John Turturro meets with the New School student body in a Town Hall meeting for a Q&A about his career and experiences in the entertainment industry.
Bio
Robert LuPone
Robert LuPone, a member of The Actors Studio, appeared on Broadway in True West, A Thousand Clowns, A View from the Bridge, Late Nite Comic, Zoya's Apartment, Swing, St. Joan, Nefertiti and as Zach in A Chorus Line. Off-Broadway credits include Pericles, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, Black Angel, Lennon, and Snow Orchid.
In regional theater, he has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Hartford Stage, Yale Rep, Arena Stage, Berkshire Theater Festival, Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, Williamstown Theater Festival, and the Goodman Theater, where he won the Jefferson Award for his performance in The Tooth of Crime.
Television credits include Law & Order, Crossing Jordan, Swift Justice, Guiding Light, Mia-Child of Hollywood, American Tragedy, Palookaville, Sex and the City, and as Dr. Cusimano in The Sopranos. He received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Zach Grayson on All My Children.
Film credits include Nick of Time, Dead Presidents, The Doors, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Door in the Floor, and the upcoming Indocumentos.
Mr. LuPone is President of the Board of ART/NY, as well as artistic director of MCC Theater in New York City.
John Turturro
JOHN TURTURRO studied at the Yale School of Drama. He created the title role of John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea in his theatrical début, for which he won an Obie Award and a Theater World Award. Since then, Turturro has returned to the stage often, in productions such as Waiting for Godot; performing the title role in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui; and in Eduardo de Filippo's Souls of Naples, for which he received a Drama Desk nomination. He recently completed Samuel Beckett's ENDGAME at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).
Mr. Turturro has also performed in more than sixty films, working with directors such as Martin Scorsese (The Color of Money), Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever), Robert Redford (Quiz Show), Peter Weir (Fearless), Tom DiCillo (Box of Moonlight), and Joel and Ethan Coen (Miller's Crossing; The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; and the lead role in Barton Fink, which won him the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the David di Donatello Award.) His current projects include Columbia Pictures’ The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, opposite Denzel Washington and John Travolta.
Mr. Turturro received SAG Award nominations for his television portrayals of Howard Cosell in Monday Night Mayhem and Billy Martin in ESPN's The Bronx Is Burning. He won an Emmy for his guest appearance on the hit series Monk.
John Turturro has also directed three films. His directorial debut, Mac, won the Camera d' Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed Illuminata and the recently-released Romance & Cigarettes, starring James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, and Kate Winslet.
Art of representing a character on a stage or before a camera by means of movement, gesture, and intonation. Acting in the Western tradition originated in Greece in the 6th century BC; the tragedian Thespis is traditionally regarded as founder of the profession. Aristotle defined acting as “the right management of the voice to express various emotions” and declared it a natural gift that he doubted could be taught. Acting declined as an art in the Middle Ages, when Christian liturgical drama was performed by craft guilds and amateurs. Modern professional acting emerged in the 16th century with Italy's commedia dell'arte troupes. It flourished during the era of William Shakespeare. Not until the 18th century, however, was acting considered a profession to be taken seriously, through the efforts in England of the actor-manager David Garrick and the talents of actors such as Sarah Siddons, Edmund Kean, and Henry Irving. Modern acting styles have been influenced by Konstantin Stanislavsky's emphasis on the actor's identification with his role and by Bertolt Brecht's insistence on the objectivity and discipline of the actor. The Stanislavsky method was adopted in the U.S. by Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler (1901–92) and is the basis of most contemporary training, which features the cultivation of emotional and sense memory, physical and vocal training, and improvisation.
This was a funny and informative interview with one of today's greatest actors. It seems everyone knows of John's great performance as Jesus Quintana but few seem to know of another terrific performance from Tim Robbins's movie "The Cradle Will Rock". John played a character named Aldo Silvano. John had a big role but in one long scene which seemed written just for him, he stole the show - and I mean he nailed it. It was a tour de force and you don't see too many of those anymore. Thanks for this wonderful interview.
member. 
