Ireland House Oral History Collection

Edward Burns

Edward Burns, Jr at Glucksman Ireland House, NYU, 2007

Created/Published:

30 October 2007

1 hour, 24 minutes, 56 seconds

Preferred Citation:

Ireland House Oral History Collection, Archives of Irish America, New York University

Biographical Note:

Edward Burns was born 1968 at Boulevard Hospital in Woodside, Queens, to Edward J. and Molly Burns. He has an older sister Mary, and a younger brother, Brian. They lived in Woodside, Queens and then moved to Valley Stream, Long Island, when Burns was three. He attended St. Joseph’s grammar school and was also confirmed and made first communion at the parish church.

Burns attended the prestigious Chaminade Catholic High School in Mineola, Long Island, but only for two years. Chaminade is run by Marianist priests and brothers, whose strict discipline and style of teaching sparked Burns’ decision to transfer to public school. Burns attended Hewlett High School and graduated in 1986.

After high school Burns attended State University of New York at Oneonta for a single semester before transferring to the State University of New York at Albany. At SUNY Albany, following the guidance of his advisor, Burns enrolled in his first film appreciation class. The class was titled “Four Directors” and looked at the work of John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Billy Wilder. After that class Burns decided that he wanted to study filmmaking and writing screenplays. SUNY Albany did not offer any classes in film other than film appreciation, prompting Burns to transfer to Hunter College in Manhattan. He studied at Hunter for three years, leaving just nine credits short of graduating.

Burns’ first job after leaving college was as a production assistant on the Oliver Stone film, The Doors. Next he worked as a gofer on Entertainment Tonight and started working on his first film, The Brothers McMullen. The Brothers McMullen was shot on weekends over an eight-month period. The budget has been reported as varying between $15,000 and $35,000, although Burns himself maintains his budget was $25,000. All of the actors and crew worked for deferred salaries; Burns even convinced the film-processing lab to take a deferred payment. Burns also selected locations that were available to him free through friends or stealth.

The film premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival in Utah and won the Grand Jury Prize. Robert Redford heads Sundance, and Burns had slipped the film to Redford during an appearance at Entertainment Tonight. At the urging of a friend Burns also submitted the film for the festival despite what he thought at the time was a steep entry fee.

Following the success at Sundance, Burns made She’s the One with a budget of three million dollars from 20th Century Fox. The film was released in 1996. Robert Redford served as executive producer of the film, which helped Burns retain creative control over the film, because the studio trusted Redford.

Burns’ third film, No Looking Back was released in 1998. This was his most expensive movie to date, totaling five million dollars. The film did not fare well at the box office and recommitted Burns to producing low budget dialogue-driven independent pictures. Burns decided that in order to maintain artistic control of his films he needed to remain self-financed. To generate the necessary capital for his next endeavor, he accepted a role in the movie Saving Private Ryan, his acting debut in a film that he had neither written nor directed.

On 7 June 2003, Burns married long time girlfriend, supermodel Christy Turlington. In October of that same year their daughter was born. In January 2006, Burns and Turlington had a son.

Burns’ most recent film, Purple Violets, was released on 5 November 2007 solely over iTunes. It is the first film to have its initial release over the Internet. The decision to take this distribution route was influenced by the overall decrease in attendance at movie houses and the rising popularity of alternative viewing opportunities, like iTunes and Netflix. As this is a new distribution model, Burns has the chance to set a precedent for releasing films first across the Internet.

Click on image to enlarge.

Interviewers:

Photo Credit:

  1. Edward Burns, Jr at Glucksman Ireland House, NYU, 2007
  2. www.sofeminine.co.uk/world/stars/participer_I%3D2100.html
  3. Jay Mohr and Ed Burns in cast of The Groomsmen (2006) http://movies.go.com/photogallery?id=834680&page=1&ad=&genre=comedy
  4. Ed Burns directing Purple Violets (2007) http://www.purplevioletsmovie.com/pv_stills.html

Notes:

  1. Production Assistant
  2. Catholic Youth Organization