Stanley Tucci lost sense of taste during cancer treatment

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Stanley Tucci Jameson Empire Awards 2016 - Winners Room
Stanley Tucci poses in the winners room at the Jameson Empire Awards 2016 at The Grosvenor House Hotel on March 20, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)
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Stanley Tucci found everything tasted of wet cardboard โ€œslathered with someoneโ€™s 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 heโ€™s now told of how the โ€œhorribleโ€ 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: โ€œI mean, if you canโ€™t eat and enjoy food, how are you going to enjoy everything else?โ€

Although the โ€˜Devil Wears Pradaโ€™ starโ€™s ability to taste returned after he finished treatment, he was still struggling with the effects when he made his critically-acclaimed CNN food show โ€˜Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italyโ€™.

He told the New York Times newspaper: โ€œIt was hard because I could taste everything, but I couldnโ€™t necessarily swallow.โ€

And he recalled how he struggled while eating the traditional Tuscan dish steak florentina for the show.

He admitted: โ€œI had to chew it for 10 minutes to get it down my throat.

โ€œ[Other times] I just had to get rid of the food.โ€

But Stanley insisted he didnโ€™t hesitate to continue with making the show.

He said: โ€œThere was no way I wasnโ€™t going to make it. Iโ€™ve 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: โ€œYeah, I suppose so.โ€

During his treatment, the โ€˜Supernovaโ€™ actor liked to โ€œlive vicariouslyโ€ through watching cooking shows.

He admitted: โ€œ[It] was weird because even the smell of food then would just make me want to throw up.

โ€œBut 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€


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