John Turturro on Do The Right Thing, Gloria Bell and More

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John Turturro is an acting legend. He is an actor that many directors like to work with, including both Spike Lee and the Coen Brothers. This year he is up for an Emmy for his role as Irving in the mind-bending sci-fi office drama Severance. When he last joined Bullseye, he had just starred in the movie Gloria Bell, directed by the Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Lelio. Turturro shared how he nailed down the subtleties and complexities of playing a character that might seem like an average joe in Gloria Bell. Plus, he also shared stories from his time working on some true classics like Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing and the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:10.0	It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:21.7	First up this week we are replaying my 2019 conversation with John Tertura.
0:26.8	He's up for an Emmy for his role as Irving and Severance, the mine-bending sci-fi
0:31.6	office drama.
0:33.6	John Tertura is, of course, an acting legend.
0:37.9	Lots of directors have actors they like to work with.
0:40.4	Tertura is a favorite of both Spike Lee and the Cohen brothers.
0:44.6	He's a guy with the distinctive looks and voice of a character actor, but unlike some
0:49.9	character actors he can do almost anything.
0:52.9	He can play tough, devious, vulnerable, nebyshy, brooding, weird.
0:57.2	He is never not himself, but no two roles are ever the same.
1:01.8	When I interviewed him he just starred in the movie Gloria Bell, directed by the Chilean
1:05.9	film makers Sebastian Lelio, kind of an English language remake of his Breakthrough 2013
1:11.8	film Gloria.
1:12.8	It's a movie about a relationship between two people who have both already been through
1:17.6	a lot.
1:18.8	Tertura plays Arnold, a retired Navy officer, divorced with two grown kids.
1:24.3	He stars opposite Julianne Moore, who plays Gloria.
1:27.6	She's also divorced, also has two grown kids.
1:31.0	She's been going out dancing a lot lately.
1:33.9	The two of them meet, they start dating, but then things get complicated.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.