Ed Burns Returns To His Irish American Roots With 'The Fitzgerald Family Christmas'

By John Mooney

Born in Woodside, Queens, the son of Molly (née McKenna), and Edward J. Burns, a public relations specialist for the NYPD, Ed Burns grew up the second of three children in Valley Stream, New York.

After briefly attending Chaminade, he transferred to Hewlett High and later studied at SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Albany, before ultimately earning his degree in English from Hunter College in 1992.

Right after college, Burns got his start as a production assistant on Oliver Stone's 'The Doors.'

He was working as a stage hand at 'Entertainment Tonight,' when he financed, produced, directed and starred in 'The Brothers McMullen,' which he shot in his spare time, primarily in Valley Stream.

The film, which centered on the relationship between three Irish American siblings, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed nationally by 20th Century Fox.

It became a sleeper hit and grossed over $10 million, while costing only $28,000 to make.

The success of the film made Burns a hot property. The next year, he wrote, directed and starred in the ensemble drama 'She's The One' with Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, and Amanda Peet.

He is best known to mainstream audiences for his acting role as Richard Reiben, a smart mouthed New Yorker in Steven Spielberg's Academy Award-winning 'Saving Private Ryan' in 1998.

Burns moved to California following the success of 'Private Ryan,' to pursue acting stardom but did not match his early successes at the box office.

Since 2000, the 44-year-old has written directed and starred in a number of small films.

He returned home to New York and is married to model Christy Turlington with whom he has a daughter, Grace (born 2003), and a son, Finn (born 2006).

Burns' new project is The Fitzgerald Family Christmas, in which the writer-director-actor revisits what he knows best: the strange, sometimes explosive alchemy of Irish American parents and their progeny.

While filming the thriller 'Alex Cross,' Tyler Perry suggested that his co-star to go back to his Irish American roots.

Burns went to his trailer and started cranking out a script, and finished his first draft in just six weeks.

The story centers on the return of Big Jim Fitzgerald (Ed Lauter), who 20 years ago walked out on his wife Josie (Anita Gillette) and their seven children.

While the four oldest were already grown when their father left, the three youngest children have never really known him.

In the ensuing years, the kids and their mother found a way to move forward and, however loosely, stay together.

But this year, with the holidays approaching, word comes to the oldest son, Gerry (Burns), that Big Jim wants to return and spend Christmas with his family. The news hits like a ton of bricks.

While the kids try to hide the news from their mother, eventually she finds out. The children are stunned by the amount of anger and bitterness that Josie's petite frame still contains.

The prodigal father returns at a difficult time, as his children are grappling with significant issues of their own.

Gerry, a widower, finds himself drawn to the attractive nurse ('Brothers McMullen' alum Connie Britton) who cares for his late wife's ailing mother. Quinn (Michael McGlone, another 'Brothers McMullen' alum) is misguidedly planning to propose to his much younger girlfriend (Daniella Pineda).

Dottie (Marsha Dietlein Bennett) is absorbed in an affair with her gardener, while Erin (Heather Burns) wants nothing to do with the family - even as her Jewish husband (Nick Sandow) secretly acquiesces to Josie's wish to have the couple's baby baptized. Big Jim's return takes the Fitzgeralds on an emotional roller coaster.

The ensuing holiday becomes a festival of grievance and awkwardness, as well as a celebration of hope, forgiveness - something every family can understand.

On a press tour of New York, Ed Burns took time out for a Q&A session about his new film:

Why did it take you so long to return to your Irish American roots?

I ask myself that question all the time. From the minute I started writing, I had a great time exploring these characters. It was like a homecoming; I never had to ask myself what does this character sound like or what does the place look like? I knew it so intimately. It was sitting in me so long that as soon as I started, it just kept coming out of me rapidly.

How similar is the Fitzgerald Family to your own family?

There are more differences than similarities, actually. I'm one of three, while the Fitzgeralds have seven siblings. Their father walked out, and now wants to come home. My dad never walked out.

How is this different is this film from 'The Brothers McMullen'?

The story revolves around a big family getting together for a reunion. For this project, I pulled together my filmmaking family. I went through each film I made and added an actor from each one, so almost everyone had worked with me before. You buy these people as siblings on screen, in part because they have a history together.
During the process, I said to Mike McGlone and Connie Britton that I would write the screenplay that revisits the relationships in 'The Brothers McMullen.' If all goes well, it will be ready for 2015 for the 20th anniversary of the film.

What did you learn from working with Steven Spielberg on 'Saving Private Ryan'?

The biggest lesson was how to work with actors. Rarely did we do more than three or four takes of any scene. In some scenes, he gave us no direction. We just figured it out for ourselves.
One time, after we did six takes, he finally gave us direction. "Today you didn't know what you were doing," he told us.
Spielberg hires actors whom he thinks embody the characters and assumes that you have prepared. Similarly, I don't want to meddle with the process. When you work with an ensemble cast, you have actors who find the characters on their own. Prior to that, I was guilty of thinking I needed to direct the actors after every take. I was not as collaborative as I could have been. That's what I learned from him.

Which do you like better - acting or directing?

There's no comparison; writing is my first love. I thought I would be a novelist. The directing was an extension of the storytelling, a way to have control over the written word. I love acting, but I would give up acting if I had to make a choice.

What do you want people to know about this film?

I wanted to do a Christmas story with a character had to go through rocky ground to get the emotional payoff at the end. It's about the importance of family.
The holidays are a time when you can seek forgiveness and compassion.
That's what I am exploring. Everybody's got a screwed up family, secrets, and heartache, but the holidays are a time to reconnect.

THE FITZGERALD FAMILY CHRISTMAS features Edward Burns, Connie Britton, Kerry Bishe and Michael McGlone.
The film can be downloaded on iTunes before its New York debut on December 7. The movie opens in select makets on December 14.