John Turturro is stepping into this year’s best actor conversation with a clear purpose: championing The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, the Sundance success already generating awards buzz.
Speaking at a Zurich Film Festival masterclass on Sunday, the Emmy-winning actor said he intends to support Noah Segan’s film as it enters the upcoming awards campaign. Turturro, who has not previously been nominated for an Oscar, stars as Harry, an experienced pickpocket whose tightly managed existence unravels after a job goes wrong. The resulting chain of events plays out across 36 hours.
“I never really have gone the whole hog with it,” Turturro said of awards campaigning. “But now I’m the lead in the film, so I’m going to support the film because I love the film.”
While acknowledging that awards attention can help an actor move toward another project, Turturro resisted framing his work as a competition with other performers.
“Is it nice to be acknowledged? Great, but that’s not why you do it,” he said. “Just because a film is really popular doesn’t mean it will have staying power, but it’s nice to be in the conversation. I don’t look upon myself as being a competitive person. I’m competitive with myself. I want to get the most out of what I can do, but it’s not sports!”
Turturro admitted that the positive critical response following the film’s Sundance reception caught him by surprise. His reaction, he recalled, was: “Finally, I’m in something that people will see.”
The actor also reflected on how age and experience have changed his approach to performing. He said acting remains an area in which people can continue improving, even as some physical abilities diminish. Life, death, loss, parenthood and marriage have all given him experiences he can now distill in ways that were unavailable to him when he was younger.
“What it is to really love someone versus falling in love,” he said. “That’s a huge difference.”
Irving Bailiff is set to return
Turturro also offered an update on his television future, confirming that he expects to return as Irving Bailiff for season three of Apple’s Emmy-winning Severance, which stars Adam Scott.
“Yeah,” he eventually told the audience. “As long as they give me interesting things to do, then I’m interested.”
The discussion led Turturro to praise his friend and longtime colleague Christopher Walken, who plays Burt Goodman. Burt and Irving began a romance during the show’s first season, and Turturro said he personally pushed for Walken to become his on-screen love interest.
After being presented with younger possibilities, Turturro recalled making his preference clear: “I want Chris, because I love Chris. And I don’t have to act that I love him because I love him.”
Although Walken “didn’t understand a lot of the show,” Turturro said their real friendship helped shape their work together. He told Walken not to worry and simply to look at him during their scenes. The pair have acted together, and Turturro said he has directed Walken about three times.
Calling Walken a “wonderful theater actor,” Turturro said audiences may associate him with strange characters even though he is capable of far more. He also described Walken as sensitive and possessing a childlike joy in his work, adding that “when that happens, anything is possible.”
Unfinished business with The Night Of
Turturro received applause when the conversation turned to HBO’s The Night Of. The crime drama ran for one season in 2016, co-starred Riz Ahmed and later won five Emmys. Turturro earned an Emmy nomination for playing John Stone, a defense lawyer affected by eczema.
“The Night Of is something I’m very proud of,” he said. The actor explained that the series originated as an earlier British television production, but he deliberately did not watch that version because he did not want it to influence his performance.
Turturro confirmed that he wanted to make another season. That possibility did not move forward because those involved could not agree on the story, he said. “But I loved doing it. It was one of those great experiences in my life.”
A four-decade career celebrated in Zurich
The masterclass followed Turturro’s Golden Eye ceremony on Saturday night. His career spans four decades and includes work with Spike Lee, Joel and Ethan Coen, Martin Scorsese, Robert Redford, Robert De Niro, Nanni Moretti and Pedro Almodóvar.
His collaborations with Lee included Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever. With the Coen brothers, he appeared in Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Big Lebowski, in which he created the character Jesus Quintana. His lead performance in Barton Fink won him the best actor award at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.
Turturro said he tends to receive “more normal” roles in Europe than across the Atlantic. He has also repeatedly rejected scripts in which his character is violent toward women.
Accepting the Golden Eye, Turturro quoted Italian novelist Cesare Pavese’s observation that “the only great thing in life is to begin.” He added: “I still consider myself a beginner in many ways.” Describing himself as fortunate to have made a living doing interesting work that respects an audience’s intelligence, he said he viewed the honor as “an encouragement to continue.”
Turturro joins Julianne Moore and Tom Hiddleston among the 2026 Zurich honorees. The festival’s 22nd edition runs from Sept. 24 through Oct. 4.