Stanley Tucci ‘Couldn’t Get a Job’ After ‘The Devil Wears Prada’: I Had to Take Roles I ‘Didn’t Necessarily Want’

It turns out that “The Devil Wears Prada” just might have put Stanley Tucci‘s career in purgatory.

The “Conclave” actor told Vanity Fair that it was difficult for him to find work following the iconic 2006 film. Tucci played a creative director who works for Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly and also helps new hire Andy (Anne Hathaway) assimilate into the corporate fashion world. While Tucci’s character Nigel is technically a supporting role, it’s certainly a standout one. Not that casting directors noticed.

“After ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ I couldn’t get a job, and I didn’t quite understand that,” Tucci said, “but that’s just the way it was. So I went and did stuff that I didn’t necessarily want to do, but I did it.”

Tucci’s roles right after “The Devil Wears Prada” include films “Blind Date,” “What Just Happened,” “Swing Vote,” and an “American Girl” movie. Tucci later returned to form somewhat with star turns in “The Lovely Bones” and “Julie and Julia,” both released in 2009, plus “Easy A” in 2010.

“You could be really choosy and live in a hovel, but I want to live a nice life. So part of your decisions are based on that, and part of them are just artistic. My career has always gone through these fluctuations, and sometimes it’s just the business,” Tucci said while reflecting on his decades-spanning career. “Sometimes it was personal reasons why you can’t work. Having been sick [with cancer] six years ago, that threw a wrench into the works for a while, and then you slowly get back. But I had to start doing things. I needed to work because I needed money. I probably started working too soon. I didn’t really have the energy to do it after the treatments, but you had to do it, and eventually you climb back up again.”

As for returning to “The Devil Wears Prada” for the long-rumored sequel, Tucci said that he “can’t answer that.” However, he did imply that he knew the status of the sequel, which is believed to begin production on November 30. Streep, Hathaway, and Emily Blunt are also set to reprise their respective roles, with the film supposedly following the decline of traditional print magazines.

“No one will let me answer that,” Tucci said. “I think they want it to happen, I would imagine. But I cannot really speak to it because it might not happen. I don’t know.”

Tucci recently told Entertainment Tonight that he has discussed the sequel with Blunt, who is now also his sister-in-law — Tucci is married to Blunt’s sister, who he met on the “Devil Wears Prada” set.

“Now Emily is my sister-in-law so it’ll be a very different dynamic. We have talked about it,” Tucci said, adding that he has to be “very cagey” when discussing the possible sequel.

“I cannot answer these questions on the grounds that they will incriminate everyone,” he said. “All I know is my fingers are crossed that it actually does happen, because we know how movies go. It would be great. It was an incredible experience, and I love those three women.”