Read our exclusive interview with Edward Burns, who plays Kurt in the upcoming comedy ‘Friends with Kids,’ which is set to hit theaters on Friday, March 9. The film, which was written, directed and co-produced by actress Jennifer Westfeldt, follows her character, the single Julie Keller, as she finds it hard to adjust to her married friends having children. While she and her best friend, Jason Fryman, played by Adam Scott, are happy with their jobs, they don’t want to go through the emotional process of getting married just to have a child.
Julie and Jason decide to have a child together, so that they can just focus on the romance when they meet potential significant others. Julie thinks finds the perfect match in the newly divorced Kurt, who has children of his own, until she starts questioning if she’s really in love with Jason.
Burns graciously took the time to sit down with us at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City to discuss, among other things, what attracted him to the role of Kurt. He also spoke about his love of directing, writing and starring in independent films, and why he enjoys shooting in New York.
ShockYa (SY): You portray Kurt, the newly-divorced father who begins dating Julie after she has her son Joe, in ‘Friends With Kids.’ How did you become involved in the movie, and what was it about the role of Kurt that convinced you to take on the role?
Edward Burns (EB): I met Jennifer and Jon (Hamm, Jennifer’s boyfriend, and who co-produced, and appeared as Julie and Jason’s friend Ben in, the film) probably about six or eight months before we shot the film. I had a good time hanging out with them. Then a couple of months later, they sent me the script, and they said we’re doing this film, we’d love for you to be a part of it.
I read the script, and thought it was really funny, and looked at this incredible ensemble that they put together. I thought, why wouldn’t I want to be a part of this?
Also, it’s shot in New York, and they hired my director of photography, a guy named Will Rexer, who shot a couple of my movies. So I thought, this is fun. So I got to work with a bunch of funny, cool people.
SY: What was your working relationship with Jennifer like while you were filming?
EB: I was really impressed with Jennifer. She did a very smart thing. When you’re a writer-director and also acting in the film, you can’t spend a lot of time worrying about the other actors. You want to put the strongest team on the field. I think she did that.
Some of the other actors, there were scenes where there was a lot of room for improv. But with the scenes I had with her, they were really well written. It was just the matter of showing up and doing the work that was written. I was really impressed. There were some really insightful notes. She’s acting in the scene, taking in my performance and giving some nice thoughts to play with.
SY: Since ‘Friends With Kids’ is Jennifer’s feature film directorial debut, did you offer her any advice?
EB: I really did not. I try not to do that on someone’s set where I’m an actor-for-hire. Had she solicited, certainly I would have given her any help that she might need. But she surrounded herself with a really strong team. She was in good shape.
SY: You’re married and have two children of your own in real life. Did you bring any of your own experiences to the character of Kurt, and were you able to relate to him in any way?
EB: I think so. I think Kurt’s character is a grounded, sensible, pretty pragmatic guy. He’s the one guy in the film, at the start of that big dinner party scene, that instigates the conversation of “it’s an interesting thing you guys have done, but have you thought it through?” It’s probably pretty close to my personality. Kurt felt pretty close to home.
SY: ‘Friends With Kids’ explores the question of whether people can keep uncomplicated romance in their lives after they have children. Do you think Julie and Jason’s decision to have a child together while having romantic relationships with other people reflective of the New York attitude towards romance?
EB: No, I don’t think so. I know Jennifer said she wrote it after she and Jon, all of their friends started to have kids. I don’t think there’s an attitude, I don’t think that’s the prevalent attitude. I have young kids, all of our friends have kids. We’re all participant parents, and very happy to have fallen in love and gotten married and started families.
I don’t think that’s the vast majority. Certainly, the other great think about New York is that it’s a wonderful playground for adults choosing not chosen to go down that path. As the movie points out, there are a bunch of us doing this in New York.
SY: As you said, Jennifer decided to write the script after she and Jon noticed that their friends were starting to have families and began disappearing from their lives. Do you think that Jennifer basing the script on their experiences helped bring an authenticity to the story?
EB: Oh, absolutely. I think when you hit a certain age, and your friends all start pairing off and having kids. there’s also one couple or one friend that isn’t quite ready to graduate to that next level or chapter. It’s always kind of uncomfortable for them. They tend to be left behind a lot of the times.
With my friends, everyone caught back up, the ones you sort of lost. After they had their kids, they come back into the fold. So I think a lot of people relate to a lot of these couples. I think a lot of couples can see themselves in each one of them, and have pass through certain chapters.
SY: ‘Friends with Kids’ is an independent film, and you’re known for acting in, writing and directing independent movies. What is it about independent films that you enjoy so much?
EB: One is that it’s character-driven and dialogue heavy. I like the pace of the work. You tend to, on an indie, you’re pretty much acting the entire time. When you’re on the set of bigger Hollywood films, there’s a lot of time in your trailer, waiting to be called in to do a couple of lines, and then you’re back to your trailer. Those films are fun, and I love doing those as well.
But there’s something about the indie, running gun experience, it’s a lot of fun. It’s all hands on deck, everyone’s in this thing together, which isn’t always the case on a studio film.
SY: When filming independent movies, are there any limitations on what you can shoot?
EB: Oh, absolutely. Making these films on limited budgets, so no one’s going to look at your film and say, oh that shot was incredible. However, hopefully what they’re going to get from it is a performance and story they wouldn’t get otherwise.
