(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
It’s impossible not to love the shiny scalped maestro that is Stanley Tucci.
He’s a phenomenal actor, more than capable of playing heroes, villains, and everything in between, aside from being a devoted humanitarian, a talented writer, and a well-educated foodie. His charisma single-handedly innovated the ‘bald guy with thick glasses’ look, an absolute staple of modern fashion.
The smooth-headed icon’s career has taken him to pretty much every genre known to man. If you want to see him in a slow-burning drama, then there’s Conclave. If you like your Tucci to be a little more comic, how about The Devil Wears Prada? You can even find him in a movie where Nicholas Hoult fights a horrifying CGI giant, although he’d probably prefer if you didn’t seek that one out.
There is one genre, however, that ‘The Tooch’ feels like should be wiped from existence, and no, it has nothing to do with giants. Speaking to The Telegraph, he shared his opinion on biopics and declared rather straightforwardly that he wasn’t a fan.
“I think those films are ridiculous,” he said, “No one should ever make one again. How do you take a life and squeeze it into an hour and 45 minutes? I want the specificity. You take a little slice and focus on it, and from that you imagine the whole. I don’t have to see the whole fucking pie. Just give me a little piece.”
A biographical picture, affectionately called a biopic, is a film that tells the story of a real person. Anyone who is au fait with Tucci’s filmography will know that he has starred in enough of them to have a genuine opinion. He played Stanley Kubrick in the 2004 film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, where the titular character was portrayed by Geoffrey Rush, with whom Tucci would reunite later. Five years after he slagged the concept off to The Telegraph, Tucci took a role in the Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody, playing legendary record executive Clive Davis.
The most confusing element of his argument against biopics is that he’s directed one. He got behind the camera for 2017’s Final Portrait, the story of Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti. He roped in Rush, who played the surrealist sculptor whose works challenged the human condition while suffering under the weight of his contradictions and self-doubts. Tucci’s vision was lauded by critics as well as his commitment to telling a dramatic story of a complicated man melded with his signature comedic lens.
Despite coming from a rather hypocritical place, his argument still carries a lot of weight. It is a completely futile exercise to try and capture every detail of a person’s life over the length of a feature film. Biopics always end up omitting some key details or, at their worst, are impersonal, changing or dramatising details to make the story feel more cinematic. Unfortunately, audiences can’t seem to help themselves. Whenever a new film about a celebrity, especially a musician, is announced, it draws a crowd, so don’t expect this trend to end any time soon. Sorry, Stanley.
Related Topics