FILE - Stanley Tucci arrives at the premiere of "White Crow" on Mar. 12, 2019, in London. In "Supernova," Tucci plays a man slipping into dementia taking a possibly final road trip with his longtime partner, played by Colin Firth. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP. File)

By JAKE COYLE

AP Film Writer

NEW YORK — Stanley Tucci’s pandemic experiences have run the gamut.

He has home-schooled little kids with his wife, Felicity Blunt. He has shared cocktail recipes. He has had the virus. He has worked on film and TV sets with new safety protocols. He has written a food memoir — the first draft in London’s first lockdown, the second draft in its second.

And he is starring in a newly released film in which he gives one of the finest performances of his career. In “Supernova,” Tucci plays Tusker, a novelist on the edge of early on-set dementia. He’s still himself but it’s starting to slip away. He and his longtime partner, Sam (Colin Firth) take a road trip in an R.V. through England’s Lake District, maybe their last. The film, currently playing in theaters, is available to rent digitally.

For the 60-year-old Tucci, who has long exuded wit and sophistication as both an actor (“Spotlight,” “The Hunger Games”) and filmmaker (“Big Night,” “Joe Gould’s Secret”), the role of Tusker is one to celebrate.

AP: As an author of numerous cookbooks, are your passions for acting and for food interwoven?

TUCCI: They’re only interwoven, I suppose, in “Big Night” or “Julie & Julia.” But other than that, no. I act to eat. The only way I can afford to eat is to act. (Laughs) If I’m offered a job, my first thought is: OK, where does it shoot? The second thought is: How much will they pay me? And if it is shooting someplace else, I instantly think of the food there. I know if it’s Toronto, that’s fine. I don’t want to be that far away, but I know there’s great food. Vancouver? Fine. If someone says Bulgaria, I’m probably going to go, “How long is that shoot?”

AP: Do you sometimes cook for your co-stars?

TUCCI: Absolutely. I cooked for Colin when I did “Supernova.” We’ve been friends for a long time so we’re in each other’s kitchens. His wife is a wonderful cook. I love to do it. I like to eat what I like to eat. I don’t want to go and eat some hamburger some place in the middle of nowhere. I’d rather take the time and put in the effort to make myself something good.

AP: You’re a very precise actor. I can see that being similar to cooking.

TUCCI: Not if you saw me cook. My wife goes, “How much of that did you put in?” I don’t know!

AP: If you’re choosing projects partly by circumstance, driving around the Lakes with a friend sounds like a good option.

TUCCI: It was really nice. It was hard to go out and find food, I’ll be honest. So the cooking was a necessity besides I like doing it. But it was a great experience. I had never been to the Lake District before.

AP: “Supernova” is about a couple together navigating a terminal condition. Your first wife, Kathryn Spath-Tucci, with whom you have several children, died in 2009 from breast cancer. Were you thinking much about the conversations you and she shared near the end while making the film?

TUCCI: Something like that just becomes a part of who you are. You don’t even have to think about it. It’s just there. And you don’t really want to think about it, but it’s there. It’s always there. It’s there in your dreams. Once you get older, even if you haven’t experienced what I experienced, you do have a knowledge of it. Because you’ve lost people. You’ve lost other people, whether it’s parents or grandparents or older friends. I’ve lost quite a few friends over the last few years. I’m hardly old. I’m older but I’m not old yet, I don’t think. But, yeah, with Kate, it’s always in you. It’s a very strange thing. It’s not that you dwell on it. It’s just a part of you. You just wish that you could have done something more to help. There’s a guilt. There’s no question about that. There’s a guilt that you’re moving on with your life. You’re watching your kids grow up. You’re going to see, hopefully, grandchildren. She won’t have that opportunity. Your brain starts to even get confused sometimes because you think, “Oh, she would love to see my little kids.” Which wouldn’t make any sense. Because you love them so much and I love her so much. It’s all just about love, really.

AP: Do you feel you’ve gotten better as an actor as you’ve aged?

TUCCI: I feel like I’ve gotten better, yeah. That was the goal, just to keep getting better. I’m more relaxed now because I’ve just been doing it for so long. A lot of it is technique. And a lot of it is realizing the more often you do it, the less you really have to do — that economy is everything.