How Stanley Tucci Became the Internet's Boyfriend
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When did you realize Stanley Tucci was hot? Was it when he and Tony Shalhoub built the pasta cake known as a Timpano in Big Night? Or was it when he was Emma Stone’s understanding father in Easy A wearing those tight t-shirts? Maybe it was when he played the supportive husband to Meryl Streep’s Julia Child in Julie & Julia. Or did you figure out you had a weird thing for Caesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games? (No judgment if you did. This is a safe space.)
The thing is: It’s a well-established fact that Tucci is hot. His hotness has been immortalized on novelty t-shirts like the one that reads “I Like My Coffee Like Stanley Tucci . . . Hot” and in BuzzFeed posts like “Stanley Tucci Is Insanely Hot In ‘Easy A’ And We Need To Talk About It.” Vulture once contributed to the Tucci love in the form of the essay “Stanley Tucci’s 12 Most Adorable Movie Roles.”
Stanley Tucci is an interesting case in the realm of Internet Boyfriends. He is, after all, traditionally handsome, but he has not made his career on being traditionally handsome. He’s one of Hollywood’s preeminent character actors, best known for playing sidekicks and villains rather than romantic leads. That’s perhaps what makes his stealth run as an Internet Boyfriend so surprising.
Still, Tucci represents a whole subset of Internet Boyfriends who are not your typical heartthrobs. With the rise of daddy and zaddy culture, offbeat types like the Tooch are finally being appreciated the way they should be. Some other examples? Tucci’s costar in Big Night, Tony Shalhoub, who finally began to get sex symbol status when he played the stern father on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Go figure. Or there’s Kyle McLachlan who generated renewed devotion taking on three weirdos in Twin Peaks: The Return and posting on his endearing social media accounts about his wine. Sam Neill won us over with his Twitter content about his farm and animals named after other celebrities. What about Andy Garcia? He spent the summer of 2018 wooing female film legends like Diane Keaton and Cher and was crowned a silver fox zaddy.
But for now we’re focusing on Stanley Tucci. There are plenty of reasons why Tucci evolved into an obsession. It could be his well-calibrated performances, like the exacting editor Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada. Or it could be the discovery of a Levi’s ad he made in the 1980s in which he appears all muscled up in a tank top. But I’d argue that the number one way that Tucci wormed his way into each one of our hearts is through our stomachs.
Stanley Tucci is a big Italian feast of a human being. The ideal version of Tucci involves his sleeves rolled up, his forearms covered in dough, and his knuckles deep in a bed of focaccia. Of course, this has a lot to do with his involvement in one of the greatest food films of all time. After years as a steadily working actor, he made his directorial debut in 1996 with the aforementioned Big Night. He plays one of two Italian immigrant brothers who are struggling to keep their restaurant afloat in 1950s New Jersey. He’s not the chef—that would be Shalhoub—but the beauty of watching him tap on the pasta cake known as a Timpano or silently cook eggs would create fantasies for years to come. In Julie & Julia he savors food with such relish he creates the image of the ideal man with whom to share some boeuf bourguignon. (Read the name of that dish in a Julia Child accent if you so wish.)
This stems into his personal life too. Tucci has coauthored multiple cookbooks featuring homey Italian recipes alongside other members of his family. If you get one, and let Tucci teach you how to make gnocchi and linguine with clam sauce, you get to imagine you’ve invited him into your home. Or you could simulate that a little more literally by watching his CNN travel show: Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.
Tucci has made food part of his own love story as well. He was a widower—his first wife died of cancer—when he met his current spouse, Felicity Blunt, bonding at the wedding of her sister, his Devil Wears Prada costar Emily. He describes their courtship as food-centric. They plucked feathers off pheasants and roasted a twenty-six-pound suckling pig together. It’s desire mixed with a hint of gluttony, and it’s yummy.
Tucci went viral during the coronavirus pandemic by demonstrating how to make a Negroni in a snug t-shirt, with a sultry voice. At the end of the video, clearly filmed by Felicity, he asks if she wants the drink then teasingly says, “That will never happen.” It’s a dreamy glimpse into their relationship.
Even when the sight of him is not conjuring the smell of sweet and spicy Bolognese, Tucci is almost always a welcome sight on-screen. He works constantly, and even when the projects are not, let’s just say, the pinnacle of creative endeavors, he brings a significant amount of joy. (See, for instance, his multiple appearances in various Transformers movies.) Whenever Tucci shows up, you know you’re in for a little bit of flash and often a whole lot of warmth. In his best roles, he emits a comforting aura that makes you just want to curl up with him and a big bowl of spaghetti.
The curse of the character actor is to mostly go under appreciated while the bigger stars hog the spotlight. But Tucci has created such a cult of his own that there was a Saturday Night Live sketch—a parody of the song “Gucci Gang”—inspired by love for the Tooch. It was called “Tucci Gang.” If being part of the Tucci Gang means eating well and loving Stanley Tucci, well, sign us up.
Excerpted from Esther Zuckerman’s A Field Guide to Internet Boyfriends: Meme-Worthy Celebrity Crushes from A to Z. Reprinted by permission of Running Press, part of the Perseus division of Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2020 by Esther Zuckerman.
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