Edward Burns

Spotlight By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Edward Burns has enough titles to make even the busiest workaholic seem lazy. Switching between the roles of actor, writer, director, and producer (or sometimes being all four at once), Burns is the true definition of a multi-tasker. Add to that the fact that he's also a husband (wife is supermodel Christy Turlington) and a father of two young children and it's enough to make your head spin. Yet Burns seems to possess a laidback, cool demeanor. And while his career may sound overwhelming, it has always remained rather low-key.

In the new romantic comedy 27 Dresses, he plays the object of Katherine Heigl's affections'although he ends up falling for her younger sister instead. 'Any genre film that you do you know that going in,' he says. 'My character is there simply to service the story and isn't a very complicated role, but you sign on and you kind of know this is what's required of me and my job is to just try and be as charming as possible. When you do a horror movie you have to pretend you're getting the shit scared out of you and you do a sci-fi movie you have to believe that that thing might eat you. And those moments are as ridiculous as some of the moments you've got to do when you're in a romantic comedy.'

His character, George, is pretty oblivious about the women in his life. That is where the two men differ. 'I don't think I've been as clueless as George is,' Burns says.

Raised on Long Island and now living in Manhattan, Burns is also not as much of an avid outdoorsman as his character. 'I like the outdoors but not when hiking's involved,' he says.

While Burns has helmed many films including The Brothers McMullen, The Groomsmen and Looking for Kitty, when it's time for him to be directed by someone else his filmmaker instincts take a backseat. 'On every film I've acted on when you have your down time I've always looked at it as another class in film school,' he says. 'You just go to school on someone else's approach, whether it's the way [27 Dresses director] Anne [Fletcher] might work with actors or the first film I did I got to work with Spielberg. I showed up on that set and at no point did I think I would be offering any suggestions so I kind of just sat back and watched him and that's been my approach ever since.'

His time working with Steven Spielberg on Saving Private Ryan was one that continues to affect his life immensely. 'I went to film school and studied filmmaking but I don't think I ever really knew what I was doing until after I had worked with him,' he says. 'I'm pretty lucky in that he's still a guy that I can call. Like every time I'm in L.A. I sit down with him and I have 'the talk', just like the guidance talk. Talking about a year or a moment where your life really changes that was certainly the experience that changed my life.'

Burns definitely has the creative side to filmmaking down solid and he has proved that he's savvy with the business end as well. 'As far as the issue with the strike, that's something we have to fight for because we released our film Purple Violets on iTunes three weeks ago and we've already done such an enormous number of downloads,' he says. 'That is real money that's on the table so it's an issue that the writers cannot take off the table. That needs to be resolved.'

Why did he decide to release the film on iTunes in the first place' A changing marketplace was the main reason. 'The reason we did it was last three movies I directed'I make these small, specialized, talky dramas and back during Brothers McMullen there was a theatrical audience for those films but the attendance in specialized or art house theaters is supposedly down something like 54% in the last 12 months,' he says. 'My films traditionally start New York and L.A. and you do a platform and maybe go San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta and then eventually maybe you get to Cleveland but usually you don't. So this was a way for us to reach the audience that wants to see that movie on the day it's released.'

Burns' forward-thinking approach for Purple Violets worked. 'When you're in film school you want to see your films projected in the theater so you surrender that part of the dream, but the number of downloads we did'if I ever make another small, talky movie like that that's absolutely the way we're going to go,' he says. 'And the financial upside is enormous compared to making a deal with a theatrical distributor.'

Next up for Burns is a departure from those 'specialized, talky dramas' that he's used to. 'We're pretty close to putting together the next film,' he says. 'It's a remake of a Japanese movie called Rainy Dog'1902 New York City, sort of a hitman in the underworld. So, very different for me.'

Shouldn't be a problem for the man who already does it all.