--- title: John Turturro Is an Elena Ferrante Fan description: The actor told TIME that Elena Ferrante's novels have a "civilizing" effect. canonical: https://time.com/4558396/john-turturro-elena-ferrante/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-04T15:12:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:37:53.846Z article:section: Ideas og:title: John Turturro Is an Elena Ferrante Fan and Thinks More Men Should Be, Too og:description: The actor says the novels have a 'civilizing' effect og:url: https://time.com/4558396/john-turturro-elena-ferrante/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt635e826220cf5c97/6988ad09f887dc625ce9812b/john-turturro.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2016 Greenwich International Film Festival - Day 3 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Turturro Is an Elena Ferrante Fan and Thinks More Men Should Be, Too twitter:description: The actor says the novels have a 'civilizing' effect twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt635e826220cf5c97/6988ad09f887dc625ce9812b/john-turturro.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John Turturro Is an Elena Ferrante Fan and Thinks More Men Should Be, Too by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Nov 4, 2016 3:12 PM UTC  Actor John Turturro attend "Spotlight On: John Turturro" at the 2016 Greenwich International Film Festival - Day 3 on June 11, 2016 in Greenwich, Connecticut. Actor John Turturro attend "Spotlight On: John Turturro" at the 2016 Greenwich International Film Festival - Day 3 on June 11, 2016 in Greenwich, Connecticut.Mark Sagliocco—Getty Images for GIFF by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Nov 4, 2016 3:12 PM UTC Dozens of high-profile [Elena Ferrante](http://time.com/4556047/elena-ferrante-frantumaglia/) fans participated in events around the U.S. this week in celebration of her two new books, the non-fiction collection [_Frantumaglia_ ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1609452925/?tag=timecom-20)and the children’s book [_The Beach at Night_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1609453700/?tag=timecom-20). Perhaps the most famous of her fans to take part in an event: the actor John Turturro, who appeared on a panel at Brooklyn’s Community Bookstore on Thursday night. Turturro, whose parents were Italian and whose documentary _Passione_ depicts music culture in Naples, first picked up Ferrante’s novels after seeing the film adaptation of [_Troubling Love_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1933372168/?tag=timecom-20). “I always look for Italian writers,” he told TIME, and he devotedly read Ferrante’s other novels, including her internationally bestselling Neapolitan quartet, which begins with [_My Brilliant Friend_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1609450787/?tag=timecom-20). The series tells the story of two friends growing up in a violent and struggling neighborhood, each of them trying to escape to a better life while fending off abuse. On the panel, Turturro described the book as having a “civilizing” effect, exposing male readers like himself to what it’s really like to live life in a female body. “It’s great when someone can bring you into another experience,” he says. “More men should read them.” Ferrante continues to maintain the veil of pseudonymity after an Italian journalist claimed to expose her identity last month. Like many of Ferrante’s other admirers, Turturro said he was disappointed by the report. He said he felt a virtue of the books was not knowing who wrote them. “The less I know about someone,” he said on the panel, “the more they can reveal themselves.” Turturro is sitting in the writer’s chair himself these days; he’s working on the film _Going Places_, which is both a remake of the 1974 French film of the same title and a spin-off of _The Big Lebowski_, focusing on his character from that 1998 movie, Jesus Quintana. The French film “was written at a very different time,” he said, and it was extremely controversial when it came out. But despite being politically incorrect, Turturro said he was drawn to it and was reassured that one of the director’s great champions was the film critic Pauline Kael. “At the core is irreverence and a sense of freedom,” he said, as well as “an element of how stupid men are.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4558396/john-turturro-elena-ferrante/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4558396/john-turturro-elena-ferrante/"},"headline":"John Turturro Is an Elena Ferrante Fan and Thinks More Men Should Be, Too","datePublished":"2016-11-04T15:12:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:37:53.846Z","description":"The actor says the novels have a 'civilizing' effect","url":"https://time.com/4558396/john-turturro-elena-ferrante/","keywords":["Books","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt635e826220cf5c97/6988ad09f887dc625ce9812b/john-turturro.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt635e826220cf5c97/6988ad09f887dc625ce9812b/john-turturro.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 Greenwich International Film Festival - Day 3","caption":"2016 Greenwich International Film Festival - Day 3","creditText":"Mark Sagliocco—Getty Images for GIFF","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4558396/john-turturro-elena-ferrante/","name":"John Turturro Is an Elena Ferrante Fan and Thinks More Men Should Be, Too"}}]}] ```