Susan Lucci Thought She’d Never ‘Go in Front of a Camera Again’ After Husband’s Death (Exclusive)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/susan-lucci-040726-181c37ea07484140a674add5167279c5.jpg "Susan Lucci Thought She’d Never ‘Go in Front of a Camera Again’ After Husband’s Death (Exclusive)")
NEED TO KNOW
- Susan Lucci speaks to PEOPLE on the New York City premiere of her new film Outcome on April 6
- The All My Children Emmy winner had lately misplaced husband Helmut Huber when writer-director-star Jonah Hill despatched her a script, she recollects
- “I frankly never thought I would go in front of a camera again or step on the stage again,” says Lucci
Susan Lucci she nearly did not return to display screen work after the loss of her husband, Helmut Huber.
But the actress’ first film in years, writer-director-star Jonah Hill‘s Outcome starring Keanu Reeveswas too good to go up, she tells PEOPLE at its New York City premiere on Monday, April 6.
“I was very happy to receive a script from Jonah Hill, who I have admired forever,” recollects Lucci, 79. “Frankly, it came at a point where I had recently lost my husband and I frankly never thought I would go in front of a camera again or step on the stage again.”
Susan Lucci/Instagram
Huber died in March 2022 at age 84 after struggling a stroke. Lucci, who married the Austrian-born TV producer in 1969, beforehand opened up to PEOPLE about her grief, which she wrote about in new memoir The Luccia follow-up to 2011’s All My Life: A Memoir.
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“Even though I recognized such good writing, I didn’t think I could do it,” the All My Children Emmy winner says of Outcomewhich was filmed in Los Angeles in early 2024.
Kristina Bumphrey/Variety by way of Getty
“But when I went to bed that night, I couldn’t help myself — I started working on the part,” she recollects. “So I known as my publicist early in the morning and mentioned, ‘Please do not say something. I’m going to learn it once more in the sunshine of day.’ And then I did, after which Jonah known as.”
Working with the “brilliant and wonderful and warm” Hill, 42, eased her transition again to display screen appearing amid grief. “Jonah’s direction — I knew he was a wonderful actor, but I hadn’t worked with him as a director. And he was as wonderful of a director as he is an actor… Everyone was just so professional and so supportive.”
Speaking to PEOPLE in February about grieving Huber, the cleaning soap star listed mentioned she nonetheless receive “signs” from her late husband. Asked what she misses most About him, Lucci mentioned, “Everything. It’s hard to say one thing. I just miss him, miss his presence, miss sharing things together, like coffee in the morning.”
Outcomeco-written by Ezra Woods and starring Reeves, Hill, Matt Bomer, Cameron Diaz and extra, is on Apple TV on Friday, April 10.
