Noah Segan Explains How ‘Knives Out’ Helped Make ‘The Only Living Pickpocket in New York’ Possible

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In 2018, Noah Segan put the script that would eventually become The Only Living Pickpocket in New York in front of his best friend, Rian Johnson. That’s when Johnson called his shot, minus the Babe Ruth-style gesture toward center field.

Segan, a native New Yorker, first met Johnson in 2003 after being cast in the latter’s feature directorial debut, Brick. They’ve been thick as thieves ever since, with Segan popping up in just about everything Johnson has done to date. That includes a key supporting role in 2012’s Looper, which Johnson went to bat to secure for his friend, as well as the unnamed fireman who found Holly White abandoned in a firetruck in the landmark Johnson-directed episode of Breaking Bad, “Ozymandias.”

The turning point in Segan’s development as a storyteller came in 2017, following the birth of his first child with wife Alison Bennett, an accomplished television writer. Segan opted to stay home and look after the baby, passing the time by writing scripts with a baby monitor beside him. Within six months, he had penned both Pickpocket and his feature directorial bow, Blood Relatives, a horror-comedy about a 115-year-old vampire and his newly discovered teenage daughter.

Johnson served as a sounding board on both projects, but it was Pickpocket that led to his called shot as a bona fide producer.

“He was relieved that his friend had not written total gobbledygook. He said, ‘If things go well with this detective movie [Knives Out] we’re making, I might start to produce movies, and this is the kind of movie I could produce,” Segan tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of The Only Living Pickpocket in New York’s theatrical expansion on Oct. 30.

Things certainly went well for the Daniel Craig-led murder mystery, which grossed $312 million against a $40 million budget. That mid-budget success story prompted Netflix to offer Johnson, his producing partner Ram Bergman and Craig nearly half a billion dollars for two more chapters — an offer they couldn’t refuse. Besides Craig as PI Benoit Blanc, Segan would go on to become the only other actor to visibly appear in all three movies, albeit as different characters. (Fellow Brick buddy Joseph Gordon-Levitt has voice cameos in all three installments.)

True to his word, Johnson and Bergman began developing Pickpocket under their newly established T-Street Productions banner. Set and shot in modern-day New York City, the throwback-style crime drama follows a pickpocket whose chosen line of work has become obsolete in the digital age. That transition has impacted his ability to make ends meet in his twilight years and, more importantly, care for his incapacitated wife.

Segan and his collaborators initially sought an actor in his 80s to play Harry Lehman, but soon realized the casting pool was too narrow. They ultimately made the pivotal decision to expand the search to include actors 65 and older.

“Then someone said, ‘Well, somebody like John Turturro would be great.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that would be, but there’s no way John Turturro is going to do this movie,’” Segan recalls. “Eventually, somebody sent the script to John Turturro, and he said, ‘I’ll have lunch with you. Let’s figure it out.’”

Figure it out they did. The critically acclaimed film marks Turturro’s first starring role on the big screen in more than 20 years, with the actor delivering one of his finest performances in years and landing smack dab in the middle of the Oscar conversation.

Below, during a conversation with THR, Segan also discusses the unpredictable obstacles of shooting New York.

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We last spoke for Blood Relatives, and I assumed that was your way of proving to yourself that you could make a feature before approaching T-Street with the ask to produce Pickpocket. But that’s not really the case because Pickpocket pre-dated Blood Relatives?

Well, I wrote them probably within six months of each other. I was home with a baby, and while the baby napped, I wrote scripts. I had a lot to say, obviously, and apparently I had some stuff to work out.

Then, about a year later, I showed Pickpocket to Rian [Johnson] when we were making the first Knives Out movie [in 2018]. He was relieved that his friend had not written total gobbledygook. The script had words — sentences, in fact! — and punctuation. He said, “If things go well with this detective movie we’re making, I might start to produce movies, and this is the kind of movie I could produce.”

So we started developing it, and then COVID hit, life happened and things got in the way. Blood Relatives just happened to take off first, so I went and made that.

