Actor Billy Burke from "Twilight" and Netflix's "Maid" joins us on Story & Craft.
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Actor Billy Burke from “Twilight” and Netflix’s “Maid” joins us on Story & Craft.
Billy’s TV work runs from “24” to “Revolution” and “Zoo,” and he played Charlie Swan, Bella’s father, in the “Twilight” films. Now on Netflix’s “Maid” and “9-1-1: Lone Star,” he talks about his early career, his music and raising a teenager.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
Billy Burke joins Story & Craft
Billy Burke’s Early Career and Music
The Grunge Era and Seattle’s Music Scene
Transition to Acting and Early Roles
Memorable Roles and Experiences
The Twilight Saga and Its Impact
Navigating the Uncertainty of Acting Gigs
Preference Between TV and Indie Films
Memories of Revolution and Other Shows
The Impact of Streaming Platforms
Wrapping Up and Future Projects
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Full Transcript
Part 1
Marc Preston:00:00:04
And when I saw it, I was like, what the hell is this all?
Marc Preston:00:00:06
This seems like fun.
Billy Burke:00:00:07
Well, I wish I'd have known you at the time.
Billy Burke:00:00:09
I could have, I probably could have swung something for you.
Billy Burke:00:00:11
Well,
Marc Preston:00:00:11
I'll put that in my pocket for later.
Announcer:00:00:15
Welcome to Story Craft.
Announcer:00:00:17
Now, here's your host, Mark Preston.
Marc Preston:00:00:19
Hey, how are you?
Marc Preston:00:00:20
Welcome back.
Marc Preston:00:00:21
This is Story Craft.
Marc Preston:00:00:23
I'm Mark Preston.
Marc Preston:00:00:25
Uh, if this is episode number two, well, this is episode number two, but if you're.
Marc Preston:00:00:30
Coming in and checking out your second episode.
Marc Preston:00:00:32
Thank you for coming back.
Marc Preston:00:00:34
If you are new to the show, thank you for checking this out.
Marc Preston:00:00:38
Glad to have you here.
Marc Preston:00:00:39
Uh, today, Billy Burke, what a great actor.
Marc Preston:00:00:42
One of those guys you see show up in a movie or in a TV show,
Marc Preston:00:00:46
you know, he's going to deliver.
Marc Preston:00:00:48
Uh, he's just one of my favorite working actors out there.
Marc Preston:00:00:51
Great conversation.
Marc Preston:00:00:52
Uh, Billy has been in a multitude of shows going to 24.
Marc Preston:00:00:58
We talk about that.
Marc Preston:00:00:59
He's also been in shows like Revolution and Zoo.
Marc Preston:00:01:02
Of course, to many, he's known as Bella Swan's father, Charlie, and Twilight.
Marc Preston:00:01:08
Most recently, he's been on Made, also been on 9 1 1 Lone Star.
Marc Preston:00:01:14
So we had a great conversation and I'm glad you're here to check it out.
Marc Preston:00:01:19
Hey, don't forget to, uh, check us out story and craft pod.
Marc Preston:00:01:24
com.
Marc Preston:00:01:24
Once again, head over to story and craft pod.
Marc Preston:00:01:27
com.
Marc Preston:00:01:27
Got all the social media links on there.
Marc Preston:00:01:29
Uh, also a way for you to leave a voicemail kind of cool way for
Marc Preston:00:01:33
you to get involved in the show.
Marc Preston:00:01:35
And by the way, favor to ask, please follow, like the show, give
Marc Preston:00:01:39
us a review, Apple podcasts, and we're on whatever, Podcast app.
Marc Preston:00:01:44
You've got that you like.
Marc Preston:00:01:46
Okay, so let's get after it.
Marc Preston:00:01:48
It's Billy Burke day right here on story and craft.
Marc Preston:00:01:54
How are you, my friend?
Billy Burke:00:01:55
I'm good.
Billy Burke:00:01:56
How are you?
Billy Burke:00:01:56
I'm really, uh, sorry about the several times we've tried to do this.
Marc Preston:00:02:02
Hey, we've eventually landed here.
Marc Preston:00:02:04
It's all right.
Marc Preston:00:02:05
Now, where are you located?
Marc Preston:00:02:06
Are you on the, um, East coast or West coast?
Billy Burke:00:02:10
I am.
Billy Burke:00:02:10
I'm in New York now.
Billy Burke:00:02:12
I just, uh, just moved back here in August as a matter of fact.
Billy Burke:00:02:16
So
Marc Preston:00:02:17
you're from, uh, Washington originally, right?
Billy Burke:00:02:21
Yes.
