The last time we met Jesus Quintana, the sumptuous Latin melon was knocking on doors in his new neighborhood, gently sharing that he was a registered sex offender. It was 1998, the year the Jesus (John Turturro, in his most inspired form) appeared in Joel and Ethan Coen, the feverishly adored black stoner “The Big Lebowski”.
Turturro takes over the role in the farce “The Jesus Rolls”, inaugurated on February 28, the day of Turturro’s 63rd birthday. The film – which he wrote and directed with the blessing of Coens – is loosely based on the 1974 Bertrand Blier film “Going Places” in which two French knuckleheads steal cars, grope women and immerse themselves in moments of richer existence. I spoke with Turturro about the resurrection of Jesus, zealous disciples and more. Here are excerpts from the conversation.
The Jesus of “Lebowski” has just served six months behind bars for what a rival bowler calls “exposing himself to an 8 year old child”. Ethan Coen told me that after he and his brother had conceived Jesus in a “purple romper”, it was a short step to make him a pedophile.
I never put much emphasis on this aspect of Jesus. I was more bothered by the cabaret that Joel and Ethan made me carry when I went from door to door.
In the new film, how do you turn a cartoonish child molester into a cartoonish non-child molester?
Pedophilia is a real thing, a horrible thing. But “The Jesus Rolls” is a comedy, so I said, let’s get into the crime and get on with it. A flashback in the opening scene reveals that all of this was a big misunderstanding involving the penis of Jesus.
How big is a misunderstanding?
Big enough to make him stop.
Another distinctive feature of Jesus is his voice, which is soft and disarmingly high.
I used the voice for the first time in Reinaldo Povod’s play “Nijinsky Choked His Chicken” to the public in 1987. Rei’s father had just been released from prison, and that’s how he spoke.
You also played a Latin child molester.
Yeah. Joel had seen me in “Nijinsky,” and he suggested letting this character bleed into Jesus.
Part of what made Jesus so endearing was his extravagant gestures. He taunted his opponents by scintillating and strutting and backing away like an arrogant fighter.
Many of these movements were modeled on those of Muhammad Ali, in particular his work as a shrink on Sonny Liston.
Ethan says that you have received more mail and, more alarmingly, more role marriage proposals than any other and also, of course, more space on the subway.
I received all kinds of female letters, male letters. Strange, racy. “I love your body.” “I love your outfit.” “I would love to take your outfit off.” I did “Lebowski” after my return to the United States of Europe, where I filmed “The truce.” I played the writer Primo Levi on my way home from Auschwitz, Italy after World War II, and I had lost a lot of weight for the role – so much so that two gossip columnists from New York have speculated that I was dying. A Fleet Street hack even called my mom in Queens and asked, “Is it true that your son has brain cancer?” A friend suggested that I hold a blindfolded press conference and thank God for my miraculous recovery.
“The Jesus Rolls” nods to “Lebowski”, but it’s not a sequel. Basically, you inserted a character “Lebowski” in “Going Places” and updated this story to the present day. How did you decide to take a ride on a 46 year old road movie on aimless riders whose objective is to continue driving until the tank is empty?
“Going Places” made a huge impression on me. I was 19 and I was in college when I saw the film in a graduate theater in northern New York State. Shortly after the student riots in Paris, the era of hippies and revolutionaries, the film was a celebration of freedom in a world of bourgeois hypocrisy. I was shocked, not only by what I saw on the screen, but by my laughter at the shocking things I saw. I remember thinking, “Sacred mackerel!”
The original title of “Going Places” was “Les Valseuses”, French slang for testicles. The brutal tracks – Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere – treated women like itinerant vaginas which existed only to serve humanity. Roger Ebert condemned the film for what he called his “Palpable and embarrassing” hatred of women.
And yet, Pauline Kael was a great champion of the “Going Places”. She saw the characters of Depardieu and Dewaere as raw and innocent innocents for whom almost everything turns against them. To me, they were like cavemen – rude, misogynist and sometimes a little rough – but they became generous cavemen. They really seemed to care for Miou-Miou, their lover and companion. They also cared about the small group of foreigners they formed with an altered convict played by Jeanne Moreau and Isabelle Huppert, a teenage girl on the run. The generosity of the helpless appeals to a rebellious part of me.
In “Jesus Rolls”, you represent Depardieu, the stupid brain, and Bobby Cannavale is your partner in crime. Audrey Tautou replaces Miou-Miou and Susan Sarandon replaces Moreau. To what extent have you followed the “Going Places” scenario?
I intentionally left the script behind me. As a writer and actor, it is important to remember that you are not these characters, it is not your language, you are not that age. After reviewing “Going Places”, I transposed the story and read Blier’s novel, which is dirty, broader in its concerns and the basis of the film. Then I asked her for permission to reuse the book and to age the two dinghies by a few decades, so that I could play one of them. My argument was simple: these guys are now middle-aged and they are still idiots. And Blier said, “O.K., as long as they’re stupid.”
The Coen brothers tell the story of Job forever. The question is not whether God exists, but what He does. Do we have a friend in Jesus?
I really like religious films, especially if they talk about nuns. I thought I called this picture “Jesus, Mary and Peter” because the three main ones do good things. They solve problems. They don’t hurt anyone. Even when they steal a car, they report it. Maybe in 20 years I will make another film about Jesus. As we all know, he has already returned once.