Awards Circuit Podcast: Turturro discusses his new role in the Sony Pictures Classics drama, plus the success of Apple TV's 'Severance' and more. John Turturro never actually picked a pocket on the subway, but he came close. The rest of the practice happened on set, where he spent the shoot lifting things off the crew and occasionally getting caught.
Steve Buscemi, his co-star across “Miller’s Crossing,” “Barton Fink” and “The Big Lebowski,” and Giancarlo Esposito are along for the ride. Turturro, who has been a caretaker and a guardian himself, says the restraint is the point. The Knicks fan who fell for the 1969-70 and 1973 teams watched his franchise finally win another championship, and he is still shaking his head about it.
He is 69 and looks a decade or two younger. Turturro is the only person in this awards conversation who has won best actor at Cannes, earned Emmy nominations for “The Night Of” and the Apple TV sci-fi drama “Severance” and never once heard his name read on Oscar nominations morning. And he is still chasing the film he has wanted to make for years, an adaptation of Susan Sheehan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Is There No Place on Earth for Me?,” a book about mental illness and the families it splinters that he knows, he says, “really well personally.” “As you get older, time is precious,” he says.
The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. I did a lot when I was practicing with Apollo Robbins. He’s a magician and a pickpocket, and he basically gave me a course.
He’s kind of a psychologist. He understands how someone approaches another person, from the social sphere to the personal to the intimate. What he can do with his hands is like a concert pianist.
He gave me exercises and things to do. I didn’t really pickpocket anyone on the subway, but I came close. I had my hand almost in someone’s bag.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
