A Conversation with Edward Burns – HuffPost 3.2.12

Mike Ragogna: Ed, how are you doing?

Ed Burns: Very good, how are you?

MR: Good, thanks for taking some time today to talk with us today about Newlyweds, and also about your buddy PT Walkley.

EB: Ah, yes. PT has been a friend of mine going on eight years now. I met at a guitar shop in New York. I think at the time he was 22 years old. He was giving lessons, and I was making a low-budget film and I needed some very inexpensive music for the film and he said, “Hey, why don’t I give you my demo.” I looked into it, fell in love with it, used about three songs from the demo, he and I became great buddies, and he’s been the composer for every film I’ve made since. I’ve made about five movies now.

MR: Nice, Ed. Which one did he start with?

EB: A movie that not a lot of people saw, probably because it didn’t deserve quite a big audience, called Looking for Kitty. But it’s got some nice PT Walkley music in it.

MR: Okay, so you were a musician looking around at guitars.

EB: I was, yeah, but I’m a very mediocre rhythm guitar player.

MR: And you guys jam.

EB: PT and I actually have a little side project where he let me play my rhythm guitar with another buddy of mine from high school, so we have a little band. I’ll periodically throw one of that band’s tunes into the movies as well.

MR: So, for the music on the Newlyweds soundtrack, “PT Walkley & The Blue Jackets” are credited on the cover. That’s you guys.

EB: The Blue Jackets is basically our sideband, and we got one song on the soundtrack, a song called “All Night Long.” Everything else is just PT, and given how many different styles of music he plays and how much the guy is one of these very prolific writers, he plays with all sorts of musicians, so we’re his crappy garage band. But he also plays with more polished guys in town.

MR: Let’s also talk about PT’s new album, Thriller, that you’ve obviously heard. What are your favorite songs?

EB: I like “On the Snub,” “Go Away,” “Summer Song”… we even used the demo version of “Summer Song” in Newlyweds, that’s one of my favorites. Those are probably my tops. “The Way that You Are,” as well.

MR: Ed, some of your most popular films have been The Brothers McMullen, She’s The One, Saving Private Ryan, 15 Minutes, Sidewalks of New York, The Groomsmen, 27 Dresses… You’re constantly working. How do you balance all that screenwriting, directing, acting, making music, and being a New Yorker?

EB: Well, my primary gig and my real passion is for writing and directing my small personal indie movies. I got into the business as a writer/director with … Brothers McMullen, and the acting, quite honestly, was just an afterthought. As a kid from school who didn’t know any actors, just out of necessity, I kept myself and some of my buddies in my student films, and in … McMullen I kinda wrote a small part myself. So years later, afterShe’s The One and this other movie, looking back, I started to get acting offers in Hollywood studio films, and the first real one was Saving Private Ryan. So I got very lucky with that. But the way I approached these two careers now, writing and directing, my true passion, was by the acting gigs, which afforded me, quite honestly, some financial freedom to continue to make these small movies. It also gave me access to the business and allowed me to work with a lot of big name actors. I can then use the relationships and try to put together my little films. That’s kind of how I do it. I look for acting jobs when I know I’m not going to be making one of the films that I want to make.

MR: Right, or when you’re not appearing on Entourage.

EB: (laughs) Exactly. That was rough because my brother works for Entourage and I was a big fan of the show. So he calls me up one day and says, “Hey, we want to do this cool thing where you play a version of yourself, would you be interested?” I said, “Absolutely.” That was a lot of fun to do.

MR: Okay, back to PT Walkley. Obviously, there’s the music, but what about his lyrics?

EB: I think clearly he’s influenced a lot by what he sees on the streets of New York, but also by what he has seen and experienced in the indie music scene in New York, and that struggle to make a mark, get signed, get seen, get on the radio. I think the reason we hit it off is there are a lot of parallels between independent filmmaking and being in an indie band or being an indie musician. It’s a tough fight. But the thing that I’ve always noticed is that he’s got a great sense of irony and he’s really playful. He can write a straight-ahead, somber love song, if you will. He has a great sense of humor, and that’s what I’m most attracted to.

MR: I love that you guys are so tight that you’re actually going out there to help promote his record in addition to talking up your own projects. That’s really great.

EB: Well, we view this, after the first film, as a real partnership. We started watching the Academy Awards last night and we see John Williams, the great composer, is nominated for two Spielberg movies. And John Williams has composed the music for every Spielberg film I think going back 30+ years. And while P.T. and I have yet to get a nomination — we’re hardly Spielberg/Williams — we like the idea of those types of partnerships and friendships. We’re just going to continue to work together because we have similar sensibilities. The great thing is that I give him my script and he can immediately start writing even long before we start shooting. Later, I’m in the editing room throwing in some ideas of his. So far, it’s been a pretty great collaboration.

MR: You mentioned the awards last night. What did you think of “Man or Muppet” winning best song?

EB: I don’t know what happened to the Best Song category. They used to have guys like Springsteen and U2. I mean, it’s a nice song, but only two nominations? I’m not quite sure what happened there. I’m used to when they would bring in the big guns.

MR: Yeah, I’m with you. Let me get advice from you for new artists.

EB: I’ve been to film schools a long time and taught students and now it’s interesting. For kids who want to make movies, they’re in a similar place as to where musicians have been in the last ten years in that the barrier to entry has never been lower in that you can get pretty inexpensive recording equipment in the music business. You’re starting to see these indie bands and these indie musicians recording something and they’re putting it up on MySpace and later YouTube, and all of a sudden, it gets discovered and they’re playing Palooza and showing up on Saturday Night Live. In the film business, you needed half a million dollars to make a movie. Now you can make a movie with these digital cameras probably as inexpensively as kids can cut their basement recording. That said, just like there are all those songs that are up on YouTube by unknown artists, there are all those films that are up on YouTube by unknown filmmakers. So getting out there and trying to promote this stuff is the hardest part of the gig, and there is no easy answer. You just have to keep at it, you have to look at other people who had success with it and try to copycat their model. But even if you fail miserably and no one links on and you get no views on YouTube, that doesn’t mean you should stop doing what you’re doing… I love making movies and of course, you want to reach as wide an audience as you can, but I would never not do it. I’ve had plenty of movies that bombed, but I still loved those experiences. I know all of my musician friends love playing music. So my advice is do the thing you love to do, and if you’re lucky, you can make a living doing it. But don’t let that first defeat prevent you from pursuing dreams.

MR: Beautiful. And basically, the same points apply with both music and film, don’t they?

EB: Absolutely. In a weird way, even more so for musicians because, while it’s become inexpensive to make the first film, it’s not like it’s just picking up your acoustic guitar and being able to go to a place and sit on a stool and do your thing.

MR: Yeah, it’s a whole different world. I’m getting PT on the phone in a few minutes, but if we were to play music in the meantime, which song should that be?

EB: I would go with “All Night Long” and you can hear a bit of my crappy guitar playing.

MR: (laughs) Okay, we look forward to your crappy guitar playing, though I’m sure it’s not, sir. I really appreciate your time, thank you very much, Ed.

EB: Thank you for having me and for supporting P.T. you’re a good man.

Transcribed by Narayana Windenberger