Edward Burns brings you Nice Guy Johnny

For actor/writer/director Edward Burns, now is the time to celebrate! His new movie, Nice Guy Johnny is about to hit the Tribeca Film Festival held in New York City but the yearly festival is due for an expansion.

Starting April 23rd, you can join the lucky folks who get to attend in person and watch great films from the comfort of your own home. TFF Virtual Premium Passholders can watch TFF 2010 short and feature films like the world premiere of Edward Burns’ new film, Nice Guy Johnny. Get behind the scenes access to live red carpets, panels, and participate in Q&As with filmmakers from the comfort of your own living room.

For more information on this sweet deal click here!

The film follows Johnny Rizzo (Matt Bush), a guy who is about to trade in his dream job in talk radio for some snooze-ville gig that’ll pay just enough to please his fiancée. Enter Uncle Terry (Edward Burns), a rascally womanizer set on turning a weekend in the Hamptons into an eye-opening fling for his nephew.

Nice guy Johnny’s not interested, of course, but then he meets the lovely Brooke, who challenges Johnny to make the toughest decision of is life.

We had a chance to speak to Mr. Burns this week about this new indie comedy which he wrote and directed.

Q: What inspired you to write this film, Nice Guy Johnny?
E. Burns: A couple of things, but primarily I would say about a year and a half ago I had meeting with my new agent, and I would say every couple of years I had a meeting that was similar to this where my team would encourage me to stop making small, personal films and put myself up for what they call open directing assignments at the studios.

Given, I guess, what I do they thought I could very easily land a studio romantic comedy directing job. I never had any interest in that, not that I think they’re bad films necessarily, but I only aspired to be a writer/director. My heroes were Cassavetes and Woody Allen and Truffaut, and that’s all that I ever wanted to do.

However, two years ago with a couple of kids and a couple of mortgages I thought maybe it might be a smart financial move to at least entertain the thought.

Q: So it was time to change your mind?
E. Burns: Yes, so I read a bunch of the scripts; I took a bunch of the meetings. I have to admit it was a very tough decision because there is potentially a lot more money to make doing that than doing what I do. At the end of the day that’s not why I got into the business. I had to sort of stick with what my original purpose was and what my original dream was.

I left that final meeting after passing on this particular project. Me and my producing partner were talking about it and what are we going to do now? We said “You know what, let’s write a script about what we just went through. Let’s think about what kind of character is faced with that kind of decision when you have to stick with your dream when everyone is telling you, whether it’s your parents or your friends. Or, do you take the more fiscally responsible job with benefits? Most of my friends are in the arts and all of them wrestle with this very thing, especially as we get older and are starting families.

That’s how kind of Nice Guy Johnny came about. He’s a 24-year-old sports talk radio host who dreams of one day getting a big broadcasting job. He’s not making any money; he’s about to get married and his fiancée has suggested he come home to New York to take a job that will triple his salary and give him benefits. It’s the story of how this kid makes that decision.

Q: Are any of the characters based on real people?
E. Burns: Maybe my character is loosely based on a couple of guys that I grew up with and even know today. Uncle Terry is an aging womanizer who is hell bent against his nephew getting married, especially at the tender age of 24.

I definitely still know guys who are deep into their 40s who are holding on to bachelorhood with everything they’ve got. I didn’t want to judge it at all, but we kind of took a look at sort of the funny side of it and then maybe a little bit of the pathetic side of it.

Q: You must be excited about the film festival going virtual so more people will be able to see your film!
E. Burns: You know, for me, I have always tried to embrace how indie films, or how indie cinema is going to make use of the Internet. We saw maybe like in ’06 indie films sort of stopped finding the same sized audience for the ten years prior to that. You saw a lot of companies like Paramount Vantage closed, Warner Brother Independent closed; Miramax just recently went under. We knew that the audience still liked the films they just weren’t going to see them theatrically.

A couple of years ago I tried it with this film Purple Violets. We released it onto iTunes and we got a great response from the people that like my movies.

