Stanley Tucci says he can 'eat almost everything' now after treatment for oral cancer, but 'at my age, that's probably a terrible idea'

• Stanley Tucci told Insider that he can now "eat almost anything" after oral cancer treatment.
• The actor said that it's made filming his CNN food travel show "Searching For Italy" easier.

Stanley Tucci told Insider that he can "eat almost everything" after receiving treatment for oral cancer, saying that his diagnosis and treatment "compelled" him to cultivate his passion for food.

Tucci was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2017, he revealed in a September 2021 interview with Vera Magazine. In an interview ahead of the release of Tucci's new AMC+ series "La Fortuna," which premiered on January 20, he spoke about how having cancer affected his perspective on life, as well as his CNN series "Searching for Italy."

"Now that I can almost eat everything, or eat almost everything, I do want to eat almost everything, so I do have to be careful," Tucci told Insider. "I can't at my age, that's probably a terrible idea. But it does make you want to embrace it."

The actor and food connoisseur wrote in his memoir "Taste: My Life Through Food" that his 2017 diagnosis made him realize that food, rather than acting, was the central passion in his life, The New Yorker reported.

As The New Yorker reported in October 2021, Tucci filmed the first season of "Searching for Italy" while in recovery for oral cancer. At the time, he said that he "wasn't really able to eat everything" due to issues swallowing that arose from his treatment.

"Being able to do the show is much easier now for me, because I can actually eat more," Tucci told Insider. "I'm not as tired and stuff like that, so it has compelled me to become more and more involved in the food world in whatever aspect."

Tucci also told Insider that cancer had changed his perspective on his own life. His first wife, Kate, died of breast cancer in 2009 at the age of 47. He told Insider that he's had friends die, and be treated, for cancer as well, and that it's "always" been a part of his life.

"But when you have it — you know you're mortal, but then you sort of really know you're mortal," Tucci told Insider. "And it's a scary thing. It's really scary."

"Searching for Italy" returns to CNN for season two on March 13. New episodes of "La Fortuna" are releasing Thursdays on AMC+.