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Stanley Tucci says the stereotypical roles he was offered as an Italian-American actor left him discouraged early in his career.
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He talks about how he managed to break out of this role.
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The actor has achieved both critical and commercial success in a number of films.
Stanley Tucci speaks candidly about how, early in his career, he was repeatedly cast in roles that fit Italian stereotypes, and says the situation left him creatively frustrated and "disheartened.".
On Monday, June 1st, in the podcast episode Awards Chatter Tucci, 65, told The Hollywood Reporter that he played several tough guys and mob-affiliated gangsters in the 1980s and 1990s.
«"I was devastated. I felt insulted," Tucci said of the roles he was offered. "You know, it was a very different time in America. Italians were still considered—everyone was connected to the mafia, right? And if you were dark-skinned, like me, you were instantly—especially with an Italian name—instantly pigeonholed, and that was it. You didn't do anything else.".
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Stanley Tucci in a scene from the MGM film "Undercover Blues," circa 1993. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty
He added that theatre classes became «a kind of salvation» for him.
«"But at some point, I started making decent money," Tucci added. "And I just gave up gangster roles. I just didn't want to do it anymore.".
This award-winning, multi-talented actor is renowned not only for his acting career, but also for his love of Italy, which is vividly demonstrated in his culinary travel series. «Tucci in Italy» (which airs on the National Geographic Channel), as well as in his best-selling Italian cookbooks and memoirs.
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Early in his career, Tucci played a number of crime-related roles in films such as «The Pelican Brief, Undercover» и «"People of respect.".
Since then, he has achieved critical and commercial success with projects such as «Winchell» и «"CONSPIRACY"» (for which he received a Golden Globe Award), and in the film "The Lovely Bones"« , for which he was nominated for an Oscar.
Read the original article on People.