Were it not for his barber, Woody Allen may never have pimped out John Turturro for sex to the likes of Sofia Vergara and Sharon Stone.
In “Fading Gigolo,” the new film hitting theaters Friday, Turturro directs and stars as Fioravante, a man coerced by his pal Murray (Woody Allen) into the world’s oldest profession. But after Fioravante gets tangled up with the widow of a Hasidic rabbi (Vanessa Paradis), letting Murray whore him out to rich women (Vergara and Stone) isn’t what it once was.
The relationship between Allen and Turturro as pimp and ho is the comedic center of the film — and there’s one man to thank for making the magic happen.
Meet Anthony Silvestri, the 66-year-old hairstylist and barber of Anthony & Rivka at Borja ColorStudio in Midtown, who has been cutting Allen’s hair for 25 years and Turturro’s for 20.
“John told me about this movie he wanted to make, and he said he wanted Woody Allen to be in it,” Silvestri tells The Post. “I said, ‘I don’t think Woody really acts in other people’s movies.’ [‘Gigolo’ is the first he’s done in more than a decade.] I’m always hesitant about approaching celebrities, but I really thought . . . the two of them would work very well together. I told [John] I’d see if he’s interested.”
Turturro swears it was Silvestri who decided to bring it up to Allen.
“No!” he says with a laugh. “I didn’t ask him to say anything. I never expected him to!”
Regardless, the next time Silvestri cut Allen’s hair, he broached the subject.
“It was a little frightening for me to approach Woody Allen about an acting role,” he says. “I said, ‘I’d like to take a few moments of your time.’ ”
Allen’s interest was piqued by the story of an a
verage fellow providing intimacy to wealthy, powerful women. He told Silvestri to give Turturro his number, and the rest is history.
This wasn’t Silvestri’s first brush with fame — he’s been cutting Turturro’s hair for movies for years.
“My hair is very hard to cut,” says Turturro. “I have, like, twice the amount of hair that most people have on their head. [Silvestri] takes his time — he’s very slow.”
And you get what you pay for — a $10 barber trim this is not. Silvestri charges $100 a pop, first providing a consultation and then spending 45 minutes cutting.
In 1969, he started cutting hair to make a quick buck while studying education at Husson College in Maine and eventually dropped out to pursue more complex styling at Wilfred Academy in New York.
“Everyone thought I was totally insane,” he says.
But a career took shape — he started work at Vidal Sassoon before opening his first salon, Towbis, in 1981 with a staff of 10 on the Upper East Side. He began to take on the rich and famous as clients — he declines to name any other names — and designed hair for film and stage. It was through connections with costume designers that he met both Turturro (designing hair for his directorial debut “Mac”) and Allen (designing hair for “Hannah and Her Sisters”).
These days, Silvestri has slowed down, working three days a week with his wife and business partner, Rivka Towbis, in Manhattan or in Southampton. He makes a house call to Allen’s home every five weeks, whereas Turturro comes to the Upper East Side salon.
He changes Turturro’s cut for each and every character with subtle differences, noting that Turturro’s skull shape means a shorter cut makes him look the most masculine for alpha characters. But for Allen, well, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
“I make him look like Woody Allen,” Silvestri says with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t give him an up-to-date fade or anything like that. Whether he’s in his movies or not, I just make him look like Woody Allen.”
Book your appointment with Anthony & Rivka at Borja ColorStudio (118 E. 57th St.) or in Southampton by calling 917-744-7289.