Many character actors are chameleons; it takes a minute to recognize them in a different role. (Think of Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Big Lebowski, Boogie Nights, Capote, Almost Famous.) Then there's John Turturro, who is almost always clearly John Turturro, yet who has embodied a range of characters that would make any actor jealous. As the racist pizzaman Pino in Do the Right Thing, the bitter nebbish Herb Stempel in Quiz Show, the principled actor Aldo Silvano in Cradle Will Rock, or even the pederastic bowler Jesus Quintana in Lebowski, his breadth is impressive, but in some delightful way Turturrosity always shines through.

You rarely see him on screen in Romance & Cigarettes, the third movie he's directed since 1992, but that distinctive vitality is apparent in every scene. The cast is incredible: James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Mary-Louise Parker, Mandy Moore, Aida Turturro (Turturro's cousin), Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, Bobby Cannavale and a hilariously foul-mouthed Kate Winslet. But few of these actors have ever been caught on screen bursting into song, as they do here.

Early critical response to Romance & Cigarettes has been oddly divided, with some critics delighted and others, somehow, horrified. The crowd I saw it with was thrilled, and so was I. It's funny, sure, but also warming, lively. It's not stagy, but it captures some of the feeling of seeing a great play; that sense of communion and community. But hey, if you don't think this looks like fun, I just don't know what to tell you. — Peter Smith




What was the genesis of this film?

Living in a small house in Queens, that's one. And something my father had said to me once that the title came out of. Then when I was in Barton Fink I was doing a lot of typing and writing, and I wrote all these ideas down. But really it came out of living in a tiny house with a lot of music and big personalities. I used to eavesdrop a lot on my mom and all her friends' conversations about their husbands and all the things that they went through. Growing up in a house that was just bursting with music. Everybody had their own music, and it almost made you feel like you could achieve privacy if you had your own music. Putting on those 45s and fantasizing: today I'm gonna be a fighter, or a basketball player, or a dancer, or this or that.

There's a familial quality it. You seem to have employed almost every actor you've ever worked with.

James and Kate were new, but they were people I admired. They both come from a certain kind of background and they're both very earthy. But a lot of the other people are people that I've worked with, like Susan or Mary-Louise, or Aida, Chris and Steve. It's about a world that I know, even though it's heightened. I was trying to connect the Charles Bukowski quality to the James Brown, Bruce Springsteen quality. Regular people have imaginations, they have sexuality, they have stupidity, they have rage, they have love. We do all these fantasy movies nowadays — occasionally there's an exception like Pan's Labyrinth, where there's something very real and emotional in it. I think a fairy tale or something with music or fantasy, has to come out of something real.

James Gandolfini's very much known for one role. How did you work with him to get around that?

Joel and Ethan [Coen, who produced] did The Man Who Wasn't There with him, and they said why don't you look at James? I said, well, I think he's too young. Then he did a reading of it, and I thought he was tremendous. He could do an average man, but make him so complex and funny and human. He looks like a man, you know? And his sensibility was so wonderful that I was like, I'm not gonna get someone that's this human. I didn't know he could sing a little bit. I wasn't asking him to play something a hundred miles away from how he grew up. But John Wayne played a lot of roles and he didn't do overtly different things, but you believed him in different parts. I feel like if this film had a huge release, or that kind of release that it should really, originally was gonna have, it would help people see James in a different way. Cause you forget about that in five minutes when you're watching the movie.

What drew you to Kate Winslet?

I had seen her in Holy Smoke, and there were things in it that were so wild. I really needed someone who could be uninhibited, and I saw Kate doing just a couple things — like she smelled her armpit in one scene [laughs]. When I met her she was really skinny, and I was really kind of disappointed. But then she got pregnant, and I was very happy. I do think — and I know to other people this sounds self-serving, but I think it's almost impossible for a man or a woman in a supporting role to give a better performance than she gives in Romance & Cigarettes. She covers the gamut in thirty-something minutes.

The critics who disliked this movie really seemed to hate it.

