Adult Swim: Time to Waste Time with John Turturro

You might know him as "The Jesus" from The Big Lebowski, but John Turturro has long since made a name for himself as a more recognizable actor in films ranging from Barton Fink and Quiz Show to The Color Of Money to plenty of Coen Brothers flicks. Plus, he was in Cars 2 and the Transformers movies. Most recently, the actor has gone behind the camera to direct Passione, a colorful documentary about Naples' musical heritage that also dips into his Sicilian background. Since he was in a celebratory mood, we asked Turturro to reflect back on the films that have influenced him the most, and also which episode of Seinfeld he'd like to see next. (It isn't "The Contest.")

Passione Trailer

What are some of the films that have influenced you?

Most of those are old movies. Most of those with Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, or Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Davis, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, Marlon Brando, John Cassavetes movies, Martin Scorsese movies later on. I like a lot of foreign films. I'm a huge foreign-film fan from the '30s, Jean Renoir, to a lot of the Italian neo-realists. I'm a big Fellini fan. I'm not really that influenced by films of this moment because I've already been influenced when I was younger. I can enjoy a film now, but I think you're influenced when you're younger. That's what gives you your frame of reference, I think. I could go, "Wow," to a Pedro Almodóvar film that I really loved or something that's off the beaten path, and you say, "Wow, this is an amazing, amazing film."

There's this Israeli film called Late Marriage, which was made about 10 years ago. I thought that was a really good movie. Really sexy, formative movie. I'll see commercial movies too, but they don't really influence me that much. It's about this marriage between two people. Someone recommended it to me and I saw it. I don't always get a chance to see everything that's out because I have kids and everything, so I try to go see things. I saw it twice, I thought it was really good. It takes place in Israel. One guy, they don’t want him to marry this woman because she's a divorcee, and she's got a kid, and he's in love with her. It's about a whole culture and a whole world. It's good.

Late Marriage Trailer

I'm a fan of Joel and Ethan's movies, the Coen brothers, I've worked with them, and I think their movies are interesting because sometimes the third time around you go, "Wow, I really like this movie." Even when I was in it… that's because many times they're showing you something from their point of view. There's not too many hands in the soup. It's not by committee. Many movies seem to be the exact same movie over and over again. It doesn't really interest me. That's not the kind of movie that inspired me or captivated me to actually look into being in this world.

This little documentary that I made with these musicians reminded me of the power of performance that's not so self-conscious-based. The void of this narcissistic self-celebration of, "I'm famous and I'm gonna belt it up." It's like they're belting it out but it's rebounding off the wall right back into their mouth. I was reminded of what attracted me to certain performers when I was younger.

“It's like they're belting it out but it's rebounding off the wall right back into their mouth.”

Do you remember one of the first films that really amazed you growing up, in those formative years?

Tons of movies that I saw. Angels With Dirty Faces, High Sierra, All About Eve, to Casablanca. It goes on and on. Yankee Doodle Dandy, Spartacus, Sweet Smell Of Success, Elmer Gantry, On The Waterfront was huge, huge, huge. In the '70s, all the new directors came out, there were so many great movies every week. Commercial films were adult films. Even if you were 18 and you went to see Night Of The Living Dead, you went to see the latest Lina Wertmüller film, even if you didn't understand it. Sometimes I would be blown away by one of those films. Sometimes things went over my head at that time but you did see Five Easy Pieces or Chinatown or something like that. Those were regular movies.

Angels With Dirty Faces Trailer

Nowadays I do think things have gotten less sophisticated. The mechanics have gotten more sophisticated but the actual storytelling has become less so. I think people don't wanna think too much or whatever. I'd rather see something smart and ironic -- once in a while I can be in a mood for a stupid comedy but I don't want to see the same comedy over and over again. Unless it's brilliantly done, which is very rare.

What was the last stupid comedy you were impressed by?

Joel and Ethan make stupid comedies, but they're really smart stupid comedies. They're intelligent stupid comedies. You know what I mean? I can watch those movies again. There's room for different things but sometimes people do things a little bit different and people don't like it or whatever. You have to train people to receive different things. I don't want to always see a happy ending because life has a happy ending -- once in a while, it's okay. I do like to escape sometimes. I'm in a mood for escapism or something really funny. I thought that movie Knocked Up was really well done. I thought there were a lot of good things in that. But I wouldn't probably go see it again and again. The more contradictory the characters, the more complex it is, the more you can watch it.

“Joel and Ethan make stupid comedies, but they're really smart stupid comedies.”

Turturro In The Big Lebowski

I don't like watching things where everything is sweet and nice and whatever. I just go like, "Okay. That's not going to help me through the day." It's all right once in a while. If you're going to watch something crazy like the Marx Brothers, that's great. That takes you into the stratosphere and you're laughing your ass off. If you're really laughing your ass off on something, then that's good. That's done a good job. But when everything is so base, that doesn't do it for me usually. I go, "Well." I like when there's a sensibility behind it or a combination of a great trio. I'm a fan of Seinfeld. I like Seinfeld. I think there's some great stuff on that because they're really selfish people. [Laughs.] I liked The Honeymooners, which obviously influenced that. It's really truthful. I like that, I do. I'm just talking as an audience, not as a professional.

When you're flipping through the TV and you see an episode of Seinfeld on, is there one more than any other that you hope to catch again?

Oh I don't know if I can go into that but I like a lot of them. I think they all work really well together. I don't watch Larry David as much now but I know my brother Nicholas is a huge fan of it so I have to maybe try to catch up on that a little bit. Everybody likes to laugh. But I don't want to see the same movie a million times.