Character actors like John Turturro never fail to leave their mark on screen.He's been commanding our attention in movies and on television for 46 years, always digging deep to deliver something memorable.
Called one of the great character actors in the history of movies, Turturro responded with modesty: "Oh wow, I'll take that compliment.I'm not sure of it!" Now 69, Turturro is doing some of his best work in Apple TV's "Severance," and on the big screen in a rare leading-man part, as a thief clinging to a world passing him by, in a charming and moving crime thriller, "The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.""Within this tense sort of crime thriller, there's all this humanity and, like, tenderness," he said.
"There's like this love story, and there's this guy who basically the world has changed around him.He's obsolete in some ways.
So, how does someone like that survive in such a fast-changing world? I found it very evocative and moving."To watch a trailer for "The Only Living Pickpocket in New York," click on the video player below.We spoke to Turturro in his Brooklyn neighborhood.
He's New York through and through – and is not a recluse."I ride the train," he said.
Growing up in Hollis, Queens, his parents were a working-class couple with a penchant for drama."They had kind of a very intimate relationship, and volatile at certain times," Turturro said.
"When we used to watch 'The Honeymooners,' when I was really a little kid, my older brother, Ralph, used to call the show 'Mommy and Daddy.' It was, you know, an expressive, sometimes explosive household.So, you learn what size is, and what, also, quiet is within that." They also loved movies, which made a lasting impression on their son.
"I didn't go to the theater that much when I was young, but I watched the 'Million Dollar Movie,' and I watched all these great movies from the '30s, '40s, '50s.Those people opened up my brains, you know, whether it was Barbara Stanwyck, or Edw...