John Turturro recalls losing ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ after speaking with Stanley Kubrick

John Turturro has worked with some of the best directors, including Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, and the Coen Brothers.

However, there is one filmmaker who slipped from his grasp: Stanley Kubrick.

Turturro recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and recalled a phone call he had with the late director. The Severance actor shared that he accidentally turned down a role in Eyes Wide Shut during the conversation.

The Shining director was familiar with Turturro’s acting projects. Impressed by his role as Primo Levi in The Truce, Kubrick wanted him to play pianist Nick Nightingale in Eyes Wide Shut.

“He said, ‘I wrote this part for you,'” Turturro recalled. “I didn’t say to him, ‘Whatever it is, I will do.'”

The Big Lebowski star said he was “talking to him like a normal person” despite really wanting to work with Kubrick. Unfortunately, this backfired, as Kubrick apparently believed that the actor wasn’t excited enough.

“The next day, I heard that I wasn’t available,” Turturro said. “I was unavailable because I didn’t tell him, you know, ‘No matter what.'”

“I would have liked to have worked with him just because I’m a big fan of his,” the Batman actor said.

Listen to the full episode of Happy Sad Confused with John Turturro below.