Billy Burke:00:02:21
Uh, I grew up, uh, in Bellingham, Washington, which is just, you know,
Billy Burke:00:02:27
south of the Canadian border and, and then spent some formative years in
Billy Burke:00:02:35
downtown Seattle and then, uh, moved to LA, which, you know, which was my
Billy Burke:00:02:39
base Past, uh, better part of 30 years.
Marc Preston:00:02:43
Well, you were, when you were in LA, uh, I'm sorry,
Marc Preston:00:02:45
when you were in Seattle, that's, that's, that was, were, are we
Marc Preston:00:02:48
talking right about the height?
Marc Preston:00:02:49
Cause I noticed all the guitars behind you.
Marc Preston:00:02:51
I'm wondering if that's the height of the grunge
Billy Burke:00:02:54
phase.
Billy Burke:00:02:54
It was so right in the middle of all of that.
Billy Burke:00:02:57
Um, Yeah, it was, I, I had a band in, um, high school and, uh, continued
Billy Burke:00:03:08
to play music from there on out.
Billy Burke:00:03:10
And so moved to downtown Seattle when I was 17 and, and
Billy Burke:00:03:16
immediately started a band there.
Billy Burke:00:03:17
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:03:18
And, and so I was, you know, I was playing out, uh, with my, several versions of my
Billy Burke:00:03:25
band during that whole, that whole thing.
Billy Burke:00:03:29
And.
Billy Burke:00:03:29
You know, knew a lot of the people who, uh, uh, you know, burgeoned from that.
Billy Burke:00:03:34
And we actually, we shared a rehearsal space with Allison chains at one time
Billy Burke:00:03:39
before they were called Allison chains.
Billy Burke:00:03:40
And, and anyway, so.
Billy Burke:00:03:44
I realized and I saw Um what was happening what was bubbling up at
Billy Burke:00:03:49
that time musically and we weren't doing anything like that at all
Marc Preston:00:03:53
What was in the water in seattle from about 88?
Marc Preston:00:03:57
To the mid to early 90s.
Marc Preston:00:03:58
What was in the water?
Marc Preston:00:03:59
It was just you know, actually I think that had something to do with
Marc Preston:00:04:02
Uh, because I started working in radio when I was 17, uh, in Dallas.
Marc Preston:00:04:07
And I remember I was there during the height of the kind of the boy band,
Marc Preston:00:04:10
New Kids on the Block and all that.
Marc Preston:00:04:11
The grunge, I think, was just, it was just a reaction to all that.
Marc Preston:00:04:15
It was a little bit of a backlash kind of.
Billy Burke:00:04:17
Yeah, I, I think it was probably a combination of a lot of things.
Billy Burke:00:04:20
Um, uh, not the least of which, you know, when something starts
Billy Burke:00:04:25
bubbling in a city like that, at least it had been historically
Billy Burke:00:04:28
like, you know, Athens, Georgia, you know, how they had their big boom.
Billy Burke:00:04:32
And, and I think Seattle was just kind of sort of destined for that.
Billy Burke:00:04:37
And then, Yeah, something about that entire, you know, mood and
Billy Burke:00:04:43
movement spoke to, you know, the masses and it just went crazy.
Marc Preston:00:04:49
There was something cool happening in the early 90s, I think.
Billy Burke:00:04:51
There really was.
Billy Burke:00:04:52
It was good times.
Marc Preston:00:04:53
And you're still doing it.
Marc Preston:00:04:54
You're still, uh, you're still doing the, uh, the musical thing.
Marc Preston:00:04:57
Are you, do you have a band right now or are you, uh
Billy Burke:00:05:00
Here's what I do.
Billy Burke:00:05:02
I, you know, perhaps my, uh, my ideal first plan would have been to,
Billy Burke:00:05:10
uh, become successful in the, uh, in the music world first, and then,
Billy Burke:00:05:16
you know, sort of push my way into the film and TV business from there.
Billy Burke:00:05:20
I had always planned on having some sort of dual career, but, uh, You know, the,
Billy Burke:00:05:27
the movies and TV started to kind of pick.
Billy Burke:00:05:29
I moved to LA in 91 or 92.
Billy Burke:00:05:33
Um, and That started to pick up first and I just kind of went with that.
Billy Burke:00:05:39
And so now I just write music, record music for my own enjoyment.
Marc Preston:00:05:48
Well, and that kind of sort of where the Genesis of all of it
Marc Preston:00:05:51
should start is write the music, play the music you like, you know, and then
Marc Preston:00:05:54
you'll find in the, and the people will find you will dig in, you know,
Marc Preston:00:05:57
you know, I know a Billy Bob thing.
