{"id":759056,"date":"2026-09-03T22:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/759056\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T22:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:48:12","slug":"john-turturro-got-a-rare-lead-film-role-and-may-noget-an-oscar-nod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/759056\/","title":{"rendered":"John Turturro Got a Rare Lead Film Role and May NoGet an Oscar Nod"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJohn Turturro<\/a> has led a consistently rich, varied career on screens big and small, on stages around New York and beyond. The Brooklyn native, best known for \u201890s collaborations with the Coen brothers like Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski and more recently for Emmy-nominated TV work in The Night of and Severance, has long been the kind of consummate character actor who elevates any project, no matter the role\u2019s size. He\u2019s also a workhorse. Over Zoom on the last day of August, the actor was in the thick of a demanding run of the play Rhinoceros at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., starring opposite Paul Giamatti and Tatiana Maslany.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a bear when you\u2019re on stage,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s very physical. Very, very physical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe occasion for my chat with the 69-year-old actor, though, is what\u2019s become an awfully, absurdly rare thing in his filmography: a true lead role in a film. In fact, by my count after speaking with him, the last time Turturro was cast as the lead in a movie \u2014 which is to say, not in a project he directed or developed \u2014 was more than 20 years ago, in Nicolas Winding Refn\u2019s 2003 thriller Fear X.* The streak is broken, gloriously, with The Only Living Pickpocket in New York<\/a>, Noah Segan\u2019s textured crime thriller that debuted to raves at Sundance, and is now playing fall fests like Telluride<\/a> and Toronto ahead of a hopeful awards campaign for Turturro \u2014 who has never been nominated for an Oscar. Sony Pictures Classics is putting it in theaters on Oct. 23.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film stars Turturro as Harry Lehman, who\u2019s made a fairly stable, communal life of petty theft around the five boroughs of New York City. He has mastered the subtle art of a wallet or watch grab and has his allies both in law enforcement (repped by Giancarlo Esposito<\/a>) and the pawn-shop world (Steve Buscemi<\/a>) to facilitate the lifestyle. But as the film depicts, in a New York now overwhelmed by surveillance cameras and cashless payments and dramatic wealth disparities, it\u2019s a dying art \u2014 one that may reflect something greater that the city is losing. Turturro carefully, movingly embodies all of that in one of his richest big-screen turns to date.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, the walls start closing in on Harry as the film begins, and over a tense 36 hours, he\u2019s left to reflect on past mistakes and how he\u2019d like to leave things \u2014 should he be reaching the end of the road. On the eve of Only Pickpocket\u2019s fall premiere in Telluride, we spoke about this film marking a thrilling new chapter in a singular career.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJohn Turturro in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMRC II Distribution Company L.P.\/Courtesy of Sundance<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re off to Telluride, then Toronto, with this movie, which indicates how much people are responding to it. I\u2019m curious how you responded to it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI loved the script when I read it and hit it off with Noah. We spent, I would say, about four months talking about it. He shared a lot of his research. And I found a guy, Apollo Robbins, a magician pickpocket, and he was really helpful. I had friends of mine, Giancarlo, who I haven\u2019t worked with in years, and Steve Buscemi, and then we got Tatiana [Maslany]. It was one of those really great experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt just was a very collaborative experience. When you only have five weeks to shoot, we had 26 days or something like that to do it, you have to really be in sync. You don\u2019t normally have that. You never know. There was a delicacy to the script that I was hoping to embody. I really enjoyed working on it so much, and I was appreciative to have a beautiful part like that.<\/p>\n

\n\tNoah has said that you were the only guy to do this, so I\u2019ll flip this to you this way: Why do you think he thought that? What about your filmography, your career, made you an ideal fit for this part?<\/p>\n

