Stanley Tucci has some of the most instantly recognizable roles in recent film history. Be it the brilliant progenitor of the super soldier serum in Marvel Studios’ Captain America: First Avenger, or a bombastic showman in The Hunger Games, Tucci has embraced every role that has come his way with command and poise.
Despite his successful and widely known filmography, there is one role that made Tucci extremely uncomfortable, so much so that the actor revealed that he would not reprise the role of the character under any circumstances.
The Marvel actor will never play this character again
Peter Jackson’s 2009 supernatural thriller drama The Lovely Bones has a star-studded cast, featuring heavy hitters like Tucci himself, Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, and Rachel Weisz, among others. Tucci played the character of George Harvey in the thriller flick. While Tucci is all praises for the film and its director, he was particularly disturbed by the character that he played: the serial killer George Harvey.
The film is based on a novel of the same name, written by Alice Sebold, which was released in 2002. The film follows the deceased protagonist, Susie Salmon (played by Saoirse Ronan) who watches her family and her killer from the afterlife, contemplating her need for revenge and her family’s need to heal. Tucci was flabbergasted at being asked to play the serial killer, given the nature and history of the character in the narrative. The Captain America: The First Avenger alum found himself deeply disturbed at being chosen to play such a heinous character.
Stanley Tucci wanted to know why he was chosen for the role
In a conversation with Entertainment Tonight, Tucci revealed his anxieties about the character, He said:
“I asked Peter Jackson why he cast me in that role. I tried to get out of playing the role, which is crazy because I needed a job,”
The Lord of the Rings director had a vision in mind for the character. However, the answer that Tucci received might have left him more confused than comforted. When asked by Tucci what about him caused Jackson to cast him in the role, the director simply replied:
“Because you’re funny.”
Tucci interpreted this note in his own manner, coming to the conclusion that:
“I think what he meant was that I wouldn’t be too — not that I wouldn’t be serious about it, but that I wouldn’t be overly dramatic about it.”
Considering the dark nature of the character, Tucci concluded that he needed to take the role less seriously than it demanded. In light of the heavy subject matter that the film dealt with, it was important that such a loaded character was treated with a little less dramatic flare, allowing for the illusion of his non-existence to stay true,