I tried a Web series last year as a way; again to how do we find the people that like this? How do we get this material or these stories to them in a different way. When Tribeca brought this up we immediately said, “Absolutely.”

As a kid who got his start as a film festival and now is someone who loves film festivals, it’s great that now a kid in Kansas City can attend the Tribeca Film Festival, at least in some fashion and see those movies that he might be reading about on sites like yours or other film sites.

Q: Nice Guy Johnny is about people pursuing their dreams at a cost, what did it cost you to get into acting in the first place?
E. Burns: You know, acting—I guess it forces you to thicken your skin. Definitely while it can be great for your ego, there are certainly a handful of films I have and the reviews that have followed that are pretty bruising to your ego. There is that. But as far as like what it cost me? I don’t know that it has. I was very lucky when I made my first film; I was 26 years old and it got picked up for distribution. Fifteen years later I’m still making my little personal films so I’m, I think, one of the lucky ones.

I know a lot of indie filmmakers out there – it’s kind of like bands, you know, you struggle and you fight and you get that first film made and you get some attention with it. Then you make the next one and then that’s it. To still be doing it after 15 years I’m definitely a lucky guy.

Q: Do you see your character Uncle Johnny as the antagonist of the film or do you see him as someone who is helping Johnny reach his goals?
E. Burns: He’s sort of like – he’s a mentor of sorts, but it’s almost like the devil on one shoulder and the woman he meets on this journey, played by Kerry Bishé, as sort of maybe the angel on the shoulder.

The interesting thing is like I think my character is a mentor that is always – he’s sort of the dumbest guy in the room. He’s always giving this kid terrible advice, but only at the end of the journey when he comes through and you see these decisions he’s made you realize like, oh, maybe the idiot knew something after all, if that makes any sense.

Q: if you were to compare Nice Guy Johnny to your previous works, what are some of the elements that stand out that really speak to how much you’ve grown as an actor, writer, director, and producer?
E. Burns: Acting-wise I’d say it’s my best performance in one of my films and I say this kind of there are three reasons for that. One is I kind of wrote it toward my strengths I think as an actor and kind of wrote a part for a part of my personality that maybe I haven’t explored in my films before for me to play.

The second reason is I’ve just been doing it longer so kind of like any muscle the more you work it I think the more command you have over it. Primarily the biggest reason is in the film it’s about a bunch of 24-year-old kids and we wanted to find unknown actors. I kind of wanted to go back to whatever the magic was I was able to create with my cast in Brothers McMullen.

There was an enthusiasm on that film that I never sort of captured again or never felt on set again. With this film we went and we found Matt Bush, this actress Kerry Bishé and Anna Wood, and then even some of the supporting players who really had very little experience in front of the camera.

They’d all gone to acting school and stuff like that but what I found, for me as an actor was their enthusiasm and their love and appreciation for getting to act, to be in a movie, to be on set, it was infectious for me as an actor. Every scene I have I’m opposite this kid Matt Bush and he’s coming at you with everything he’s got and with such enthusiasm and love for it that there was no way – he was pulling like the best stuff out of me. I would credit him with that.

Writing, I think it’s my – say my most honest and personal film since The Brothers McMullen.

Q: Was the writing and filming process different from what you’ve approached on your prior movies?
E. Burns: No, not really. I write every day. I’m pretty disciplined in that respect. I’m pretty tough on myself. Filming-wise, maybe the difference between this film and the last couple is we were a pretty small tight-knit cast and everyone got to know one another very well. Maybe there is a little bit more collaboration and input from the cast in this script than in films in the past.

Q: Of the things that you’ve done, the acting, the screenwriting, the directing; if you could only concentrate on one for the rest of your career, if you had no choice about this, which one would you choose and why?
E. Burns: Hands down, it wouldn’t even need to make a decision, it would be writing. I started as a writer; it’s what I love; it’s what I do every day, so that’s a no-brainer.

Thank you so much to Mr. Burns for taking the time to speak to us ahead of the release of his new film Nice Guy Johnny which will premiere on Friday, April 23rd at the Tribeca Film Festival. To sign up for your virtual pass make sure to click here and sign up…..right now!

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