John Turturro’s ‘The Penguin’ Comments Spark Response from Lauren LeFranc

The Penguin is doing great, but even though everyone is in agreement that the series is absolutely amazing and that it is one of the best comic book series of all time, the series is seemingly not without its controversies. Although, this seems like a small one compared to the scale of some scandals we’ve seen.

Namely, we’ve known for a while now that Mark Strong was cast to replace John Turturro as Carmine Falcone in The Penguin, which was confirmed when Strong finally debuted in the series not that long ago. Turturro played The Roman in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but did not reprise his role for the spin-off series.

Initially, it was revealed that it was due to scheduling conflicts, but Turturro recently provided us with a completely different explanation that has to do with the show and its content. In light of that, showrunner Lauren LeFranc provided us with her own comments on the situation.

And while it was initially revealed that John Turturro dropped out of The Penguin due to scheduling conflicts (which we then connected with his work on Severance), the actor recently revealed that he actually declined to participate in the show due to the violence towards women that was featured in connection to his character:

I did what I wanted to with the role. In the show, there was a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing. It happens off-screen. It’s scarier that way. You can’t do everything you want to.

This came as a shock because showrunner Lauren LeFranc told the media earlier that Turturro’s absence was due to scheduling conflicts:

Well, practically, John was just unavailable to us. He had scheduling conflicts, and we couldn’t make it work, but honestly, I’m so thrilled that we brought Mark Strong on. I think he’s really good.

Even though, maybe in the beginning when you first meet him, you might think, “Oh. Well, for fans of The Batman, I’m so used to John Turturro,” and obviously John’s a great actor, but I feel like the gravitas that Mark brings, it’s different. It’s very specific, and I hope, by the end of that episode, you’re just thinking, “That’s Carmine Falcone,” and you’re engaged in what Mark brings to it.

Source: IGN

Of course, this is a major contradiction, and it sheds a completely different light on the whole recasting thing, which is something we did not expect when we first reported on it.

Of course, this is not a major scandal at all; the authors wanted to tackle the issue of misogyny in the show, and they’re doing it in a brilliant way, but Turturro simply did not want to be associated with it, and that is something that we have to respect, absolutely, and based on the comments by LeFranc, that is what is going to happen:

I completely respect an actor who doesn’t want to take on a role for whatever their personal reasons. I only want people to join our show who are excited and want to further the story we’re trying to tell. I think Mark Strong did a really fantastic job. He made the character his own and also really honored what John Turturro did. To my knowledge it was due to scheduling conflicts.

Source: The Wrap

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