\n\tI guess I\u2019m not from the world of pickpockets. (Laughs.) Maybe there\u2019s the essence of who you are or what makes you as a human being, and that\u2019s important. He thought I would be the right person to embody this. And that\u2019s a big gift when someone gives you that, you know what I mean? It could relate maybe with one or two other things I\u2019ve done, but it was different enough. The whole analog world is something that I grew up in, and I understand how it is to adjust to a modern world and how some people just can\u2019t. We\u2019re seeing this in the world too \u2014 people losing their jobs, being replaced, all kinds of things. There\u2019s an honor code within him being a thief, but he lives in this particular world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt just spoke to me. And I guess Noah had that inkling that I would be the right fit for him. And it just seemed like we worked hand in glove together that way. There\u2019s a humanity to his script and how people care about other people and do things that are not in a technological world. And my father was a builder, for example; he worked as a carpenter. I was around a lot of people who worked with their hands. It\u2019s very different when you have a job where you have to use your body. I mean, I\u2019m doing it right now on stage. And it was about aging. There\u2019s a lot of interesting themes that he has embedded in it, and it\u2019s your job to realize that and to make it fully as human as it can be.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was the biggest challenge for you here?<\/p>\n

\n\tTo keep the trajectory through the whole thing. It takes place in, what, 36 hours? You do your backstory, you do all that stuff \u2014 where the guy came from, where he wound up, and just keeping that \u2014 but I had to be like a samurai, very focused and keeping that in the day without it being oppressive to anybody else. You are carrying a knapsack on your back to survive. As you get older, you have a lot more things to draw on. We all draw from different sources of our lives \u2014 of what we\u2019ve read, what we\u2019ve seen, what we\u2019ve learned \u2014 but that\u2019s what it is when you do a movie. This is a very Aristotelian kind of structure. That was the challenge, I think: to find all the variations. I always think of music. A great piece of music has a lot of variation. It doesn\u2019t assume that it has your attention. That\u2019s a big thing in life, to keep your attention.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s probably especially true of a lead, right?<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah. I mean, I always think everyone is the lead in their own life. You\u2019re the lead. So even if you\u2019re playing a supporting character, you\u2019re the lead as you\u2019re coming in. But yes, if you\u2019re the lead in a story, you have to hold the story within you.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was trying to think of the last true lead you were cast in, in a movie \u2014 which is to say one you hadn\u2019t directed or developed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs far as a movie goes that I haven\u2019t directed, I don\u2019t know. I\u2019d have to look. I mean, I did a bunch of them for a while, but then I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve been doing more miniseries and things. Also, the nature of a lot of movies has changed. You don\u2019t get as many independent or medium-sized films anymore, which I used to make my living on.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat was your space.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat was my space. I didn\u2019t do those big films for years. This may sound like I\u2019m being self-deprecating, but I don\u2019t even think of it. I usually think, \u201cWell, this is a really good role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNoah writes this part for you, and it is a true lead, so I imagine it felt significant just to be able to be thought of to anchor a film like this again, since as you say, it\u2019s rare to find them at all.<\/p>\n

\n\tRight, it has to do with the quality of the script. I\u2019ve read plenty of scripts where people were like, \u201cI want you to play this, it is the main character,\u201d and it\u2019s not good! So why am I going to do it? This one is beautifully written and it\u2019s a beautiful part. When people have given me those kinds of roles, whoever it\u2019s been \u2014 whether it\u2019s been the Coen Brothers or Robert Redford or whoever \u2014 it\u2019s like a gift. In this country, I learned early on that people can put you in a category. I could have just played bad guys when I first started. I really fought that tooth and nail, and I\u2019m really glad. I do theater, and that also gives you a chance to work your muscles again all over and stretch and stretch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut I agree with you. It\u2019s a gift when someone gives you something like this to do. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t think I can do it, just that sometimes you\u2019re considered for something and maybe it goes to someone who\u2019s a little more box-office friendly than you. When I was younger, that happened once or twice. And as you get older, you get less of those. And the interesting thing is that a lot of times as you get older, you actually can get better as an actor. You can improve. That is a wonderful thing to discover, like, \u201cOh, wow, I know how to be even simpler in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTurturro with Judy Davis in Barton Fink.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t20th Century Fox\/Photofest<\/p>\n

