Stanley Tucci has spoken out about the debilitating side effects of his oral cancer treatments.
The 62-year-old actor detailed his “brutal” experience of being treated for cancer during NBC’s Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist, in which he described the “awful” reactions his body had to his life-saving care.
“I lost 35 pounds,” 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.”
“It took months and months and months for me to finally be able to eat again and then taste properly again,” the renowned foodie added.
Having lost his first wife Kate to breast cancer in 2009, Stanley was especially “terrified” following his diagnosis in 2017.
“My late wife and I, we travelled all over the world trying to find a cure for her. So when I got it, I was completely shocked,” he told the US broadcaster. “I was terrified, absolutely terrified.”
While treatment was agonising for the Citadel actor, he praised his wife Felicity for helping him push through the grueling series of medications and procedures.
“I was so afraid,” Stanley admitted. “But Felicity was very insistent. I mean they had to drag me kicking and screaming, but I wouldn’t be around if I hadn’t done that.”
Stanley underwent 35 days of radiation treatments and seven sessions of chemotherapy during his battle with oral cancer. He completed treatment in 2018 and has been in remission since.
And although his treatment may have briefly taken away Stanley’s ability to taste, his love of food helped propel him to heal.
He told The New Yorker about how cooking shows soothed him during his recovery, explaining: “I would watch cooking shows because I didn’t have to smell the food. I couldn’t smell any food, because it was so disgusting to me; I couldn’t put anything in my mouth.
“Your taste buds are completely destroyed. It’s not that you don’t taste — you do taste, but everything tastes like shit, and that goes on for months. But I could look at it. Looking at it was fun. And it sort of propelled me to get better.”
While in recovery in 2019, Stanley found purpose in food and embarked on a culinary tour-turned-series: Searching for Italy.
He also wrote a food-focused memoir, Taste: My Life Through Food where he reflects on “the intersection of food and life.” He writes, “Food not only feeds me, it enriches me. All of me. Mind, body, and soul.”
Watch the full interview below: