In ‘Supernova,’ Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth’s 20-Year Friendship Is What You See Onscreen

The actors have known each other for decades. According to Tucci, that made the rigors of this wrenching dementia drama almost effortless. In “Supernova,” Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth play Tusker and Sam, an intellectual couple who are facing down the deteriorating oblivion of memory loss: Tusker, a novelist, has hit his 60s, and is suffering early-onset dementia, while Sam, a concert pianist, can’t do anything but watch his partner fade away. It was the actors’ 20-year-long friendship, coupled with the erudite direction of filmmaker Harry Macqueen, that made grappling with such difficult subject matter easy.

“We love each other. We’ve been friends for 20 years. We’ve experienced each other’s pain, and we’ve watched our kids grow up together,” Tucci said. “There’s a lot of water under that bridge, and that bridge has only become stronger still. It’s the kind of working experience that could make or break a friendship. But in our case, it strengthens it.”

The actors met on the set of Frank Pierson’s WWII drama “Conspiracy” playing Nazis; since then, Tucci said, they’ve share that ineffable, alchemical connection that defines so many platonic relationships. Thats why it was nearly effortless for them to push it into a romance for “Supernova.”