Legendary actor John Turturro is best known for crafting memorable characters through his collaborations with directors like Spike Lee and the Coen brothers. But earlier in his career, Turturro’s work with certain directors made him feel less like a collaborator and more like a punching bag.
Turturro got his start in movies in the fast-and-loose era of the 1980s, landing parts in films made by established names like William Friedkin (“To Live and Die in L.A.”), Woody Allen (“Hannah and Her Sisters”), Martin Scorsese (“The Color of Money”), and Michael Cimino (“The Sicilian”). But not all his memories from this time are positive.
“A few of the people you mentioned — not Marty — were really rough,” Turturro told Business Insider. “They were borderline beyond abusive sometimes. There was a lot of violence done to the actors in those movies.”
He still remembers filming one scene in particular.
In Friedkin’s 1985 neo-noir thriller “To Live and Die in L.A.,” Turturro had a bit part playing a man who’s caught using counterfeit money at an airport and is pursued by a Secret Service agent (William Petersen), who finally tracks him down in a bathroom and throws him against a wall.
“Oh, I got jacked up for real,” Turturro said, thinking back on the scene. And he didn’t take kindly to it.
“My father was a builder, so where I came from, if someone did something to someone, even if it was the boss, it got physical,” Turturro said. “On a movie set, you don’t think you have to take it there. But I learned some things from some of those movies.”
One thing he realized was that he would have to speak up for himself. He’d find his voice on the set of the indie crime drama “Five Corners” (1988).
“For me, that was the first time that I really asserted myself, speaking out and saying I’m not going to do certain things,” Turturro recalled. “That was the first time, at that stage in my life, that I gave a full performance that really landed the way I wanted it to.”
The performance would also grab the attention of Spike Lee, who would go on to cast Turturro in “Do the Right Thing.” The duo have collaborated on eight other movies since.
Decades after his early foray into film, there’s one kind of project that’s an instant pass for Turturro: one that’s “violent for violence’s sake.”
“I feel like the world has enough of that,” he said. “I’m really not interested in that.”
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