Stanley Tucci has recounted a story about his reaction to an intruder appearing on the windowsill of his hotel room in the middle of the night, many years ago.
The actor, 61, told the story while discussing his new role as a man on death row in the BBC One drama Inside Man. Its creator Steven Moffat has said that the show’s central idea is that “anyone can be a murderer”.
When asked in a new interview in The Observer New Review if he agrees with the notion that “all it takes to commit murder is a bad day and the right victim”, Tucci said: “I think so. You can murder in self-defence. If somebody’s trying to hurt your kid, you’d kill them without a thought.”
He then went on to give the following example: “Thirty years ago, I was in Paris with my late wife – which sounds terrible, I didn’t kill her, she died of cancer – and in the middle of the night, this guy appeared on our first-floor hotel room windowsill.
“My wife screamed, I jumped out of bed naked and yelled: ‘F*** you!’, I don’t know why, and tried to push him off by closing the window.
“I looked down, wanting to see him dead, but there was nobody there. He got away. The reason I tell you this ridiculous story is that my reptilian brain took over and said, ‘Kill him before he kills you!’ So there you are.”
Tucci was married to social worker Kate Tucci from 1995 to 2009. She died of breast cancer. The couple had three children together: daughter Camilla and twins Nicolo and Isabel.
He is now married to literary agent Felicity Blunt, the sister of Tucci’s The Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt.
Inside Man will premiere on BBC One on Monday 26 September.
