Stanley Tucci took on roles "he didn't want to do" when he struggled to find work after starring in the blockbuster 'The Devil Wears Prada'.

The 63-year-old actor has no idea why he couldn't get a job after starring opposite Meryl Streep, 75, Anne Hathaway, 41, and Emily Blunt, also 41, in the 2006 comedy-drama classic.

He told Vanity Fair: “After The Devil Wears Prada, I couldn't get a job, and I didn't quite understand that, 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.”

However, he's experienced "these fluctuations" throughout his career, either due to "the business" or "personal reasons".

The 'Easy A' actor - who is married to his 'The Devil Wears Prada' co-star Emily's 44-year-old sister, Felicity Blunt - was diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2017, and admits he had no choice but to return to work because he needed the money, even though it was "probably too soon".

Stanley - who has three adult children with late first wife Kathryn Spath, and a son and a daughter with spouse Felicity - continued: “Having been sick 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 well as acting, Stanley works in the food and drink industry.

And the 'Hunger Games' star previously admitted he reached a period during his cancer battle where he "didn't see the point of living" if he would no longer be able to enjoy the pleasure of enjoying a meal with his loved ones again.

He told You magazine in 2022: "I was a cranky patient. Because I was miserable. I thought it was never going to go away. And I was like, how did this happen...

"There were times when I thought I was never going to be able to eat with my family again. The things I love to do are eat and taste and drink. And I love to do them with the people I love.

"If I can’t do that, then I really don’t see the point of living.

"I spent months and months up in my room, listening to everybody. Like a ghost in my own house. People coming and going. And I would go down and I would cook, but I couldn’t eat it – but I’d want to cook.

"Sometimes it almost made me ill to do it, but I wanted to do it. It was pretty f****** awful."