Stanley Tucci Reveals Which of His Iconic Roles He Would Never Play Again (Exclusive)

And the answer may surprise you!

Some roles are just one and done!

Stanley Tucci spoke with ET ahead of the premiere of his new Prime Video series, Citadel, where he revealed which one of his iconic roles he would never play again.

"I would not play George Harvey again in The Lovely Bones, which was horrible," Tucci shared with ET's Ash Crossan. "It's a wonderful movie, but it was a tough experience. Simply because of the role."

In the film, based on 2002 book of the same name by Alice Sebold, Tucci plays sadistic serial killer known for raping and murdering at least seven girls. He eventually gets killed by falling off a steep hill after trying to lure another girl into his car.

Tucci admittedly tried to get out of the role before understanding director Peter Jackson's motivation for casting him in the sinister part.

"I asked Peter Jackson why he cast me in that role. I tried to get out of playing the role, which is crazy because I needed a job," he recalled. "But I was like, 'Why do you want me?' And he said, 'Because you're funny.' And I thought, 'OK.' But I understand what he was saying."

Tucci continued, "I think what he meant was that I wouldn't be too -- not that I wouldn’t be serious about it, but that I wouldn't be overly dramatic about it. That I would throw it away a bit. Which is what you have to do when you're playing somebody who's that awful, right?"

"You can't play into it. Then, you know, it's over," he added. "Like, the movie's over. You just have to play against it."

As for the roles he'd want to reprise, it's no surprise that Tucci would love to step back through the doors of Runway magazine once more.

"I would happily play Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada again. It was a really great experience," the 62-year-old actor gushed. "I would play Paul Child again, when we did Julie and Julia. Those are really wonderful roles to play."

In his new role in Citadel, Tucci plays Bernard Orlick, the man behind the international spy institution that Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas' characters were a part of before having their memories erased.

Orlick, Tucci told ET, is a mix of ruthless and sophisticated. 

"I think there's the sophistication to him when it comes down to his sort of technical prowess, and there's a menace to him because he is somebody who has been in the field and goes into the field every now and then, and isn't afraid of conflict, physical conflict," Tucci explained. "And he's quite ruthless when he has to be in order to achieve what he needs to achieve."

While he couldn't say much about the spy thriller, Tucci said he's excited about the possibilities the Citadel universe presents in terms of future spinoffs and crossovers.

"I'm excited about all of it. I think this is an incredible thing that they conceived and executed," he said of the expansive series. "I don't know how you do it. The scope of it, the scale of it is enormous. The complexity of it and then the sort of -- all these crossovers that probably will happen at some point, it's kind of amazing. So, I'm excited about all of it."

Citadel premieres April 28 on Prime Video.

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