I think that's us uh Hey everybody how you doing uh this is Ed Burns and I am with Aaron Luben uh Aaron has been producing my films for over 25 years and he's with me here in Toronto because tonight we're premiering a new film at at Tiff at the Toronto Film Festival so it's a big day because uh we've got a film premiering um and also uh my first novel my debut novel a kid from Malboro Road um comes out uh today or did it come out yesterday came out yesterday so any so and I know a number of you have read it so already thank you for that uh before we jump into a lot of the questions that you guys have sent in um I'm G to tell you a little bit about the book for those who haven't read it but also to remind you that you can get an autograph copy of the book at Edward Burns book one word Edward burs book.com and if you put in ed15 you get a 15% discount so for anyone who hasn't bought it yet wants an autograph copy I appreciate it um I so the book is called a uh a kid from Malboro Road and it's a Coming of Age story about a um a 12-year old boy who is going to be turning 13 at the end of the summer and um my uh and it's the story of uh you know he's going through all those changes that you go through as you're hitting uh adolescence you know the the physical changes the chemical and the hormonal changes um and he feels like this is the Summer where he finally needs to break up with his mother he can't be the last mama's boy on malbar road um but it's also the Summer where his mother needs him most um he keeps noticing that his mother seems sad uh and we understand that uh She's suffering from depression but he doesn't it also appears as if his parents are headed for divorce um and he just you know he just doesn't understand why do why they don't laugh the way they used to so uh the interesting thing about the book is I thought I was going to write a Coming of Age story that was let's say closer to something like Stand By Me without the dead body or The Outsiders in that it was going to be about a this young boy and his group of friends who were all a bunch of 12 year olds in uh in the summer of 1980 um I was 12 years old in the summer of 1980 and we were sort of the last generation of latchkey kids who were able to run around without any supervision I thought that was the book I was going to write um but when I uh when I was writing the book I was writing it during covid my parents were uh sort of Trapped down in Florida unable to get back up to Long Island So speaking to my mom every day um and at a certain point I just started to ask her questions about her life really just to pass the time you know what do you remember about the day you graduated high school what do you remember about your first you know job in Manhattan uh you know what do you remember uh about uh the day your father died things like that and uh she started telling me these great long stories a lot of stories I had never heard before and then as I was writing these stories ended up finding their way into the book uh so instead of making a book about a young kid and his group of friends and the adventures they were going to have one summer it turned into a book about this young boy and his relationship with his mother uh my mom ended up passing away uh four months uh into Co and uh the book is you know turned into and is a sort of love letter to her and her memory so um so that kind of gives you the gist of uh what it's about um why don't we jump into some of your questions all right well this is Jack from Minnesota asks what made you want to come out with this book now you know my uh when I was in high school I thought that one day I would like to write a novel but at that point I had no idea you know how that might happen or um uh you know how you would even go about doing that uh when I was in college I went to film school I became a filmmaker uh one of the films I saw in my early days in film school was tro 400 blows which is a g is the from in my opinion The Coming of Age film um and I thought well one day I want to write my version of that my film that would look at that chapter in my life so when Co hit I thought that I was going to sit down and write a screenplay and I thought that screenplay would be the story that I tell in this novel uh instead because Aaron and I were hearing from our friends in the business that we didn't know when we would be able to be back on set together so I thought well you know maybe this is the story I should try as a novel uh the other reason I thought it would work as a novel as opposed to a screenplay any of you know my work as a filmmaker our work is we make lower budgeted films this is a story that you know uh goes from the summer of 1980 all the way back to flashback sequences to you know New York City in the 1880s um so obviously that's the kind of budget we don't work with so I think those were major factors in me choosing to uh to take this story I I I've been wanting to tell since I'm you know 18 years old and instead turn it into a novel okay great uh sioban from New York uh asks has your Irish heritage influenced your passion for storytelling I think without a doubt you know uh growing up Irish American my mom's uh parents were from Ireland they came over in the 30s uh after her two older brothers were born in in uh West me in a town called Mullen Garen Ireland um and then my dad's family was also Irish American and uh you know like a lot of families uh there was a lot of competition around the dinner table and later in the bars as to who was the you know the Storyteller who could you know hold the room um I grew up surrounded by my extended family telling all of these great old stories about their parents and their grandparents and their cousins and brothers and sisters um uh and you know uh those those stories morph over time right uh and a lot of those stories ended up in this book now I should say uh the book is fiction it's not a memoir and I have no interest in in writing a memoir and trying to tell a you know historically accurate account of uh some of these incidents and quite honly my uh you know I wasn't as insightful as the kid in the book nor nor nearly as interesting so um uh it it was um I was able to take a lot of the the uh pieces of my family's history and those stories that I grew up hearing and uh embellish them um you know and I think uh I think it made for a pretty great read um Norman Jean from Texas said are you gonna be doing more novels in the future um I absolutely am gon to be doing more novels in the future uh I mean Aaron will tell you when I was writing this book I would call him