John Turturro Corrects Photographers on How to Pronounce His Last Name

John Turturro found himself teaching people how to correctly pronounce his name when he stepped out to support his friend Kate Winslet in New York City.

Turturro, 68, appeared at a special screening of Winslet’s new movie Goodbye June in N.Y.C. on Monday, Dec. 8, and he caught a photographer working the red carpet pronouncing his name wrong as people called for him while he posed for photos.

“No, it’s ‘Tor-turro,’ ” the actor called out to one photographer who yelled his name. “That’s how you say it. You say my name right, then I’ll take a picture,” Turturro jested, as he flashed a smile.

‘Tor-turro,’ ” he repeated, as a chorus of people on the red carpet repeated the correct pronunciation back at him. 

Turturro does not appear in Goodbye June, which marks Winslet’s debut as a movie director and a collaboration between the Academy Award winner and her son Joe Anders, 21, who wrote the movie. (Winslet, 50, shares son Joe, 21, with her ex-husband Sam Mendes; she also shares daughter Mia Threapleton, 25, with ex Jim Threapleton and son Bear, 12, with Edward Abel Smith, whom she has been married to since 2012.

“I’m only doing this because I’m friends with Kate,” Turturro said on the red carpet. Winslet previously appeared in his 2005 movie Romance & Cigarettes, which was Turturro’s third film as a writer and director. 

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Winslet costars in Goodbye June alongside Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough, Timothy Spall, Helen Mirren and Johnny Flynn. The movie “takes place just before Christmas, when an unexpected turn in their mother’s health thrusts four adult siblings and their exasperating father into chaos as they navigate messy family dynamics in the face of potential loss,” according to an official synopsis. “But their quick-witted mother, June, orchestrates her decline on her own terms — with biting humor, blunt honesty, and a lot of love.”

Turturro, meanwhile, most recently appeared onscreen in season 2 of Apple TV+’s Severance. His most recent movie appearances came in 2024’s The Cut and The Room Next Door. 

Goodbye June is in select theaters Dec. 12, then streaming on Netflix Dec. 24.