Marc Preston:00:05:58
Thornton was one of those guys, kind of did that good kind of riding
Marc Preston:00:06:01
those two rails thing, you know, both music and the film thing.
Marc Preston:00:06:05
But I will say I've tried to hunt it down.
Marc Preston:00:06:07
I can't seem to rummage it up, but Dill Scallion, I did a, I don't like to do a
Marc Preston:00:06:12
whole lot of research research, but I was like, okay, let me just take a look, IMDb.
Marc Preston:00:06:15
I was like, wait a minute, this is you actually playing a country music singer.
Marc Preston:00:06:19
And how that was that your first official theatrical project that you
Marc Preston:00:06:24
did that was like a mockumentary, right?
Marc Preston:00:06:27
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:06:27
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:06:27
It was a mockumentary, yeah.
Billy Burke:00:06:28
Uh, that was by no means my first thing.
Billy Burke:00:06:32
Um, however, it was my first, uh, it was my first, you know, lead in a movie.
Billy Burke:00:06:40
Um, I'd done a ton of stuff before that that didn't get recognized.
Billy Burke:00:06:44
I'd, uh, um, a couple of movies, you know, I did a couple of
Billy Burke:00:06:48
independents while still in Seattle.
Billy Burke:00:06:50
Um, yeah.
Billy Burke:00:06:51
And so before Dill Scallion, uh, there was, uh, I did without limits,
Billy Burke:00:06:56
which was written and directed by Robert town, um, starring crudip.
Billy Burke:00:07:02
Uh, and then I did this other comedy, which was made by the people who do,
Billy Burke:00:07:07
uh, airplane called mafia, which was
Marc Preston:00:07:11
with the Zucker, that team.
Billy Burke:00:07:13
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:07:14
Um, and it was, you know, it was a spoof on the mafia.
Billy Burke:00:07:18
Um, And right after that, because that was a comedy, um, uh, this, this guy,
Billy Burke:00:07:26
Jordan Brady, who, you know, still friend to this day, he, uh, came to me and said,
Billy Burke:00:07:32
would you be interested in doing this?
Billy Burke:00:07:33
So we'd take a look at this.
Billy Burke:00:07:34
And I just read the script and laughed out loud and thought it was, uh, beautiful.
Billy Burke:00:07:39
And.
Billy Burke:00:07:40
It to this day one of the greater experiences i've ever
Billy Burke:00:07:44
had doing anything i mean we
Marc Preston:00:07:47
I mean the cast was kind of the one of the more unique cast.
Marc Preston:00:07:49
I mean you had henry winkler You had willie nelson pete berg, you know,
Billy Burke:00:07:53
yeah lauren graham.
Billy Burke:00:07:55
Um, uh, David keckner who's one of the funniest people on the planet
Billy Burke:00:07:59
who uh, you know Yeah, it was a kind of a magical little cast,
Billy Burke:00:08:05
and we just threw it together.
Billy Burke:00:08:06
I mean, none of the songs were written.
Billy Burke:00:08:08
We got on a tour bus in L.
Billy Burke:00:08:10
A.
Billy Burke:00:08:10
and wrote the songs kind of as we went.
Billy Burke:00:08:15
And the plan was to just shoot everything we could, you know, some
Billy Burke:00:08:20
scripted, some not, uh, all the way to Nashville on this, uh, tour bus.
Billy Burke:00:08:26
So you can imagine it, whatever I was 29, 30 years old.
Billy Burke:00:08:31
It was, uh, it was, it was a great time.
Marc Preston:00:08:34
All you have to say is tour a bus.
Marc Preston:00:08:36
I'm thinking, okay, this was a good, this was a good time.
Marc Preston:00:08:38
You know?
Marc Preston:00:08:38
So it
Billy Burke:00:08:39
gave me, it gave me a little bit of, you know, what I thought
Billy Burke:00:08:42
I should have had back in that day.
Marc Preston:00:08:44
Well, apparently Pete Berg liked the experience, but he brought
Marc Preston:00:08:46
you back to do, uh, uh, Wonderland.
Marc Preston:00:08:49
Uh, he was, he directed Wonderland, right?
Marc Preston:00:08:52
Did he also act in it, I think, if memory serves?
Marc Preston:00:08:55
He
Billy Burke:00:08:55
wrote it, uh, he wrote it, produced it, and directed the pilot
Billy Burke:00:09:00
and, uh, several episodes afterwards.
Billy Burke:00:09:03
But, but, yeah, it would, and, you know, it was the first pilot that I'd
Billy Burke:00:09:08
done that had actually got on the air.
