Natural-born actor John Turturro: “I’m at a very fruitful time”

Character actors like John Turturro never fail to leave their mark on screen. He’s been commanding our attention in movies and on television for 46 years, always digging deep to deliver something memorable. Called one of the great character actors in the history of movies, Turturro responded with modesty: “Oh wow, I’ll take that compliment. I’m not sure of it!”

Now 69, Turturro is doing some of his best work in Apple TV’s “Severance,” and on the big screen in a rare leading-man part, as a thief clinging to a world passing him by, in a charming and moving crime thriller, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.”

“Within this tense sort of crime thriller, there’s all this humanity and, like, tenderness,” he said. “There’s like this love story, and there’s this guy who basically the world has changed around him. He’s obsolete in some ways. So, how does someone like that survive in such a fast-changing world? I found it very evocative and moving.”

To watch a trailer for “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” click on the video player below.

We spoke to Turturro in his Brooklyn neighborhood. He’s New York through and through – and is not a recluse. “I ride the train,” he said.  

Growing up in Hollis, Queens, his parents were a working-class couple with a penchant for drama. “They had kind of a very intimate relationship, and volatile at certain times,” Turturro said. “When we used to watch ‘The Honeymooners,’ when I was really a little kid, my older brother, Ralph, used to call the show ‘Mommy and Daddy.’ It was, you know, an expressive, sometimes explosive household. So, you learn what size is, and what, also, quiet is within that.”

They also loved movies, which made a lasting impression on their son. “I didn’t go to the theater that much when I was young, but I watched the ‘Million Dollar Movie,’ and I watched all these great movies from the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s. Those people opened up my brains, you know, whether it was Barbara Stanwyck, or Edward G., or Cagney, or Bette Davis, and they’re, like, part of me.”

The idea to become an actor formed watching Dustin Hoffman in “Midnight Cowboy”: “I think it was the scene in the diner when he said, he was like, ‘Oh, Joey, I only got 64 cents in my pocket.’ And I was like, Who is this guy?”

And it was cemented with a Broadway musical: “Bob Fosse’s ‘Pippin,’ I saw the commercial. I felt like someone was reaching their hand out to me, like to touch me. And I was like, Wow.“

After college came a scholarship to get a master’s at the Yale School of Drama, but not before getting cast in his first movie, “Raging Bull.” It’s described as a non-speaking part, but he got a little something in there – his first line, delivered to Robert de Niro.

During his career Turturro has worked opposite Paul Newman in “The Color of Money,” and been directed by Robert Redford in “Quiz Show” – always searching for ways to unlock his character, like in “Miller’s Crossing,” the first of four films with the Coen Brothers.

The quirky voice of his character, Bernie Bernbaum, came from his accountant; the fear from a single day in his childhood. In a list of difficult scenes, Turturro’s in “Miller’s Crossing,” where Bernbaum faces execution in the woods, is a difficult scene.

“I had one advantage,” said Turturro. “When I was younger, I was a serious basketball player. My friends and I, we were coming home from a party and we had, like, a bike with a banana seat, you know, and the handle. We pulled into a schoolyard, and this guy was shooting baskets. There was three of us. So, he thought maybe we were going to try to steal something from him. It was late … he took out a gun. He put it right to my head, on my bike, and I was like, I was frozen. But I never forgot this feeling of having this gun pointed at my head.”

He’s collaborated nine times with Spike Lee, starting with “Do the Right Thing.” Lee sent Turturro the script, then asked him which part he wanted to play. Turturro chose Pino, the racist son of the pizza shop owner.

Asked if he thought Lee wanted him to choose Pino, Turturro replied, “I think he was happy that I did. … One thing about me is like, I don’t need to be liked if I’m doing a movie. What I need to do is to hold your attention, and I can, you know, surprise you. You know, I’m not looking to soften the edges with it, or even make it, you know, worse than it is. It is what it is.”

He says he has seen that guy: “Yeah, and then you see it in all different forms. I think that’s one of the unspoken things in our country, which has such diversity. It’s something we grapple with.”

When Turturro got the script for “The Big Lebowski,” he noted to the Coen Brothers that the part was very small – to which they told him, You’ll make something out of it. And he did.

“And I have to say, I was really embarrassed the first time I saw it,” Turturro laughed. “I was laughing, but I was really embarrassed. I was like, I can’t believe you put all this stuff in there! Because it’s like we were friends and we were, like, seven years old and they said ‘Come on over, let’s do a show together.’ You want to make your friend laugh!”

He also likes discussing the craft. “Let me tell you something, my man: I like being here and talking about acting and stuff,” he said, “because for me, I’m a natural-born actor. That’s just how it is and stuff.”

Surprisingly, this natural-born actor doesn’t have an Oscar nomination. There’s some buzz that might change with “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.” And though awards would be nice, it’s the work that matters to John Turturro.

Asked if he can measure success without awards, he replied, “Yes, I’ve been able to work and do interesting things and entertain people and maybe even make them think sometimes, or laugh or cry at different times, and take them away from their lives. So, I’m very, very appreciative of where I am. I want to keep that up, and I feel like I’m at a very fruitful time.”

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with John Turturro (Video)

     
Story produced by Gabriel Falcon. Editor: Steven Tyler. 

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