Why Carmine Falcone From The Batman Looks So Familiar

Early in John Turturro's career, he caught Spike Lee's eye with his performance in "Five Corners," so Lee cast him in his 1989 film "Do the Right Thing." In an interview with Vanity Fair, Turturro recounted how it went: Lee sent Turturro the script and asked which part he wanted to play. "I said I'd like to play the racist guy because I thought that's what it was about," Turturro said. Set in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Brooklyn, "Do the Right Thing" explores racial tensions between an Italian-American family running a pizzeria and their neighbors.

Lee plays pizza delivery guy Mookie, while Turturro plays Pino, the racist son of the pizzeria's owner. In their key scene together, Pino names his favorite celebrities — who are all Black — but then says they're "not really black." In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lee broke down the scene, pointing out that line as key: "Pino, when he's talking, it's not based upon fiction ... I've heard this argument where the most racist people, their favorite athlete, entertainer, or comedian, is Black." Although they're antagonistic in the movie, Turturro and Lee are good friends in real life. Even so, Lee admitted he was intimidated by doing that scene together, saying "John Turturro is a beast." 

"Do the Right Thing" kicked off a long collaboration between the two of them, with Turturro appearing in several more of Spike Lee's movies, including "Jungle Fever," "Clockers," and "Mo' Better Blues."