and say I can't believe how much fun I'm having um uh writing Pros is very different than writing screenplays uh I found it um liberating for me you know when we're working on my scripts again I mentioned our lower budgets we're kind of handcuffed by the kind of stories we can tell due to the budgets we work with so with this film that with this book the handcuffs were off and I could tell as rich and paint on as big a canvas as I wanted um so uh I am already working on the second book and I am picture of this is a Trilogy this book is a a kid from Malboro road the second book is called the Malboro Road gang which is uh the story I thought I originally was going to write about that young boy and his group of friends I'll pick them up two years later in the summer of 82 and then the third book in the trilogy the final book will be called goodbye malaro Road and what that one's about I have no idea yet um Tyler from Minnesota says what's been the most challenging role you have played I would say most challenging role uh was probably my part in Saving Private Ryan um PFC ryban um and because you know uh I never thought I was gonna be an actor you know I I acted in my the started acting in the small black and white films I made in film school and then started acting in my own short films and then cast myself to play uh that part in The Brothers McMullen and then I made two films after that she's the one and no looking back and again you know I um I wrote those parts for what I thought were my strengths as an actor uh the first movie I acted in where I didn't speak a line of dialogue that I wrote was Private Ryan so he you could just imagine how intimidating that was and how I was just very insecure as to whether or not I was a real actor if you will uh couple that with you're being directed by Steven Spielberg and having to act opposite Tom Hanks um hands down the most challenging professional experience I had but at the same time the still to this day maybe the greatest experience because um you know from Stephen uh he allowed me to stand over his shoulder for the duration of that shoot and kind of watch his process which was the greatest you know graduate film program you could ever ask for um and then uh you know uh Tom Hanks showed the same kind of generosity and that you know he would allow you to just pepper him with questions about just the business and things like that but I think what was even greater that Tom did was he just led by example he was a guy that you just watched and again he was you know the biggest movie star in the world and he conducted himself as just a regular guy you know he was completely respectful to all of us as unknown actors uh would like I said ask any questions but you know he knew the name of every PA and um you know and he had a great relationship with Stephen so that was kind of the North Star Guiding Light for me as far as moving forward in my career in Hollywood is to you know how you behave on set how you conduct yourself and um uh and just um you know so any overall great great experience and great learning experience um Lindsay from New Jersey says as someone who is about to graduate college and wants to pursue a career in acting what would your advice be you know it's different now uh than it was when um I came up I think one of the advantages that you know that you guys have is you know you have one of these right and the picture quality is absolutely incredible um so if you feel like you're not getting an opportunity to play the kind of roles you think you're capable of you can go out and you know you can shoot a monologue you can have a friend write a short film that you can star in you can write and direct and star in your own short film uh so that you can showcase what you can do now I know the challenge that is how do you get that film in front of people uh I'm an old man I'm 56 years old you're gonna have a better idea of how you would get that in in front of people um the other thing that I think you know depending on where you live um you know theater is such an incredible training ground um so you know doing your local theater or if you're in New York or La obviously doing you know trying to audition for you know any kind of smaller plays Off Broadway shows I think the third thing you can do is you've got to become a part of the acting community in your town you know like and there's a number of states now that have a lot of Film Production um if you if you don't live in one of those States I would think about moving to one of those States it used to be New York and LA but now there's plenty of production in in New Jersey and down in Atlanta uh New Mexico so there are places you can go the more people you know in the business especially if you want to be an actor you're going to hear about oh there's a movie coming into town and they're looking for actors already AG or there's an open call for this commercial so just having friends or acquaintances in the business definitely I think helps make you you know helps you make those connections Sarah from Tennessee says 27 Dresses is my all-time favorite movie what was the highlight of working on that set I mean really um that was a real fun movie to make we shot most of it up in Providence Ro Rhode Island which is a great town um but I think really like uh the the part I remember most is you had some of the funniest women uh in the business all on the same set and Fletcher our director hysteric hysterical uh R ad Ellen Schwarz hysterical uh malen aeran um uh uh uh Judy Greer um I mean everybody was just like the so so fun and of course Katherine igel is uh you know I mean she was great to work with and really funny so you know I just kind of stood on the sidelines a lot and just uh and laughed with them I think you may have covered this a bit but but Kath from Indiana says when when you were younger did you always want to become an actor and when did you start acting I did not want to be an actor as a kid um I wanted to be I think I mentioned earli I wanted to be a writer um but when I was in film school at Hunter College in New York uh the first class I took or one of the first directing classes I took was called like film directing 101 and and our professor ever as great guy um he said how many of you want to be directors everybody raised their hand he said how many of you have any acting experience nobody raised their hand then he said well how do you expect to work with actors if you don't know the process you don't know what they go through so at the start of every class you would pick four kids and' be like all right you're