L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2015 www.italoamericano.org 16 L'Italo-Americano ITALIAN SECTION | It's easy in Hollywood for an actor to be typecast according to his or her ethnicity. In his l o n g - l a s t i n g c a r e e r , w h i c h includes over ninety projects, John Turturro was able to both stay faithful to his Italian roots and avoid playing a specific kind of character. Always inte- r e s t e d i n l e a r n i n g a b o u t h i s ancestry, he not only can speak perfect Italian but he knows a lot about Italian history too. His parents were both immigrants. J o h n ' s d a d , N i c o l a T u r t u r r o m o v e d t o t h e S t a t e s f r o m Giovinazzo, Bari when he was six years old; he fought as a Navy sailor on D-Day and later became a carpenter and con- struction worker. Katherine, J o h n ' s m o t h e r , w a s f r o m Aragona near Agrigento, Sicily. When Katherine was only four y e a r s o l d s h e l o s t h e r o w n mother and John's grandfather couldn't afford to raise her on his own so he put his daughter into an orphanage. The experience of being rai- sed by the nuns affected her d e e p l y ; s h e r e s e n t e d b e i n g I t a l i a n d u r i n g t h a t t i m e a n d reconnected to her culture only in later years. She found solace in music becoming an amateur jazz singer who worked in a Navy yard during World War II. She would always sing tradi- tional Neapolitan songs to her k i d s . J o h n w a s b o r n i n Brooklyn, and grew up in the Rosedale section of Queens, New York. He became attracted to the theatre at an early age. H e r e c a l l s h o w t h e c o n s t a n t fights between his parents soun- d e d v e r y t h e a t r i c a l t o h i m , "They adored each other, but it was often fight and make up, which is very Italian." He majored in Theatre Arts at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and comple- ted his MFA at the Yale School of Drama. Starting out by doing Chekov, Shakespeare really tau- ght him how to play different roles and therefore escaping being pigeonholed into a certain type of characters, such as mob- sters. He was also influenced by his father, who was very proud of being Italian, at the same time he was disheartened by the stereotype in films which usual- ly associated Italy to mafia. "My family is so unlike that," says John, "my father looked down upon that stuff, and yet he loved The Godfather." After a decade of smaller roles, in 1989 Turturro worked for the first time with Spike Lee and over the years he beca- me the actor who has worked t h e m o s t w i t h t h e A f r i c a n American director, even more than Denzel Washington. It's a l o n g s t a n d i n g c o l l a b o r a t i o n based on trust and friendship; not only Turturro was the raci- sm fueled son of the owner of the pizza establishment in Do the right thing, he was also the dumped boyfriend in Jungle Fever, who embarks in an inter- racial relationship of his own, seeming more grounded than anybody else in the movie. Two characters at opposite ends of the spectrum. Turturro has also often worked with critics dar- l i n g s J o e l a n d E t h a n C o e n , c r e a t i n g s o m e o f t h e m o s t memorable characters in the history of cinema. T h e b r a i n y p l a y w r i g h t i n B a r t o n F i n k a n d t h e i c o n i c pederast bowler Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski are burnt i n a u d i e n c e s ' m e m o r y . Alongside the dramatic roles that gave him praises and reco- gnition he juxtaposed several collaborations with comedian A d a m S a n d l e r , w h o h e h a s known since he appeared on Saturday Night Live. Turturro t o o k s u p p o r t i n g r o l e s i n t h e most successful comedies of Sandler's, having fun with the character and often improvi- sing. In 1992 he debuted behind the camera with Mac, a film l a r g e l y b a s e d o n h i s l a t e father's story; a blue collar tale of brothers at odds with each other in the construction busi- ness. The answering machine message that plays at the end of the movie is an actual message that John's father left him befo- re he died. That film, which won the C a m é r a d ' O r a w a r d a t t h e Cannes Film Festival for best first feature, was really a hit w i t h I t a l i a n d i r e c t o r N a n n i Moretti, who booked it at his theatre Nuovo Sacher. In fact t h e t w o m e t i n C a n n e s a n d quickly became friends. After m a n y y e a r s o f t a l k s a b o u t working together, Moretti has finally directed Turturro in Mia Madre, which premiered this year in Cannes. Turturro, a fan of Moretti's early works, fell immediately in love with the script. In the movie he plays a neurotic actor constantly swit- ching between acting and meta- a c t i n g , a l t e r n a t i n g l i n e s i n English and in Italian. He has become so fluent that he acts in I t a l i a n a l s o i n M a r c o P o n t e c o r v o ' s l a t e s t , T e m p o instabile con probabili schiari- t e . T u r t u r r o w o u l d l o v e t o r e v e r s e t h e r o l e s a n d d i r e c t M o r e t t i i n o n e o f h i s f u t u r e endeavors behind the camera. "Nanni and De Niro could play brothers; they both have a ten- dency of repeating the same thing over and over." Turturro's love story with Italian Cinema has been going on for years. In 1997 he played Holocaust survivor Primo Levi i n L a T r e g u a – T h e T r u c e , w h i c h a l l o w e d h i m t o w o r k w i t h h i s l o n g t i m e f r i e n d Francesco Rosi. Turturro spent y e a r s , h e s a y s , s t u d y i n g t h e writer and reading all the mate- rial available to him. "It was one of the great experiences of m y l i f e , w o r k i n g w i t h R o s i , because he's made films with G i a n M a r i a V o l o n t é , w h o I think was one of the greatest actors." In 2010 he directed and acted in Passione, a documen- tary about the rich musical tra- d i t i o n o f N a p l e s a n d t h e C a n z o n e N a p o l e t a n a h i s mother adored. He has been proudly carrying dual citizen- ship since 2011, which is when he received his Italian passport; the final step in honoring his heritage. MICHAEL TRAVERSA John Turturro's love story with Italy Actor, writer and director John Turturro John Turturro, Max Casella and Fiorello in Passione

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