Stanley Tucci Opens Up About Playing an 80-Year Old Woman on Apple TV's New Animated Series CENTRAL PARK

This Friday, Apple TV+ is set to debut Central Park, a brand new musical animated series from Josh Gad, Loren Bouchard, and Nora Smith. The series follows the Tillermans, a family that lives in Central Park. Owen, the park manager, and Paige, his journalist wife, raise their kids Molly and Cole in the world's most famous park, while fending off hotel heiress Bitsy Brandenham and her long suffering assistant Helen, who would love nothing more than to turn the park into condos.

The voice cast of Central Park includes Josh Gad, Leslie Odom, Jr., Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Tituss Burgess, Daveed Diggs and Stanley Tucci.

Stanley Tucci, who is best-known for his many film roles including The Devil Wears Prada and The Hunger Games series, voices hotel heiress Bitsy Brandenham in the series.

Tucci shared how he became involved with the project saying, "I knew Josh, because we had met doing Beauty and the Beast, and he asked me to do this, and I said I would love to play an 80-year old woman. And then of course, you hear the rest of the cast, and you go 'Yeah, of course, I'll do it!' Animation is just great fun to do for an actor, because it's like you're a kid again, you're just kind of playing."

Tucci's character, Bitsy, is the villain of the series, and when asked about his inspiration for the character, he joked that, "I wouldn't even dream of telling you- if indeed I had based this one someone- who that person was. But, I suppose every character is an amalgam of people that you meet along the way. Bitsy is very much that. Again, it's just about playing around, it's about your imagination, like a kid."

Tucci also shared that he was "appropriately horrified" when he saw his character drawn out for the first time, poking fun at the obvious physical differences he and his character share.

Though Bitsy is the show's villain, Tucci shared that thanks to the strong writing on the series, he didn't see her as a caricature. "Every time I would do a session, I was always surprised as to the way she'd behave," he said.

Tucci spends most of his scenes acting opposite Daveed Diggs, who plays Bitsy's assistant Helen. Tucci discussed the process of recording his lines and reading the dialogue between his character and Diggs' saying, "When I would read his lines-or her lines- they're just so funny. But, the whole piece is like that, and that's what drew us to it."

Speaking about the creative process behind voice acting, Tucci said, "You're so free, you actually end up emoting more than you would on stage or on film. It frees you to give more and to give more choices to the creative team."

Don't miss the premiere of Central Park this Friday, May 29, exclusively on Apple TV+!