In 2022's The Batman, John Turturro played mob boss Carmine Falcone. The Penguin, an excellent new spinoff series airing on HBO, follows Carmine's enforcer Oz and his daughter Sofia; Carmine himself featured in a flashback-heavy episode the other week, but this time he was played by Mark Strong. Turturro opted not to return for the role, and now we know why.
Part of it was that old chestnut: scheduling issues. “You can’t do everything you want to,” Turturro told Variety. That's the reason The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc gave when she was asked about Turturro's absence before the show had premiered. But Turturro kept going, saying there was another reason he didn't want to come back as Carmine: “I did what I wanted to with the role...In the show, there was a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing.”
In The Penguin, Carmine Falcone is revealed to have not only killed his wife and Sofia's mother, but to have strangled several women during his time as a crime kingpin, murders he pins on Sofia after he suspects that she might reveal his misdeeds to the press. Carmine then convinces the rest of his family to write letters saying that Sofia is insane, which he uses to keep her locked up in a mental institution for years.
So Carmine does indeed commit a lot of violence against women in The Penguin, but Turturro's explanation is still curious, because he does a lot of the same sort of thing in The Batman. In response to Turturro's comments, Lauren LeFranc told TheWrap that The Penguin “was only deepening what was established” in the earlier movie. “Carmine in the movie killed Selina Kyle’s mother and then does try to actively kill Selina, and also kills Annika – Selina’s friend,” LeFranc said. “I think it’s been established, and [The Batman director Matt Reeves] and I are in agreement on this, that Carmine’s a very violent man and has a violent streak against women.”
"I completely respect an actor who doesn’t want to take on a role for whatever their personal reasons. I only want people to join our show who are excited and want to further the story we’re trying to tell. I think Mark Strong did a really fantastic job. He made the character his own and also really honored what John Turturro did. To my knowledge it was due to scheduling conflicts.”
For his part, Turturro has an explanation for what made the violence in The Batman different from the violence in The Penguin. “It happens off-screen,” the actor said. “It’s scarier that way.”
This is again a bit curious, since Carmine's violent acts are largely left offscreen in both the movie and the show. It's true that The Penguin takes Carmine from a crime kingpin with a violent streak to a full-on serial killer of women, and maybe that's what made Turturro uncomfortable, but his explainations feel a little strained.
It's also possible that Turturro simply didn't want to return to play Carmine again. That sounds a little like what's happening on the TV show Severance, where he plays persnickety office dweller Irving B. That show is finally returning for its second season this January, but after that, it sounds like Turturro is out. “I didn’t like being in that office—the light there drove me insane,” he told Variety. “I did my second go round, but I feel like I’ve had a full meal.”
We don't know if Severance will be back for a third season, although it sounds like showrunner Dan Erickson has plans that go pretty far into the future. Hiring someone like John Turturro, who has been in high-profile movies for decades, for a TV show may just come with this kind of risk. Turturro isn't a rising star getting his big break; he's a very well-established actor who takes jobs because he wants to, not because he needs to. And if he decides he no longer wants to be a part of a show, it might be easier for him to walk away than it would be for someone who was building their name off this.
As the line between TV and movies continues to blur, that kind of thing may happen more often. The second season of Severance premieres on Apple TV+ airs on January 17. Now I'm wondering if they'll write Irving out of the story. We'll be watching.
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