At least two sides of John Turturro's appeal are on display one recent afternoon at a sidewalk cafe in the West Village.
A child with his dad in tow approaches the actor and asks government agent Seymour Simmons from the "Transformers" mega-franchise will pose with him for a photo. Turturro obliges and is quickly tapped for an autograph by a middle-aged blonde who loved the Coen Brothers indie flick "Barton Fink."
When Turturro finally settles down at a table, he is asked if he is often stopped by wildly different groups of fans. "This summer has been bad," he says. "When you do big commercial things, yeah."
He does big commercial things, small noncommercial things and virtually everything in between. He's like a "Where's Waldo?" He is as likely to pop up in a Michael Bay popcorn flick as he is to direct a tiny documentary about Naples' music and culture, which he did this summer with "Passione."
Turturro, 54, confesses he's happier doing the smaller things — such as the 2005 quirky film he directed called "Romance & Cigarettes," which blended music and drama, or his upcoming turn off-Broadway in "The Cherry Orchard" opposite Dianne Wiest.
"I'm really going to try to do what I want to do more than I did before," he says. "I did for a while, but the last few years I've had to pingpong all over the place to make a living."
This month, he's pinging on Broadway. But it's not a run-of-the-mill job: Turturro is directing three one-act plays by Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen. It would be a challenge just to handle one.
"This will be a really interesting experience. I'm getting to work with three different heads," he says. "I'm sure there will be some ups and downs putting it together. It's not like serving one play, so that's a little trickier."
The three plays — Coen's "Talking Cure," May's "George Is Dead" and Allen's "Honeymoon Motel" — share the theme of crazy families. They vary in tone from dark to touching to farcical. Turturro is modest about his goals.
"I'm not going to try to smoosh them together," he says. "I think if I could serve each one elegantly and make the transition between Ethan's and Eilane's smooth, that will make the evening work well. And then we have an intermission before Woody's."
Julian Schlossberg, who is producing the show, knew finding the right director was key. He has some experience pulling together three one-act plays — he also produced the off-Broadway "Death Defying Acts" with plays by May, Allen and David Mamet.
"You really know that you have to get someone who is not only talented but will be respected by these three people. Everyone agreed on John," Schlossberg said. "He is so inventive, and he is so wonderful with actors that I think that he will have a whole new career, if he wants it, as a theater director."
Turturro, who made his film debut in the background of a scene in "Raging Bull," says casting was probably one of the toughest tasks. Some 20 actors were chosen, including Marlo Thomas, Julie Kavner and Steve Guttenberg.
"If you don't cast right, your job is twice as hard," he says.
To potentially complicate matters even more, Turturro's wife of 25 years, actress Katherine Borowitz, got a part in Coen's play. But Turturro isn't daunted, having directed her in his 1992 feature film debut "Mac" and also in 1998's "Illuminata."
"When I first directed her years ago, it was hard. But now, she's actually very easy to work with," he says of Borowitz, who was in the Coen brothers' "A Serious Man" and "The Man Who Wasn't There." The couple also act together and just did a movie called "Somewhere Tonight," written and directed by Michael Di Jiacomo.
Turturro might be best known to adults for roles in arty films such as "Do The Right Thing," "Barton Fink," "Quiz Show," "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "The Big Lebowski." Kids might recognize him from "Transformers" or his voice from "Cars 2."
TV fans might have caught him in his 2004 Emmy Award-winning role as Tony Shalhoub's brother in "Monk." And theater fans might recall him on stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Arts' production of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" or directing Yasmina Reza's "A Spanish Play" off-Broadway.
It's a variety that impresses Schlossberg: "He really is a true Renaissance man. That word is bandied about so often, but this man is clearly that. It's writing, directing, producing, acting — he's wonderful in everything he does. It's a joy to work with him," he says.
To make his workload even heavier, Turturro just wrapped up another film: "Gods Behaving Badly," a film adaptation of the 2007 best-seller in which he plays Hades, one of a number of Greek Gods living together in a New York City brownstone. It also stars Christopher Walken, Sharon Stone, Oliver Platt, Edie Falco, Phylicia Rashad, Rosie Perez and Alicia Silverstone.
"Movies, for me, are either gigantic movies or tiny movies," he says, laughing.
As much as he throws himself into the roles he plays, Turturro seems pretty laid-back as a director. When asked how he'll make Allen, Coen and May happy, he shrugs.
"My job is to make the actors comfortable, stage it and then I'm sure they'll give me notes to refine things," he says. "They're going to make suggestions. I knew that going in."
Really? It's that simple? Turturro laughs. He explains that his birth order — between brother Nicholas Turturro of "NYPD Blue" fame and older brother Ralph Turturro, an artist — may explain his style.
"I'm the middle child — so I'm the person who is always organizing, responsible for everybody. When I act, I can be like a wild horse. That's my job, to get into the child. But a lot of personality is not innately that."
He says he's preparing for the challenge by rereading "Kazan on Directing" by Elia Kazan. "Life is hard to plan. And that's a problem," he says, before flashing his crooked smile. "What are you going to do?"
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