinks “it’s fine” for straight actors to play LGBTQ characters in movies and television.
“Obviously I believe that’s fine,” Tucci said on BBC Radio 4’s “Desert Island Discs” show. “I really do believe that an actor is an actor is an actor. You’re supposed to play different people. You just are. That’s the whole point of it.”
Tucci, who’s married to literary agent Felicity Blunt, also noted his gratitude when he receives compliments for his performances as gay men in notable films “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Supernova.”
“I am always very flattered when gay men come up to me and talk to me about ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ or they talk about ‘Supernova,’ and they say that, ‘It was just so beautiful,’ you know, ‘You did it the right way.’ Because often, it’s not done the right way.”
While Tucci played the beloved role of fashion magazine extraordinaire Nigel alongside Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep in the 2006 film, the actor took on a heavier role in “Supernova,” in which Tucci played Tusker, a gay novelist diagnosed with early onset dementia. Playing opposite Colin Firth, who plays Tusker’s partner, Sam, Tucci noted that the pair’s real-life friendship played a vital role in the onscreen relationship.
“What you see on screen is very much not so different from who we are,” Tucci said.
Tucci, who recently starred in Prime Video’s action series “Citadel,” first met Blunt after working with her sister, Emily, on “The Devil Wears Prada.” Years after Tucci’s first wife, Kathryn Spath, died of cancer in 2009, Tucci met Felicity again and eventually broke the news to Emily that the pair was coupled up.
“I said to Emily… ‘I’m dating your sister,’ ’cause she’s had an inkling, and then Felicity said, ‘You told her?’” Tucci said. “She goes, ‘I haven’t even told her,’ I go, ‘Well, she was my friend first.’”