Every filmmaker has to make concessions and compromises. The bigger the budget, the compromises have to do with who wrote the check. They’re pretty much going to dictate what your film is going to be. you make the films for the smaller budgets, there’s going to be a production value and cinematic shortcomings.
SY: As you said before, there was some improv on ‘Friends with Kids.’ Do independent films limit improv?
EB: Oh n, I think it depends on the film and the filmmaker. I’ve worked on indies where there’s been a ton of improv and where there’s been none. If anything, the studio films, there’s a little less room, I’ve found. I don’t know why that is. Probably because everything needs to be approved on those sets. That’s different if you’re working with like Judd Apatow and his comedies, they’re studio films. I’ve found that environment is full of improv. I think most films, there’s a lot less of that.
SY: The Tribeca Film Festival is coming back next month to New York. Several of your films, including ‘New Guy Johnny,’ have premiered there. What is it about the festival that you enjoy so much?
EB: You know, it’s the real New York film festival. It is a festival for everybody, not just the most discerning cinephile. There’s everything from the mainstream premiere to kids films to outdoor screenings to a great selection of foreign films. There are New York films and indie films. It’s very much an inclusive film festival, which is why I think I love going every year, whether or not I have a film in the festival or not.
SY: Your film ‘Newlyweds,’ which you directed, wrote and starred in, even closed the festival last year. Do you feel that the movie did well there?
EB: Oh, there’s no better audience than a Tribeca Film Festival audience. Especially for New York filmmakers, because we’re playing to a home crowd. Like New York sports fans, they’re smarter. They know movies really well.
Film festival audiences are always very supportive. You go to movies because you love movies, and you pick out these films that seem interesting to you. It’s like a big party. Whether it’s Tribeca or other festivals, anytime you get invited to a festival, I jump at the chance to go.
SY: In addition to ‘Friends With Kids,’ several of your films, including ‘Sidewalks of New York’ and ‘Nice Guy Johnny,’ have been set in New York. Having been born, and growing up, in New York, why do you enjoy filming here?
EB: I think for me, you write what you know. I’m constantly inspired by the city, whether it’s the people I know, or the folks I’m sitting next to on the subway, listening in on their conversation, or just a neighborhood that inspires me. I’m constantly drawing on all of those things.
Then, on the more practical side, I like staying home and sleeping in my own bed and being able to take my kids to school, while also making a movie. Most people in the movie business don’t have that luxury.
SY: Do you have any films that you’re in the process of writing lined up?
EB: Yeah, I just finished this script called ‘The Fitzgerald’s Family Christmas,’ which is kind of a return to ‘The Brothers McMullen’ and ‘She’s the One.’ It’s about an Irish-American family.
I did this movie over the summer with Tyler Perry that Rob Cohen directed (‘Alex Cross’). Tyler and I play partners in the Detroit police department. He had just re-watched ‘The Brothers McMullen’ because we were going to work together. He says to me one day, “‘McMullen’s your most critically acclaimed movie, and ‘She’s the One’ is your biggest hit. They’re both about Irish-American families, and in 15 years, you’ve never gone back there. How come?”
I had no answer for him. He goes, “Take it from me, you’ve got to learn to super-serve your niche. There’s an audience that came out to see those two movies, who thought you were going to give them more of that on a pretty consistent basis, and you haven’t. I bet you if you make one, they’re going to show up.”
That day, I opened up my laptop, and started writing this next script. So we’ll see if the audience is still there, and shows up. But I have to admit, I haven’t had that much fun writing something in 15 years.
SY: So you’d be interested in going back to the Irish-American movies, like your first two films?
EB: Oh, absolutely. Hopefully we’ll do that next. The other thing, based on that conversation, is why didn’t I ever do a sequel to those movies? So I started to outline that script. My plan is to have it ready for the 20th anniversary, which is in three years. It gives me enough time to make sure I have a pretty great script.
SY: Speaking of Tyler, what was your working relationship with him like on ‘Alex Cross?’
EB: The guy is one of the most impressive guys I’ve ever worked with. He is so smart, focused. He’s a very impressive guy. (He has) great business sense. You can’t build this empire he’s built without being all of those things. So I spent a lot of time picking his brain, trying to figure out how I can apply to my career some of the things he’s been able to do.
SY: Would you be interested in working with him again?
EB: Oh yeah, we’ve talked about it. We’ll see, ‘Alex Cross’ comes out in October. But we’ve been keeping in touch, trying to figure out, is it a screenplay that we work on together, is it a television show. We definitely hit it off and recognized it would be interesting to bring our two worlds together.
SY: Is directing and writing something you’d like to focus more on in the future, or would you like to focus on just the acting, like in ‘Friends with Kids?’
EB: No, my entire career, I’ve tried to have balance between the two. My first love is writing and directing, and that will always be what I’m most passionate about. But it’s fun, in between those films, go to my agent and say, I’ve got six months off, what’s out there? When you get to work with a great bunch like this, it’s a nice second career to have.
SY: Besides Jon, there were several other ‘Bridesmaids’ stars in ‘Friends With Kids,’ including Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Chris O’Dowd. What was it like working with them?
EB: They were great. ‘Bridesmaids’ hadn’t come out yet, but they’re all so funny. That was the fun of it. I only really worked with them on that one day, I guess, or two days. But to sit around with them, you get why ‘Bridesmaids’ worked. They’re just really funny people. Just hanging out between takes, funnier than the scene we’re working on. It was a lot of fun.
Written by: Karen Benardello