It sounds like Rian knew ahead of time what he had in Knives Out. Everything transpired exactly as he called it. He started T-Street with Ram Bergman, and Pickpocket is the latest example of how well it’s gone.

One of the wonderful gifts that Rian bestows on his friends and collaborators is the sense that we can do it — and do it with joy and camaraderie. On every set and production [that he’s involved in], you can sense the fun of making a movie and the excitement of what comes next. So, is the lesson to dream big? Maybe.

You guys got to know sleight-of-hand master Ricky Jay before he died. Is Harry Lehman based on him at all?

I was thinking of Ricky when I started writing Harry, if only because Ricky is a Harry, if that makes sense. He’s that type of guy. Of course, Ricky was also an incredible actor and a New Yorker. Unfortunately, he passed while we were shooting Knives Out, and the script went through a lot of changes after that. So thinking of Ricky was more about asking myself, Is there anyone in my mind’s eye who really embodies such a specific guy?

Then I thought, Well, it’s a small film, and I’m not a very well-known filmmaker. Who would really put themselves on the line to take a role like this? And then someone said, “Well, somebody like John Turturro would be great.” And I said, “Yeah, that would be, but there’s no way John Turturro is going to do this movie.” Eventually, somebody sent the script to John Turturro, and he said, “I’ll have lunch with you. Let’s break bread. Let’s figure it out.”

It’s been well documented that Harry is John Turturro’s first starring role on the big screen in over 20 years. Were you able to get a read on how emotional this opportunity was for him at first blush?

My read on his first reaction to it was that he is a person who invests everything in what he does, regardless of the type of role. He made a choice to go on this journey and was all-in. Being in so much of the film, he understood that we had a lot of work to do, whether it was rehearsal, going through the script, talking about Harry’s past or conducting technical, academic research.

I also think there was a lot in the movie that John connected to personally. Being a caretaker is something he talks about a lot, and I think [playing that aspect of Harry’s life] really was an emotional experience for him. Being a New Yorker — and the responsibility of making a movie in and about our city — was also very much on his mind. So there were all these different ways that he gave it his all.

At what point did you inform Giancarlo Esposito that you’re technically castmates on Breaking Bad?

(Laughs.) I don’t know if I’ve actually told Giancarlo that.

You never told him that? I figured that would be your icebreaker.

I don’t know that he knows we share a credit on that show. That’s so funny. I hadn’t thought about that.

Were you more interested in his bit part in Desperately Seeking Susan?

Funnily enough, I was because I watched Desperately Seeking Susan a lot in preparation for this. So it came up a ton, because he and John were both in that. [Writer’s Note: They didn’t share the screen together, so they didn’t actually meet each other until Do the Right Thing rehearsals a few years later.]

What else did you consume during prep?

You get into Sidney Lumet and Abel Ferrara, and, of course, Marty and Spike. You get into a lot of these architects of New York, especially movies from the ’70s and ’80s. But then there are films like Desperately Seeking Susan and The Linguini Incident, or movies by Hal Hartley and Whit Stillman, that were equally influential in terms of how to make a movie on a budget and how to make a movie that feels like it’s on its feet in New York.

Filmmaking and problem-solving go hand in hand. Was there a problem on the day that led to an unexpectedly creative solution?

I’ll tell you a funny story. We were shooting in Chinatown, and every good block in New York has a guy who just hangs out on the block. And sometimes he’s a little kooky, a little grumpy or a little too nice. He’s just the guy. He’s the guy on the block.

On Catherine Street in Chinatown, where we were shooting, the block had Eddie. And I don’t think Eddie was super happy that we were disrupting whatever his daily schedule was. He didn’t want to get up from his stoop for us to shoot. And that’s fine. That’s his prerogative. All the neighbors were asking nicely, and we were trying to go, “Hey, Eddie, can we shoot this shot?” But he wasn’t saying yes, and he wasn’t saying no. He was just being grumpy.