the writer you're the director and you two are G to be the actors I'll see you next Tuesday at class I want you to put on a f minute play in front of your classmates um the first time I got picked was as an actor uh I was terrified uh I'd never acted before but I would say you know two minutes into that five minute you know twers play we put on in the front of the classroom the thing happened you know people talk about you get the acting bug I got it and I fell in love with it and um fortunately for me you know I was in film school and making these little movies I would just give myself a small part and that grew and grew until I made The Brothers McMullen Kennedy from says um what is your favorite part of fatherhood uh well sadly we just became empty nesters um so pretty emotional as you can imagine um favorite part uh you know I mean I I think we kind of loved it all you know loved sort of uh reading to the kids I grew up with two parents who were voracious readers when you read uh a kid from malbo Road you see the influence they had on me in and in sort of encouraging me to be a reader uh me and my wife did the same thing for our kids I also loved coaching all of their Sports and I coached everything they did up until last year coached my last season of a basketball um so uh yeah it was it was a lot of fun gonna miss it um last last long question from the fans uh Debbie from California says were there specific circumstances or experiences as a child that shaped who you are today and everything that you have become uh yeah yeah of course I mean there you know and and some of those are in the book um you know there's there's a there's a story in the book where the character wins a uh poetry contest that he has to write for school um and that happened to me and after that the character in the book is told by his father you can be a writer if you want to be a writer and it's exactly what my father said to me and here I am today whatever that is I'm 56 he probably said that to me I'm 13 I can't do that math but a long time ago 43 years 43 33 43 43 there's a reason I was an English major and failed econ 101 uh so anyhow that's uh that was the story all right I guess we can move now to the uh fan favorite segment 22 questions in two minutes okay all right I got him I got him right here in front of me I'll just back through it's proba easier right you okay where were you born I was born at Boulevard Hospital and Woodside Queens in New York who would you want to play you in a movie you know um I don't really know uh but I'm just gonna say uh my son because uh he's pretty good actor so um my very first job was I was a bus boy at Catina an Italian restaurant in Valley Street Long Island um and I was in the sixth grade uh what chore do you hate doing uh um I kind of hate loading the dishwasher for some reason I don't know why uh my biggest fear biggest fear is probably that one day I won't be able to get my films financed that would be rough um who makes me laugh the most easily hands down my wife Christie uh what is the one thing you need to have in the fridge at all times uh cold coffee love a good iced coffee my favorite subject at school you know creative writing uh interesting person uh met recently I'm gonna say this is a remate because this guy named Sheamus Ean did the music for Brothers McMullen and that was 30 years ago I should say also I just finished the screenplay but the sequel to The Brothers McMullen and I also just realized I haven't told you if you want an autograph copy of this book uh you can get it at Edward burs book.com and use ed15 uh for a 15% discount um anyhow uh so anyhow Sheamus Egan I hadn't seen him in 30 years and we were shooting a film over in Ireland um and Sheamus ended up doing a Trad session like a traditional Irish folk music session I I think I'm exceeding my two minutes anyhow Sheamus Egan great guy uh what is my middle name my middle name is Fitzgerald it's my grandmother's maiden name Josie um my biggest pet peeve uh you know what leftovers that are wrapped in tin oil and left in the fridge uh my favorite hobby used to be playing guitar now it's playing golf uh my favorite guilty pleasure is probably watching too many golf instructional videos on YouTube uh hidden talents I can tell you it isn't golf um uh the color of my toothbrush uh I use an Oral B so it's white um my pet's name is TJ Terrence Joseph um uh and also we have a second dog named Shay named after Shay stadium for You Met fans out there I remember that uh my favorite word all right so this is a new word that I read in a review of my of this book which I was uh unfamiliar with um I gu see I already forgot it uh uh buildings Roman and it means something like a novel written about um uh you know a a spiritual that sort of basically means coming of age story I did look it up and I had it on my phone I can't find it um all right I lost my questions here uh what is the last album I bought or streamed my last two the last Pearl Jam album and uh the new Kings of leyon album just got the two of them about two weeks ago uh the last gift I gave uh my wife and I had our 21st anniversary and they got a very nice uh bracelet um and uh what causes dear to your heart I'm going to go back to my wife she has a charity that you guys should all check out it's called Every Mother Counts you can find their website at every mother count.org and it deals with maternal mortality um they've been around for 15 years and raised a ton of money to help um uh uh women uh get access to uh proper Health Care uh when they're pregnant well and all over the world they done this um my greatest achievement you know what quite honestly I'm going to say right now it's this novel um I'm more proud of this book than anything I've done uh I didn't know if I could write a novel I didn't know if I could you know if I could get it published quite honestly and here it is and um I absolutely love it and where do I want to go that I have never been I me there's so many places um I mean off the top of my head uh I've never been to Australia and I had a friend who just came back and loved it um so I think Australia is the next uh big trip and apparently they have a great tax incentive for making films too so maybe it's a work and uh pleasure trip um anyhow I hope I answered all those questions I'm gonna remind you again you can get an autograph copy of a kid from Malboro Road at Edward burs book.com put in ed15 for your discount I think that's it I think we got it guys everybody yeah I appreciate you coming out and listening to to us cool thank you all right byebye backe for