John Turturro Trained as a Pickpocket for His Latest Film Role
John Turturro came close to lifting a stranger's wallet on a New York subway, he told Variety in an interview published on 2 November 2026. His hand was almost inside someone's bag. He stopped, he said, because he would have had to hand the item back, and he could have been arrested.
The near miss was part of his preparation for The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. Turturro trained under Apollo Robbins, a sleight-of-hand artist known for his work with pickpocketing, before the cameras rolled. During the shoot he practised by lifting things off the crew, and he was caught now and then.
The film is a 90-minute drama written and directed by Noah Segan, and Sony Pictures Classics is releasing it. Turturro plays Harry, an aging thief who looks after his disabled wife. Steve Buscemi plays Ben and Giancarlo Esposito plays Detective Warren, with Will Price as Dylan and Tatiana Maslany as Kelly, according to the Berlin International Film Festival's programme, where the film was listed for 2026. Turturro and Buscemi have worked together before, on Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski.
Turturro also talked about the role on Variety's Awards Circuit Podcast. He said he remains proud of Romance & Cigarettes, a 2005 musical. He had to buy the film back and release it himself after a change of leadership at the studio that made it.
His screen record is already long. He has won the best actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival and has received two Emmy nominations, for The Night Of and Severance. He has never been nominated for an Oscar, Variety reported.
Several projects are waiting. Turturro has a screenplay adapting Philip Roth's Sabbath's Theater that has not yet been produced. He also wants to adapt Is There No Place on Earth for Me?, Susan Sheehan's Pulitzer Prize-winning book about mental illness and families, which he told Variety he hopes to bring to the screen.
Turturro is a long-time New York Knicks fan. He followed the 1969-70 and 1973 teams, and he talked with Variety about watching the franchise win another championship.
The film's wider profile has also grown this autumn. The New York Times ran a conversation with Turturro headlined "John Turturro on 'The Only Living Pickpocket in New York'" on 21 October 2026. The New Yorker published "A Pickpocket's Guide to New York" in its 2 November 2026 issue, which is also about the film.
For anyone who has watched a film and wondered how an actor learns a skill like this, the answer is practice, often with the people nearby. Turturro's account of lifting things off the crew shows how a set can become a training ground.
