By Karen Butler
Edward Burns says that acting in big-budget Hollywood movies like "Saving Private Ryan" and the upcoming "15 Minutes" is just something he does to gain the name recognition he needs to get help financing his own, more contemplative films.
Of course, Burns admits, the chance to work with film legends Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Robert DeNiro, along with the opportunity to earn a couple of hefty Hollywood paychecks, doesn’t hurt either.
The 33-year-old director/writer/star of "The Brothers McMullen" and "She’s the One" recalls deciding to step out from behind the camera after he had trouble getting a movie studio to back his third film, "No Looking Back," a few years ago.
"I had been getting acting offers since ‘The Brothers McMullen’ came out [in 1995]. So everyone said that . . . if you acted in some big Hollywood films, your star would rise and you’d have an easier time raising the money to do some of your lower-budget stuff," Burns said recently.
"So, I started looking for an acting gig and once I did ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ I really had a good time and thought, ‘Well, this is very different and I don’t have to worry about all of the other things you’re worrying about when you’re writing, directing and acting.’ "
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Burns, who was raised in Woodside, Queens, and Valley Stream, Long Island, followed up his appearance in the award-winning war drama with a starring role opposite DeNiro in "15 Minutes," a satire that questions why so many people are obsessed with fame, skewers the media for encouraging people to seek their 15 minutes of fame, and examines the rivalry between the New York City police and fire departments.
Speaking of fame, Burns says he can’t understand why people would "make fools out of themselves on national TV shows" like "Survivor" and "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire" "just to get into US magazine."
Personally, Burns swears fame is not why he got into the film business.
"It was never why I did it," he said. "It was just a byproduct of what I do for a living."
He’s quick to add, however, that "The perks are so great and so many that I wouldn’t trade it for anything."
In "15 Minutes," Burns plays an intense young Polish-American arson investigator who joins forces with a famous homicide detective (DeNiro) to solve a vicious double murder.
"I really liked the idea of this hot-shot homicide detective teaming up with this young fire marshal in such a heated environment," Burns said. "The script really takes you into their world in a visceral way."
Close to his heart
The rabid Knicks and St. John’s University basketball fan says the project was also close to his heart since it was set in New York City and involved cops. It’s worth noting that Burns’s dad, who served as a producer on the critically acclaimed "The Brothers McMullen," is a retired New York police officer.
After "15 Minutes" wrapped about a year and a half ago, Burns immediately ducked back behind the camera to direct another film he wrote called "Sidewalks of New York." Expected to be released in theaters this May, the movie stars Burns, his ex-fiancee, Heather Graham, Brittany Murphy and Stanley Tucci.
This was Burns’s first writing/directing effort since "No Looking Back" tanked in 1998.
Asked if a movie can still bomb in an age where video-cassette rental stores and cable television might give them new leases on life, Burns laughs: "Oh, yeah! [‘No Looking Back’] cost just under $6 million to make and I think it made $11,000 at the box office."
But that didn’t discourage the self-proclaimed perfectionist.
After taking a brief hiatus from his hyphenated career, Burns is set to start lensing a new movie he wrote called "Ash Wednesday" later this month. He and his brother Brian, who own the production company Irish Twins, have also created and executive produced "The Fighting Fitzgeralds," a half-hour comedy series for NBC that stars Brian Dennehy.
All of this success doesn’t seem to have gone to Burns’s head, however. He remains true to his Irish-American, working-class roots, is loyal to his family and friends in New York City, and considers himself a writer above all else.
"For me, I started as a writer I was never really interested in film," he said. "After I wrote my first screenplay, I realized I wanted to be a director for the sole reason of wanting to maintain control over what I’d written and then the acting was sort of a further extension to that. That was always my first passion and always will be. I mean, I love writing. A day never goes by that I don’t sit at the computer and at least try to write something.
As fun as it is to go work in ‘Private Ryan’ or as fun as it was to work with Robert DeNiro, there’s nothing like walking on to the set when it’s your baby and seeing words that you’ve written come to life in front of you."