John Turturro walked into a 1985 audition without knowing who his scene partner was. She was Madonna, the film was “Desperately Seeking Susan,” and the scene called for a kiss. He told Variety this week that she did not hold back.
Turturro told the story while talking with Variety co-editor in chief Ramin Setoodeh, in a conversation held in partnership with the Miami Film Festival. He was there to receive the festival’s Creative Vanguard Award.
Turturro read for the part of Madonna’s boyfriend. He said he had no idea who she was at the time, and that she was not yet that famous.
He did not get it.
John Turturro ended up in the film anyway, as Ray, the comical club manager. Variety framed the audition as one of the what-ifs in a career of more than 120 acting credits.
The Kiss That Left Him Flustered and Surprised
Turturro recalled that the scene included a kiss, and that Madonna committed to it fully. His description to Variety: “she really kissed me. I mean, deeply.”
His reaction was physical. He said he dropped all his sides, the script pages actors carry into the room, onto the floor. He remembered thinking he had never been kissed like that in an audition, and joking that he had not realised it was that kind of movie.
Auditions are strange rooms. Two strangers, a camera or a casting director, and a script that asks for closeness on cue. Most actors play it safe. By his account, Madonna did not, and a young actor who had walked in expecting a read-through walked out picking pages off the floor.
Choosing to Remain Friends After the Intensity
According to Variety, Turturro said her interest in him lasted well beyond that audition. What he described was his own choice: he preferred they stay friends.
His reason was specific. Some people, he said, seem to want to absorb you. “” he told Variety.
Plenty of people would recognise that instinct without having the word for it. Someone magnetic shows up, the attention is flattering, and the pull is real. Saying no to the romance while keeping the person is a harder move than either walking away or giving in. Turturro credits the boundary itself for the friendship lasting. He said they have always gotten along, and that it worked precisely because neither got absorbed.
Friendships that survive a moment like that usually survive because someone drew the line early and kept it without making it a drama. He drew it, and forty years later he still talks about her warmly.
John Turturro on Why One Wife Is Enough
He also admitted the two have not seen each other in a long time. His explanation was blunt: she was married to a number of different men over the years, and he has been married to one woman.
Turturro has a motto. “One wife is enough,” he said.
The line lands as a joke, and it is one. It also says something about how he sees his own life. The actor who turned down being absorbed by a pop star in 1985 frames his marriage as the fixed point, the thing that never needed reconsidering.
John Turturro has plenty of other stories to tell. His filmography runs through Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, the Coen brothers, Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler, Zoë Kravitz and Meryl Streep. On Variety’s stage, he also spoke about choosing Christopher Walken as his love interest in “Severance.”
The Madonna story is the one people will repeat. A dropped stack of pages, a kiss he did not see coming, and a friendship he kept by saying no.
Sources: Variety
