John Turturro Talks New ‘Pickpocket’ Film, Knicks, Big Lebowski & More w/Rich

John Turturro came on The Rich Eisen Show to talk about playing a pickpocket. Rich, who had just walked out of the green room with him, wanted to know if he should check his wallet. What followed was one of the great guest wormholes in recent memory: the Knicks' title, a brother who once stole Yankee Stadium sod, Dr. J dunking on Wilt Chamberlain, Joe Torre, and the truth about The Big Lebowski's bowling ball.

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

Turturro stars in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, which opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles this Friday and nationwide on Friday, October 30th. Rich described the character as a pickpocket in his dotage, in a world where nobody carries cash.

"It's about a guy who's everything has changed around him personally, professionally, the technology," Turturro said. He is at a stage where he finally realizes what it is to care for someone, while still trying to make a living, and then he steals from the wrong person. "The clock starts ticking." Turturro called it propulsive but tender, with an almost Greek structure, taking place over 36 hours, like the great 90-minute films he saw as a kid. The cast includes Giancarlo Esposito and Steve Buscemi.

To prepare, he read books on the history of pickpockets, including Whiz Mob, built on interviews with pickpockets from the '30s, '40s and '50s. "They're really like magicians," he said. He worked with Apollo Robbins, a magician and pickpocket who comes from a family of criminals. "His hands are sort of like a concert pianist," Turturro said. "He takes my watch off every time I see him, and I don't feel it at all."

He practiced on people in the office and on set. On the subway, he decided against it: take something, you have to give it back, and if you get arrested, you need bail. It would be easy, he noted. "Everyone's on their phone." The craft, he explained, is moving from a social distance to a very intimate one, and you approach from the side, never eye to eye.

The Knicks finally did it

Rich quickly changed the subject to the greatest pickpocket in New York since Jalen Brunson. Turturro is still in the afterglow of the Knicks' championship. "If you're a real fan, it's hard euphoric, but it's also unbelievable," he said. "It's hard to digest." He loved the team's chemistry, the three guys from Villanova, and the payoff after years of heartbreak following the great teams of 1969-70 through '73.

They relived the run. It looked like it might go down the tubes early against the Hawks before the Knicks became a juggernaut. Turturro credited the adjustment of making Karl-Anthony Towns "sort of the quarterback" at the high post, and said the defense took off as if "someone turned up the flame." Rich remembered the comeback against the Cavs in game one and the Finals against Victor Wembanyama.

On Brunson, Turturro said he has been a winner in high school, college and the pros. Everyone wants a guard to be 6'6", but "his footwork, his acumen, he's really a special player."

Repeating? Turturro noted nobody is picking them, just like last year. He knows the 76ers are stacked, and he'll miss Mitchell Robinson, including "the thrill of Mitch hitting a free throw." He reminded Chris, a Celtics fan, that Boston has 18 banners, 11 with Bill Russell and three with Larry Bird. Lots of people were rooting for the Knicks, he said. They were the underdogs.

Nicholas, the sod, and the blue seats

Rich told Turturro he sounded just like his brother Nicholas, whose sports fandom runs famously hot. John placed his own intensity at "high," but steadier. "Nicholas goes up and down and up and down. I try to keep a steady, solid support of my team."

He gave his brother credit as a true fan. In 1977, Nicholas, maybe 15 or 16, tore up sod from the Yankee Stadium field and brought it home, where they planted it in the backyard and put up a flag. "It never really took," Turturro said. During games, Nicholas will put a finger in his ear and tell you not to talk to him.

The rivalry went way back. Nicholas loved Rick Barry. John loved Dave DeBusschere, and from the blue seats at Madison Square Garden he would needle his brother when DeBusschere shut Barry down. "There, you see, he can't even get the ball."

Joe Torre, Willie Mays and Bob Gibson

Turturro also loved the Yankees of Billy Martin, Chris Chambliss and Thurman Munson. He loves catchers, "like the quarterback of the team," which is one reason he is making a documentary about Joe Torre.

