overall I've been really blessed and
fortunate you know I try not to take
that for granted and I try to work hard
and you know not lose my love but not
everything works but it's the attempt
that counts and once in a while
everything comes together
[Music]
I'm John Turturro and this is a timeline
of my career
[Music]
Raging Bull is the first time I was ever
on screen I auditioned for the movie
with my good friend Michael wada leuco I
brought pastries to my interview because
I thought to be polite they didn't have
a script and we had adapted a scene from
the book of Raging Bull because I had
read it when I was a kid my father was a
amateur prizefighter and so we had
worked on it and Martin Scorsese was
very nervous about gospel there's no
script and Robert De Niro said let them
do it and we moved the furniture around
and my friend Michael by the leuco and I
we did this scene which we had adapted
ourselves I think they were sort of
taken by our naivete or audacity I mean
really they were giant heroes and
there's still people who have inspired
me and my good friend Michael for a long
time
[Music]
let me explain myself did you're not
really black and I mean the blacker that
I really like them they're more than
black it's it's different it's different
yeah to me it's Stefan you know deep
down inside I think II wish you were
black laughs if you want to you know
your hair is kinky and mine what does
that mean do it do the right thing which
was in 1988 we shot it and never came
out in 89 and to a lot of heated
advanced press when the movie was about
to come out I was I was thinking wow I
wonder what the reaction is gonna be to
me on the subways Joe Klein wrote a New
York magazine that he thought people
were going to be riots in the movie
theaters and a few other critics did too
that it was like kind of out of control
none of that ever happened none of it
was ever retracted I've only been
embraced by the black community for that
film and other films too lady was in
craft service she wouldn't give me water
she told me on this ad she said because
she had seen on a big screen at Li you
me saying all this not one time I
remember her saying to me I hate you I
hate you so much and I was like we the
right thing came came out of because I
did a film five corners with John
Patrick Shanley which was before that
and then Spike saw me in that and then
he sent me do the right thing and a
leather-bound script from studio
duplicating which used to because he
would write the script and then they
type it up for you beautiful paper and
really great typesetting remember I was
doing a film with Dennis Hopper in
Venice Beach and I remember I received a
script and I read it and then when I can
and I liked it I came back and then we
met spike and I born three weeks apart
same year I grew up in a black
neighborhood he grew up in Italian
neighborhood we were sort of faded and
he asked me what part I wanted to play
and I said I'd like to play the racist
guy because I thought that was what it
was about
yeah we I mean I've done some really big
roles than a bunch of cameos for him
because he likes me too I don't good
luck charm or something it's nice to
have some
continuity because there are many people
I've worked with over the years which I
would have loved to have had a return
engagement but when spikes movies I've
played you know kind of a racist guy on
jungle fever I played the complete
opposite the guy was really open-minded
and very sweet I played a cop and
Clockers I played club owner with my
brother Nicholas and mo better blues
you know sometimes I like playing really
quiet characters like I played in the
truce when I played from a levee and
sometimes I played explosive characters
and but I loved characters that are
complex and even in a dramatic thing a
role that there's irony and there's a
humor I don't like when something is
just one thing I'm not interested
because no one none of us are one thing
[Music]
kind of words that uh plateaued that's
it I thought well it's like you people
don't like me anymore no no no it's not
you per se it's just maybe I should get
my teeth Kat no it's a nature of the
show they've already seen you win and
they want something new
well quiz show it was based on real
people so I had all the kinescope of her
I also met Harris temple I watched him a
lot I had a lot of time to prepare talk
to Robert Redford the way he talked and
his voice everything I based on her by
used to warm my voice up get a very very
high voice he talked very in a very
specific way I can't really do it right
now but he had a very very specific way
of talking so I was fascinated when I
first heard him talk I was like wow I
never heard anything so anybody like him
probably one of my most unattractive
roles I was fat at my teeth discolored
my hair thin the glasses and you know
people would come on the set and they
would sometimes talk to Robert Wow
John's got a little heavy you know they
never thought I did it on purpose I've
won some awards and things and been
nominated you know it's nice to be
invited to the party but overall what
you do is how the film lives on and how
it reaches people because a lot of films
that have reached people in a deep way
that have won
no words at all and we're never
acknowledged some of that has to do with
timing and like as Marlon Brando said
sometimes the best acting is the least
appreciated let me tell you something
panda oh you pull any of your crazy
with us you flash a piece out on the
lanes and take it away from you and
stick it up your ass and pull the
trigger till it goes click
Jesus you said it man nobody with
the Jesus Jesus quick Donna from The Big
Lebowski is inspired by a character I
did in a play ten years before it's
inspired and it's kind of based on one
guy and a little bit of another guy when
you really like people you want to
surprise them and they're your friends
but you also want to like you want to
bring something that they haven't
thought of so I looked at everything and
I show Joel and Ethan certain things
that I once I had that outfit on that I
I could do because you know when you
only have five minutes you've got to put
everything in
I wanted the nail I think they had the
