John Turturro Recalls Madonna Audition and Severance Casting Choice
John Turturro auditioned for the role of Madonna's boyfriend in the 1985 comedy Desperately Seeking Susan. He ended up playing a club manager called Ray instead, he told Variety in an interview published on 9 November 2026.
The conversation was held with Variety's co-editor in chief, Ramin Setoodeh, in partnership with the Miami Film Festival. Turturro is due to receive the Variety Creative Vanguard Award at the festival. The festival's GEMS programme announced the honour in October, and the Creative Vanguard Award session is billed as a conversation about his career and his latest film. The Miami Herald also published a piece on 5 November 2026, written by Madeleine Marr, in which Turturro discussed the 1985 audition.
The interview also touched on Severance, the Apple TV drama. Turturro was cast in the series in 2020, alongside Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette. He said he was trusted to decide who would play his character's love interest, and he chose Christopher Walken.
The pairing had a head start off screen. In a joint interview, Walken and Turturro said their friendship away from the cameras helped them build the on-screen chemistry their characters needed. Earlier coverage of the show, from The New York Times in 2022, noted that the two characters very nearly kiss. The actors did not try a kiss in that scene.
Turturro is also in the cinema now. He stars as Harry in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, a film he is expected to discuss at the Miami event.
For viewers, the news is mostly about what Turturro chose to share. He described a 1985 audition that never turned into the part he went for, and a casting decision on a streaming drama that he made himself. Both stories show how a career can take a turn that nobody planned, and how a small role can end up mattering to people for decades.
