When the character of Carmine Falcone popped up on HBO’s The Penguin, the mobster was played by Mark Strong, not John Turturro, who portrayed him The Batman. At the time, we were told that it was down to scheduling issues. But according to Turturro, it was a bit more than that. Specifically, he didn’t like the “violence towards women.”
During an interview with Variety about Pedro Amoldovar’s The Room Next Door, Turturro was asked about not returning for The Penguin. Which is when his surprising answer cropped up.
“I did what I wanted to with the role,” Turturro said. “In the show, there was a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing.”
Added Turturro about the differences he saw between Carmine Falcone in The Batman and in The Penguin, “It happens off-screen. It’s scarier that way.”
…So not to contradict legendary character actor John Turturro here (loved you in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), but this doesn’t quite sync up with reality. In The Batman, Carmine Falcone killed a woman off-screen, but by the movie’s end, he was trying to choke his daughter Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) to death in his office, the same way he killed her roommate and friend.
In The Penguin, we don’t really see anything at all. Carmine Falcone does turn out to be the Hangman Killer, and murdered at least seven women, plus his own wife Isabella Falcone, and possibly more. He also sends his own daughter, Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) to take the fall for him. But everything is implied. We see scratches on his hand in a flashback from when Isabella tried to stop him. But that’s in. In terms of on-screen violence, The Penguin version of Carmine (Strong) chokes zero people, while The Batman version (Turturro) chokes one.
Is it possible that there was more visible violence in an earlier version of the script? Or perhaps Turturro heard that Carmine was being upped to Gotham City serial killer, and decided he was out? Regardless, his reasons for not taking a project are his reasons, he’s under no obligation to return to a role if he doesn’t want to (unless the contract demands it).
That said, it does seem like there might have been some scheduling problems after all. Said Turturro, “You can’t do everything you want to.”
…Though it seems like one thing he didn’t want to do was play Carmine Falcone again in The Penguin.
Where To Watch The Penguin:
The Penguin Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The first episode of The Penguin premieres Thursday, September 19 at 9 pm ET on HBO and Max. There will be an encore airing on Sunday, September 22 at 9 pm ET, and then the show will move to its regular time slot of Sundays at 9 pm ET starting on September 29.
Here’s the full list of episodes in The Penguin, with premiere dates:
- Thursday, September 19, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 1: “After Hours”
- Sunday, September 29, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 2: “Inside Man”
- Sunday, October 6, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 3: “Bliss”
- Sunday, October 13, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 4: “Cent’Anni”
- Sunday, October 20, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 5: “Homecoming”
- Sunday, October 27, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 6: “Gold Summit”
- Sunday, November 3, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 7: “Top Hat”
- Sunday, November 10, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 8: “Great or Little Thing”
Listen to Sons Of A Gunn:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.