BANG Showbiz English
Stanley Tucci found everything tasted of wet cardboard โslathered with someoneโs excrementโ when he was undergoing cancer treatment.
The 60-year-old actor recently explained he underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy three years ago after doctors discovered a tumour at the base of his tongue, and heโs now told of how the โhorribleโ processes caused him to lose his appetite, as well as develop vertigo and multiple ulcers in his mouth.
And Stanley admitted he feared losing his sense of taste more than he was worried about death.
He said: โI mean, if you canโt eat and enjoy food, how are you going to enjoy everything else?โ
Although the โDevil Wears Pradaโ starโs ability to taste returned after he finished treatment, he was still struggling with the effects when he made his critically-acclaimed CNN food show โStanley Tucci: Searching for Italyโ.
He told the New York Times newspaper: โIt was hard because I could taste everything, but I couldnโt necessarily swallow.โ
And he recalled how he struggled while eating the traditional Tuscan dish steak florentina for the show.
He admitted: โI had to chew it for 10 minutes to get it down my throat.
โ[Other times] I just had to get rid of the food.โ
But Stanley insisted he didnโt hesitate to continue with making the show.
He said: โThere was no way I wasnโt going to make it. Iโve wanted to tell for a long time the story of Italy and the disparate cuisine in every region.โ
Asked if it was to get normality back to his life, he said: โYeah, I suppose so.โ
During his treatment, the โSupernovaโ actor liked to โlive vicariouslyโ through watching cooking shows.
He admitted: โ[It] was weird because even the smell of food then would just make me want to throw up.
โBut I liked watching them. I just wanted to learn more, live vicariously through them. It was a way I was going to have that once again.โ