When selecting which roles to play or reprise, an actor or actress takes numerous factors into account. There’s the paycheck, of course, but also the question of substance, of meatiness. Is the character complex? Is understanding and representing the character on-screen a challenge? Is this character just one ingredient in a delicious stew of a script?
Then again, sometimes it’s just about the money. While accepting a career tribute at the Deauville Film Festival, Oscar-nominated actor Stanley Tucci not only confirmed his involvement in the forthcoming Transformers: The Last Knight — the fifth installment in the critically abhorred franchise — he outright rejected the possibility of a follow-up to The Devil Wears Prada. Despite describing his role in the latter film as a career highlight, he didn’t mince words when talk of a sequel based on Lauren Weisberger’s new book Revenge Wears Prada was brought up: “That’s never going to happen.” Although co-stars Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt have both expressed interest in reprising their roles, Tucci feels “it’s best just to leave things. If you try to redo it, let’s face it, there are very few sequels that actually work.”
Jump cut to the same actor, effortlessly suppressing his distrust of cinematic continuations, proudly announcing he’ll be reprising his role as tech-guru Joshua Joyce in the Michael Bay-helmed sequel to the lackluster Transformers: Age of Extinction. An actor has his reasons, even if they don’t make sense to the rest of us.