Torre spans the arrival of free agency, the players union and the first strike. Players didn't make much back then. Torre told him that in the Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse you had to write down any candy bar, beer or gum you took and pay for it, and the Pirates gave you one towel. "Only one."

The stories pour out. An All-Star starting lineup of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Torre, Roberto Clemente, Johnny Bench and Willie McCovey. Bob Gibson showing up at Mays's house wearing glasses, and Mays marveling, "You wear glasses?" Gibson didn't wear them when he pitched. And Mays, chatting with catcher Torre at the plate, hitting a home run mid-conversation. "I'll tell you the rest of the story when I come around." The doc still has interviews left.

Dr. J over Wilt

During a break, Turturro spotted the Dr. J photo behind TJ and said he was at that ABA-NBA All-Star Game at Nassau Coliseum. "He dunked from the top of the key over Wilt Chamberlain. And I was there, man," he said. "We were rolling in the aisles."

Turturro had already seen Julius Erving play for the Virginia Squires, knew he came out of UMass, and knew he was from Long Island. "Everybody wanted to be Dr. J," he said. Asked if he still does: "I still do." He believes Nicholas was with him.

Rich noted that in 12-plus years, Turturro was the first guest to turn around and say he was at that game, and that there is no recorded video. "It's my memory, man," Turturro said. "It was a breakaway, and Wilt Chamberlain was there, and he went right over Wilt Chamberlain."

He also explained what came next. Erving helped popularize the ABA, the Nets couldn't afford the merger entry fee and sold him to Philadelphia, and the Knicks, who had territorial rights, were outbid. "He wanted to play for the Knicks," Turturro said.

Celebrity True or False

Then came Celebrity True or False.

Did he actually get punched during the Do the Right Thing fight scene? "True." Martin Lawrence was hauling off on him. Turturro accidentally poked Lawrence in the eye trying to catch him during a fall, and Lawrence did a whole routine afterward with the eye patch, comparing himself to Mike Tyson. It happened on To Live and Die in L.A., too, where a director wanted it real and an actor kept hitting him. "I grew up on a construction with my dad," Turturro said. "I know what a real fight is."

He called the Do the Right Thing set great, said he and Spike Lee are three weeks apart in age with similar references, and noted that before Nicholas was born, he grew up in a primarily Black neighborhood in Hollis, Queens. The film cemented their friendship.

A poker boot camp for Rounders? True. He trained with a grinder who made his living at the table, and said poker is "a form of pickpocketing in some ways."

Did Adam Sandler use him as bait to land Jack Nicholson for Anger Management? Sandler told Nicholson that Turturro was in before Turturro had read the script. Nicholson turned out to be a huge fan of Mac, the first film Turturro directed. Turturro also said he has beaten Sandler one-on-one. "I said, 'I'm not going to let you win. I don't work for you, man.'" Sandler backs in like Shaq, Turturro said, and he's a good passer.

The Jesus, the bowling ball and Christopher Walken

Did he ad-lib everything he did to the bowling ball in The Big Lebowski? "Most of that is true," he said. The Coen brothers scheduled extra time knowing he'd come up with crazy things. Once he got the suit, he asked for the nail and the hairnet "and then I just went to town." He threw in a Muhammad Ali-style dance and never expected them to use it all. "They used everything." He also told a story about the oversized costume piece he had to wear for the character's door-to-door flashback.

Soldiers have told him they bring The Big Lebowski with them on deployment. "That's like the highest compliment you can get." He also recommended his own follow-up with the character, The Jesus Rolls, with Bobby Cannavale and Susan Sarandon.

Finally, did he specifically request Christopher Walken to play Burt on Severance? "Absolutely. I love Chris." He has seen Walken do classical and contemporary theater and even play Elvis Presley in a play Walken wrote. When Ben Stiller's team wanted a younger actor, Turturro pushed back. "You're not dead when you get older," he said. "There's still this young person in you."

Rich asked Turturro to come back anytime. It's a little calmer, Rich said, than his brother's visit.