Stanley Tucci Says Emily Blunt and His Wife Felicity Had to 'Drag Me, Kicking and Screaming' to Cancer Treatments

Stanley Tucci, who was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2017, reflected on his “brutal” treatments

Stanley Tucci is opening up about those who helped him get through his 2017 oral cancer diagnosis.

In a recent interview with Today's Willie Geist on Sunday Sitdown, the 62-year-old actor recalled the moment he learned he had the disease, which was "terrifying" after the death of his first wife Kate Tucci in 2009 due to breast cancer.

"My late wife and I, we traveled all over the world trying to find a cure for her. So when I got it, I was completely shocked," he explained. "I was terrified, absolutely terrified."

Tucci said he was grateful the cancer didn't spread to other parts of his body, but his treatment plan was still "brutal."

"I lost 35 lbs.," he said. "I couldn't eat. I had a feeding tube for six months and everything tasted like you know what and smelled like you know what. And it took months and months and months for me to finally be able to eat again and then taste properly again."

Because of the difficult experience, the Citadel actor credited his wife Felicity Blunt along with sister-in-law and The Devil Wears Prada costar Emily Blunt for helping him through the ordeal.

"I was so afraid," he said of his treatments. "I mean, they had to drag me kicking and screaming but I wouldn't be around if I hadn't done that."

Related: Stanley Tucci Says His Wife's 'Undying Attention and Affection' Got Him Through Cancer Battle

Related: Emily Blunt Reveals Hilarious, Heartfelt Reasons She 'Worships' Brother-in-Law Stanley Tucci

Last year, Tucci spoke to PEOPLE about his cancer battle, admitting that he's "incredibly lucky" to be alive.

The Oscar nominee was diagnosed back in 2017. He spent two years living with extreme pain in his jaw before his condition was accurately diagnosed.

"I had a scan, but the scan missed it. And of course, when you think that there might be something wrong, you're also afraid that there is something wrong," Tucci shared.

After seeing different doctors, The Lovely Bones actor was eventually correctly diagnosed as having a 3-centimeter tumor at the base of his tongue: "They couldn't do surgery because the tumor was so big. It's a miracle that it didn't metastasize. It had been in me so long."

Tucci went through a 35-day radiation treatment plus seven sessions of chemotherapy, which ravaged his senses of taste and smell and left him unable to eat, dependent on a feeding tube.

A few months after his treatments ended back in 2018, Tucci, who has been in remission and said his cancer is unlikely to return, slowly began to regain his strength and ability to eat, which was "just the most exciting thing in the world" to him at the time, he said at the time.

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