Finally, I said, “Eddie, you live upstairs, right?” And Eddie said, “Yeah.” And I said, “Eddie, if I give you 20 bucks, would you go upstairs for ten minutes?” And he said, “Yeah, give me the 20 bucks.” And I said, “Eddie, I’ll give you the 20 bucks in 10 minutes, when you come back down.” And he said, “Okay.” So he went upstairs, and John Turturro looked at me and said, “Wow, you really are a New Yorker.”

The unfortunate part is that I still owe Eddie 20 bucks. We shot the shot, and I was like, “Somebody go upstairs and tell Eddie I’ve got his $20.” But nobody knew how to get up to Eddie’s apartment. So I stood there on the corner for 20 minutes, going, “Eddie, I got your $20! I got your $20, Eddie!” Maybe Eddie took a nap or something.

But Eddie, if you read this, I’ve got your $20.

The Barracuda returns in this.

It’s the Barracuda Cinematic Universe!

Are you officially turning it into your version of Sam Raimi’s Oldsmobile? Is it going to be in everything you do?

I would love it to be because the [Plymouth] Barracuda is not only the world’s coolest car, but it represents my mentor, Tom Richmond, who has passed. He was a great cinematographer who taught me a lot of what I know and gave me a lot of opportunities in the camera department. He was just a mensch and a good guy. He left the Baracuda to me before he moved to New York when he semi-retired about 15 years ago.

The Barracuda is cinematic. We used it in Blood Relatives. Then they used it on the first season of Poker Face before building one for the second season. So the one that they built for the second season of Poker Face is the one we actually use in Pickpocket. So it’s like the Barracuda has been photocopied. It’s the son of the Barracuda or something. It’s a self-perpetuating phenomenon.

The movie is a tight 90, or 88 minutes to be exact, which, in my line of work, is a sight for sore eyes. How much fat did you trim, if any?

Quite a bit. In my mind’s eye, I always wanted it to be a short, concise film. That’s how the script was written. The script was written with very little color, so to speak. There was nothing in there that I didn’t want to shoot, really. So if you had asked me when we started the edit, Do I want to make a 90-minute movie? I’d say yes. But at one point, I was looking at a 130-minute movie, and then we were looking at a 100-minute movie.

We went down to where we went [at 88] based on an exercise to really see how lean we could get this. We asked, “How close to the script can we really get this in terms of vibe and tone?” And there was no telling. A movie doesn’t have to be 90 minutes. The movie has to be what the movie needs to be. But in this case, it really did feel like it served the film. Being able to say things concisely, it served a lot of the sincerity of the film.

Did you lean on a vast note network to get there?

I had the best. I had my wife [Alison Bennett], who’s an incredible screenwriter. She’s a better writer than I’ll ever be. I had my best friend, Rian. I had our editor, Hilda Rasula, who is tough in the best way. She will say, “I get what we’re going for here. We’ve been working on it half the day. But why don’t you go home and I’ll work on it the second half of the day? I’ll come back to you with what we’re looking for.” She really was like, “Let me cook.” So we had a really good support system.

In more ways than one, the final shot of the city is staggering. I’m no expert on New York, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that vantage point before on screen.

I don’t know if we are the only production that’s ever used that, but I do know that the vast majority of the time you look at that skyline, you’re looking at it from New Jersey. You’re not looking at it from New York.

We shot in all five boroughs, and we wanted to keep it a New York City movie, especially the New York City that you don’t always see. So to be able to look at New York from the other side of the Verrazano Bridge, the banks of Staten Island, and see New York from New York was very important.

And however you want to read it, it’s important to have Harry in his city, with his city, as he goes off into the sunset, quite literally.

Looking ahead, is filmmaking going to be your focus over acting?

Acting is really fun when you’re able to do it with people who you love and who you hope love you. That, of course, includes Rian and now people like John. I would love to have a career like John’s or like Steve’s [Buscemi], where they’re able to make films and act with people they adore, who adore them, and play all sides of the field and multiple positions.

But I really loved just making this film and not acting in it. I really loved that. So my plan going forward is at least to maybe not act in my own films.

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The Only Living Pickpocket in New York expands nationwide on Oct. 30.