Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones

More clips over at Daemon Movies.

I have to say that one of the best performances in any film this year has to be Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones. His work as a murderous pedophile is so creepy it’s hard to shake it. That Tucci turned in this performance the same year as his equally brilliant turn in Julie & Julia is a reminder of what this talented actor has contributed, without a single Oscar nomination to date. Unbelievable, really.¬† If you’re interested in reading more about The Lovely Bones and this ball-busting season, check out this Kris Tapley piece over at In Contention.¬† Meanwhile, Scott Bowles at USA talks to Tucci about the role that no one will soon forget:

That guy, Tucci says, “you try to go home, take a shower to wash him off you and have a drink. That was the hardest character I’ve ever had to play. I think because it was such a departure from anything I am or believe in.”

Based on the 2002 best seller, Bones was a departure for many involved with the $64 million film.

…And for Tucci, the 49-year-old who lost his wife, Kate, to breast cancer in April, Bones was a test of how dark he could take a character and not let it invade a personal life already set on its ear. “I’ve seen the finished movie,” Tucci says. “But to tell you the truth, I’m not sure how many times I’ll be able to see it again.”

One of the best scenes, among many, in the film is an eye contact game between Tucci and Mark Wahlberg, who plays Suzie Salmon’s grief-stricken father. It is all subtext. Though Tucci plays a monster, he has said that the only way into a character like that is to see him as a human being. Likewise, doing Bones, he says, comes from a different place:

“I couldn’t have done this movie ‚Äì I don’t think any of us could have done it ‚Äì if the story weren’t still beautiful,” he says. “People relate to this book in a very personal way. That is what you have to get right, not the violence. That was the key for all of us, even if it meant going someplace we don’t always like to go.”