Stanley Tucci has recently shared a “horrible” experience of his tongue cancer treatment, revealing how he has struggled to eat, according to PEOPLE.
The 60-year-old actor revealed in his new book, Taste: My Life Through Food, released Tuesday, that he was diagnosed with cancer about three years ago, revealing that his doctors found a tumor at the base of his tongue.
Tucci had to undergo radiation and chemotherapy to get rid of the tumor. He was advised to use a specially-made surgical mask over his face and a bite block in his mouth with just a small opening for him to breathe.
The Devil Wears Prada star told The New York Times, “It was horrible.”
Tucci lost his appetite and developed vertigo and ulcers in his mouth, which made it difficult to eat. He said he started to taste food like cardboard “slathered with someone’s excrement.” He also said that he was worried he would never be able to get back his taste again.
He said, “I mean, if you can’t eat and enjoy food, how are you going to enjoy everything else?”
During his recovery, Tucci once cooked risotto Milanese for actor Colin Firth. Firth told The New York Times that it was the best version of the dish he had ever had, but Tucci “was convinced it tasted awful and was mortified. He simply wasn’t tasting what we were.”
“One was left to imagine how distressing this was because most of the time he put on a very brave and matter-of-fact face,” Firth added.
Tucci is now in remission. He said his cancer is unlikely to return and he has regained his sense of taste. However, he still has difficulty swallowing, which Tucci was dealing with as he filmed his hit CNN series Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.
He recalled, “It was hard because I could taste everything, but I couldn’t necessarily swallow. I had to chew it for 10 minutes to get it down my throat.” Sometimes, Tucci could never get his food down, and he “just had to get rid of the food.”
Tucci first opened up about his cancer in a September issue of Virgin Atlantic’s inflight magazine Vera.
He said at the time, “[Cancer] makes you more afraid and less afraid at the same time. I feel much older than I did before I was sick. But you still want to get ahead and get things done.”
