Indie director fought to keep series afloat
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Edward Burns in East Hampton, New York. His new series, Bridge And Tunnel, is set in a 1980s version of his home town and focuses on six college graduates trying to figure out their futures.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
Edward Burns has carved a distinctive path as an indie film-maker in the quarter-century since he made a splash with his debut, The Brothers McMullen (1995).
He has consistently made movies for small (US$250,000 for Looking For Kitty, 2004) to minuscule (US$9,000 for Newlyweds, 2011) budgets, and was experimenting with new distribution models even before the rise of streaming. In 2007, he made the first straight-to-iTunes movie, Purple Violets.
While he had previously ventured into broadcast and basic cable television for short-lived series such as Public Morals (2015), his new dramedy Bridge And Tunnel on Epix marks his entry into premium cable.
Set in 1980 in Valley Stream, New York, the Long Island town where Burns grew up, the show revolves around six recent college graduates as they try to figure out their futures. Burns, who also plays the father of aspiring photographer Jimmy (Sam Vartholomeos) in the series, includes plenty of period flourishes. For instance, a poster of baseball team New York Mets fan favourite Rusty Staub can be glimpsed on the wall of Jimmy's childhood room.
Burns recently spoke by telephone about Bridge And Tunnel and how he kept the show alive during the pandemic. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
There is a vintage soundtrack, with bands ranging from Toto to Blondie, and music is a constant topic of conversation. Why no mention of Billy Joel, the ultimate Long Island star? Glass Houses was a No. 1 album in 1980.
As a young guy, I once saw Billy Joel outside a pizza place and when he got into his car, my friends and I followed him. So I'm keeping Billy Joel and that scene in my back pocket for season two.
I settled on the summer of 1980 because it's the era in New York I'm most nostalgic about. You have punk, new wave, hip-hop, and the art and fashion scene.
I'm 52, so in 1980, I was in sixth grade and at my most impressionable. I romanticised the lives and escapades of the older guys and girls in my neighbourhood. I could only imagine what they were doing when they were walking down my street to the train station on a Friday or Saturday night, going into the city to do their thing.
I fell in love with the idea of these bridge-and-tunnel kids who make their journey into Manhattan to pursue their dreams.
The series' characters are working-class, but mostly went to college and have bigger ambitions. Class is not an explicit issue, although Jill (Caitlin Stasey) is belittled for her accent by her snooty Manhattan bosses, but you underscore how things were different.
I think it's tougher for working-class kids today to pursue their dreams. I was able to go to Hunter College at US$600 a semester and take film classes.
The barrier to entry to some of those fields is tougher now. The character of Tammy (Gigi Zumbado) is going to Columbia Business School and is paying for it with her waitressing job, but I don't think that would be enough to make it realistic today.
You were set to make the series and then the pandemic happened, and protocols such as constant testing and deep cleaning cost US$2 million (S$2.65 million), a big chunk of your budget. Did your background as an indie film-maker prepare you for this?
I've made so many no-budget and low-budget movies - you have to be able to think on your feet, to rewrite a scene at a moment's notice.
We were originally doing eight episodes and half the show took place in Manhattan - we'd see characters coming out of an interview or meeting in a bar there. I said I'd cut it to six episodes and rewrite everything to take place on the block where they grew up.
I moved as many interior scenes as possible to exterior locations for safety, which is why they're always in the park or the backyard.
Early in your career you cast rising stars like Connie Britton, Leslie Mann, Cameron Diaz and Amanda Peet. Was it fun looking for new faces again?
Definitely. We didn't need name recognition, so I said: "Let's find the best actors, but look for the kids who keep losing out to the more well-known actors."
Sam Vartholomeos went to LaGuardia High School and he'd had a teacher saying: "You've got to get rid of that Queens accent."
He was really concerned and was working on it until another teacher said, "Don't worry so much - plenty of actors work with an accent. One day, hopefully, you'll get to play Ed Burns' son."
At his first wardrobe fitting, he asked who was playing his parents. When he was told I'm playing his dad, he said: "Get de (expletive) outta here. Are you kiddin' me?"
NYTIMES