\n\tCan you share some of those early projects that did not go your way?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOh, no. (Laughs.) I can\u2019t say that stuff. But those are times where really somebody wants you, but the studio wants somebody else. That\u2019s just part of the gig. You can be hurt and then you\u2019ve got to pick yourself up and do it. I think that makes you appreciate the other opportunities even\u00a0more.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne thing that really struck me about this movie was its portrait of New York, and specifically New York today. There\u2019s an odd melancholy in him reaching the end of the pickpocketing road, largely because of the way New York has changed in technology and culture. I associate you obviously as a New York actor, so what was it like shooting that kind of story in modern New York?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe were in the boroughs a lot, and there\u2019s a reinvention that happens. There\u2019s new groups that come in and replace the group that leaves. It\u2019s a melting pot city. I don\u2019t see how you could be a foreigner in New York. You can be from anywhere. So there are certain sounds that I grew up with which are a little different now, but I think that you are a part of the world when you\u2019re walking down the street, taking the trains, bumping into people. There\u2019s a kind of energy that it gives you, and I definitely miss that when I\u2019m away. We shot in every borough, which is very hard to do. Sometimes we had to run and jump. We shot one day on a train \u2014 we were doing pickup shots and people were just on the train, and they didn\u2019t even bat an eye. They\u2019re just like, \u201cAnother day.\u201d It definitely harks back to films of the \u201840s, film noir, and \u201870s \u2014 those people or actors that influenced me as a kid.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot to say you were going around New York pickpocketing, but was there any level of immersive research for you in this?<\/p>\n

\n\tApollo Robbins has hands like a concert pianist. He can do anything with his hands. He can take your watch right off, right in front of your face, and you just don\u2019t notice. He distracts you, and before you know it, it\u2019s gone. So I was pickpocketing people that I wouldn\u2019t get arrested with. (Laughs.) Not always successfully, but certainly on the crew, I did it all the time, trying to steal from people. Sometimes they work in teams and it\u2019s about distraction, and it\u2019s about the delicacy of a touch. And in a way, the film is that way. It\u2019s about misdirection and with a delicate touch. When you read about these guys, they had a real-time slate. They would work every day, say 4 in the morning to 10. Usually the policemen let them do it. They would have permission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNow nobody carries cash, but no one pays attention. When I would be on the subway, I would be like, \u201cWow, I could just go put my hand right in that person\u2019s thing.\u201d Maybe I would take their phone, but that\u2019s a whole different thing. I would approach people sometimes thinking, like, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t want to get arrested.\u201d But it was very interesting to be aware of what you could do and what you couldn\u2019t do. Certain pockets are tighter. The other pockets used to be long ways on the side, inside of a coat you could put your hand in. But purses and knapsacks and saggy pants, you\u2019re waiting to be picked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThere was something so lovely and familial about seeing you work with Giancarlo and Buscemi. What\u2019s it like, especially when you are the lead, to share these rich scenes together?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s beautiful. They\u2019re wonderful, great actors, beautiful. I mean, I\u2019ve supported many people and been the cameo part, a really big supporting role. That\u2019s what makes the world interesting. It\u2019s what happens between us. It\u2019s that space between people. That\u2019s the joy of life. It\u2019s wonderful when you can work with people like that. I mean, Tatiana came in for one day, and she was just amazing. I met her once, and I knew right away. I said, \u201cLet\u2019s not rehearse the scene. Let\u2019s just block it and let\u2019s just do it. I don\u2019t want to rehearse it.\u201d And she didn\u2019t want to either, and she was amazing. In that one scene, you get basically their life together, and that\u2019s really hard to do. And I\u2019m working with her now [on stage], and she\u2019s great. Then when you have Steve and Giancarlo, you have all that history between us. It\u2019s like we don\u2019t have to really act. We know each other.<\/p>\n

\n\t*This article has been updated with Turturro\u2019s most recent lead role cast by another filmmaker, in 2003\u2019s Fear X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Turturro has led a consistently rich, varied career on screens big and small, on stages around New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,210404,85973,234041,50348,148729,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-759056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-giancarlo-esposito","tag-john-turturro","tag-steve-buscemi","tag-telluride","tag-the-only-living-pickpocket-in-new-york","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}