outfit I played athletics but I trained
as I've done a lot of dancing that whole
dance that I did it was like a Muhammad
Ali dance you know and I didn't know
with what song that we're going to use
they were gonna do the slow motion but I
just kept trying to come up with things
to make them laugh that my mom was a
dressmaker and so you wear a suit you
move differently you wear a dress you
move differently you wear a tight pant
suit like that and then they wanted me
to be especially well-endowed did they
were like I was that that was their idea
that wasn't mine and I was like God
it was a little embarrassing but then
you had to get into it and I was like
and I was very thin because I had done
this movie before I played Primo levy
and when I had lost all this weight and
people thought I was dying and stuff and
I couldn't put it back on so I was very
very very thin so I just wanted to make
it as memorable and I didn't think they
were gonna use all of that and then when
they showed me the cut of it I was
embarrassed I was embarrassed first time
I saw it I was laughing but I was
embarrassed I was like oh god I can't
believe I did all those things I'm
talking to Julianne Moore about this
that sometimes I think the more normal
people are a little more grounded the
crazier you can be in your work I mean I
also was with you know a great company
with Jeff and John and Steve let's face
it I mean you talk about awards like
yeah just got a lot of great
performances you know many awards Jeff
Bridges won for the big bathroom
zero and that is a character that we
talk about as if he's our friend for our
therapist or a philosopher let's be
honest here that's a great great great
performance and John is Graeme Steve's
great
but Jeff's performances there is
something yoga like about it or Zen like
because Jeff has something really
beautiful about him as a performer he's
very selfless
there's the Oscars and there should be
the dude the dude Awards
- dude stirs I would rather get a dude
like it you got a dude a dude award I
love the character it's a great
character there's no model - Jesus even
though madathil he's the greatest ladies
please ladies and gentlemen rush to
judgment rushes there's two other guys
this between me I can't deny that's
right we shot that in 2016 it feels like
we shot it for three years I think those
miniseries things I've done Billy Martin
and for the Bronx is burning those are
long great experiences because you can
do different things and you can do in a
film because there's more scenes
sometimes it can be a repetitive scene
that can be the problem when it's 8
hours you try to find as much variation
but you get to explore sometimes
elements that maybe you wouldn't do in a
two or three hour two-and-a-half-hour
movie I saw the pilot it was it was very
long
Jimmy Gandolfini was my friend he did
one day on it I didn't want to watch it
so I read the first couple episodes so
they were really good I watched it with
my eyes closed and then Jimmy didn't do
that much so I was like okay I don't
have to kind of erase that from my mind
by then they had written everything
because originally when they did the
pilot I think they just had that it may
be one other episode they were working
on so I read the whole thing I could see
how well-written it was a man who is
completely full of flaws you know and
you just see a lot of humanity and a
person probably with great potential but
didn't have the stomach to be ambitious
I had a lot of time go to court talk to
lawyers and study the script what my
days were very long but idle I loved
doing it you know what R is it was
natural we just liked each other and so
he would come to me and talk to me and
ask me and sometimes I was able to help
him as much as I could
a lot of people helped me and I took
parts from all different people it's a
character I would love to revisit
because it was such a long shoot I got
lost in it that's what you hoped for I
really need you to listen to now I do
how could you be so rude ah no for what
I was introducing you to my family I
brought you to my son's birthday party
and you have never done just say the
finger wasn't an easy situation I
searched for your eyes again and again I
didn't exist we were involved we were in
love how many how to say that it made me
sick I threw up I don't know how you
could do something like that to me
Gloria bail in 2018 with Julianne Moore
and directed by Sebastian lilo
he's a very cute guy I have to say I
mean I'm not in the market for a guy but
he's such a cute guy he's hard not to
have a crush on you know when you work
with him because he's such a I don't
know maybe because he's Latin or
something and I just hear such a
inviting manner
I really I'd love I'd love to work with
him again you know love stories are
complicated so she has her flaws too but
she's she's really trying more than
probably Arnold is but you know when
you're a certain age and then you you
meet the other first wife or husband and
they say we were in love and we love to
you and all these things and you're the
outsider and there's parts of you that
are not developed but I thought it was a
lovely story and I was resistant because
the guy keeps disappearing but Sebastian
said to me the thing he loves about the
character was that he keeps trying and I
guess there are lots of men and maybe
some women too who don't have the
fortitude or the courage or the
confidence to get out of a terrible
relationship a dysfunctional relation
ship it maybe out of guilt or whatever
and instead embrace a great opportunity
that they have I know this is something
that I think occurred to Sebastian's mom
who he was able to understand it from
her point of view so I thought I will
follow along and he was very helpful
that way and she's great to work with I
think at the end you realize you have to
fail but you have to keep failing better
you have to keep trying failure is part
of it
and I think he's grappling with that my
motivation is to keep doing things that
I haven't done before and challenging
myself and it's also who I'm doing it
with you know it's not just if it's
successful it's the experience of who
you do it with that counts and I I value
that you know more and more