I haven't read too many reviews. Overseas, there've been critics who really loved it, and critics who didn't get it. But the audiences are not split. If it goes to a hundred people, seventy-five, eighty people really are delighted by it.
I know it's hard for you to believe me completely, because no matter what I say, it's somewhat self-serving. But I swear on my father, from its first rough cut to its test screening, even when it was a little longer and lumpy in certain parts, the response to the film has been tremendous. When we showed it in Toronto, Roger Ebert loved it. Ain't It Cool News went crazy about it. Now, there were a few people that maybe didn't like it. But you know, I don't care what Variety says. Nobody in that movie reads Variety anyway. None of those garbagemen or policemen. If I didn't see the film work with my own eyes, I would never have been so persistent. But I know people dig it, and I'd just love for them to see it with an audience. It's a real communal kind of film. I've seen it alone, and it's good, but when I see it with a crowd it's like a dialogue back and forth.



Can you explain the distribution problems?


I had a company that loved the film. They helped finance the film. They got the film. They understood the film. They watched it in rough cuts, they saw a test screening. And they were gonna release it in five hundred, six hundred theaters. It was eight minutes longer than it is now. It's better now than it was then. And then when it was bought, they never watched it with an audience, and that was the kiss of death. Some companies never did see it with an audience, and they were saying, "Why doesn't Sony want it? There's gotta be something wrong with it." To me, it could make a lot of money, and it didn't cost a lot of money. Joel and Ethan said to me they've never seen something as perplexing as this situation. But I'm appreciative that a lot of people I'm talking to now, like yourself, are delighted by it. That's why I made the movie.

Talking about the Coens, are they going to write you another role any time soon?

I'm sure — they've got one thing, this western, and I've heard about a couple of things. I've been doing things, they've been doing things. Their involvement in the film was huge. They helped me cast it, they helped me get the money, they helped me edit it, they were fantastic. So I feel like I've been working with them.



You've had just an incredible range of characters over the years. Did you make a conscious attempt to avoid getting typecast?

I did a lot of different kinds of text on stage, and I didn't want to spend my whole career playing the same thing. You know, I played Sam Giancana, I've done a couple gangster movies, and I'm not saying I would never do one again, but I did fight against it because when I did something like Mac, it was so hard to get the money because it wasn't about a crime family. And you know, there's a lot of different stories to tell.



You once said of Emily Watson, "She doesn't have an actress's personality at all. You think of stars as aggressive or ambitious or self-oriented." Do you think you have that personality? Do you see yourself that way?

I'm ambitious in the sense that I like to try to do things that I haven't done before. That's where my ambition lies. Not in the rat race. It doesn't interest me.



Emily Watson co-stars with you in one of my favorite movies, Cradle Will Rock.
That film, and a number of other films you've done, have some of the warm ensemble feel that's in Romance & Cigarettes.

One of the two protagonists, either James or Susan, is in almost every scene. But I do like things that show a world. Usually movie star films are all about these people and everyone else is a supporting part of that mechanism, but not in the most individual way. I don't really look at life that way. Yeah, you've got to tell a story, there's got to be the protagonist, antagonist, whatever, but that doesn't mean those other people can't be really rich and idiosyncratic and have their own needs and their own sexuality. I've been with a lot of huge, huge movie stars sometimes, and sometimes it's not the most creative position to be in. 'Cause all the air in the room goes in that direction and people don't disagree. People don't say, oh, that doesn't work.




Which of the big-name actors that you've worked with have you found most collaborative?

I've worked with a lot of good people, you know? All the actors I worked with in this movie I found tremendous. I've worked with DeNiro now, I really liked working with him a lot. He's a real team player, someone I've always admired. I've worked with Robert Redford, I loved working with him. I had a very small role in The Color of Money, but he was so gentlemanly to me. Whenever I see him we have a nice little friendship. I worked with Oliver Platt, I really liked working with Ollie. Cate Blanchett, Emily Watson. Tony Shalhoub is someone I've worked with in every medium. Steve Buscemi is an actor who's gotten better and better. He's a terrific person.

Lastly, have you seen the Simpsons episode where the kids all go to sneak into an R-rated movie, and they're all excited about it, and then it turns out that they're sneaking into Barton Fink?

No!
[laughs] And we never thought anybody would see Barton Fink.