Billy Burke:00:09:10
I had done, I don't know, maybe six, seven, eight pilots
Billy Burke:00:09:15
before that got on the air.
Billy Burke:00:09:17
Um, And that was the first time I'd lived in New York as well.
Billy Burke:00:09:20
So, uh, and we shot it here in New York, but, and it was huge off the bat.
Billy Burke:00:09:26
I mean, the, the numbers that they got back then.
Billy Burke:00:09:30
were nothing comparable to what, uh, what we see today.
Billy Burke:00:09:34
I mean, we opened with massive numbers.
Billy Burke:00:09:37
It was, you know, it was a big splash right off the bat.
Billy Burke:00:09:39
And then I, I don't know what happened.
Billy Burke:00:09:42
The network got scared and, uh, somebody got fired and, uh, and the baby
Billy Burke:00:09:48
went out with the bathwater on that.
Billy Burke:00:09:49
But it was a really, I mean, it's a, it's a show that would
Billy Burke:00:09:51
probably still hold up today.
Billy Burke:00:09:52
It was really ahead of its time.
Marc Preston:00:09:54
Yeah, you know, it's funny that you mentioned the thing, uh,
Marc Preston:00:09:56
when you did the pilot, I have a lot of friends who, uh, they're, they're
Marc Preston:00:09:59
always just cranking on pilot season.
Marc Preston:00:10:01
There's this one thing after the other.
Marc Preston:00:10:02
It's gotta be the biggest, one of the biggest emotional roller coasters.
Marc Preston:00:10:06
You go and it looks like it's going to go.
Marc Preston:00:10:07
It's going to get to the, nope, not going to happen.
Marc Preston:00:10:10
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:10:10
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:10:11
It's, uh, this business is not for the faint hearted.
Billy Burke:00:10:15
It's, uh, I mean, that is, that is how it goes.
Billy Burke:00:10:19
And I, I think.
Billy Burke:00:10:23
All said and done pilot wise, um, I think somebody had told me that, that
Billy Burke:00:10:30
George Clooney had done, you know, 11 or 12 well by The mid 2000s, I'd done 13.
Billy Burke:00:10:39
Um, so in pilot season today doesn't really exist as it used to.
Marc Preston:00:10:46
Well, we don't really run in seasons quite the way.
Marc Preston:00:10:48
I mean, it was always like fall big release.
Marc Preston:00:10:49
Now it's just, they're releasing all throughout the year.
Marc Preston:00:10:52
So we're kind of like, you're never really stopping now.
Marc Preston:00:10:54
You know, it seems like there's always something in production.
Marc Preston:00:10:56
Yeah, there's
Billy Burke:00:10:56
always something in production.
Billy Burke:00:10:58
Um, networks don't operate the way that they, they used to, uh, there's way too
Billy Burke:00:11:04
big a landscape now with, uh, So many streaming services and so much competition
Billy Burke:00:11:09
for people's eyeballs that, uh, it, yeah, it can't work the same way, but
Billy Burke:00:11:15
there's, I think there are still, still some vestiges of, uh, of pilots being
Billy Burke:00:11:22
made, but usually it's like, here's the idea, here's who's attached, it either
Billy Burke:00:11:26
goes straight to series or it doesn't.
Marc Preston:00:11:28
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:11:29
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:11:29
One of the, one of the things I've always admired about you, Matt, the eclectic.
Marc Preston:00:11:32
Choices.
Marc Preston:00:11:33
It's all about making choices.
Marc Preston:00:11:34
But in terms of career though, you've landed in like a really
Marc Preston:00:11:38
nice, eclectic mix of shows.
Marc Preston:00:11:39
Is it just sort of like, just, you know, just, you know, happenstance
Marc Preston:00:11:43
happened to land you there or were you actively going, you know, this is
Marc Preston:00:11:46
something I really want to do, right?
Marc Preston:00:11:48
That
Billy Burke:00:11:48
is, that is mostly luck.
Billy Burke:00:11:53
I mean, unless you get immediately on a, on a fast track that's going
Billy Burke:00:11:57
to take you to a place where you have, um, a multitude of choices.
Billy Burke:00:12:03
It's, It's mostly, it's mostly luck.
Billy Burke:00:12:06
You, uh, you know, you kind of, uh, at some point in time,
Billy Burke:00:12:12
you kind of resign yourself to what is going to come your way.
Billy Burke:00:12:16
There are things that you, you know, that once in a while you
Billy Burke:00:12:19
can hear about and really sort of go after and make a play for.
Billy Burke:00:12:24
But the competition for those things is immense.
Billy Burke:00:12:27
And, you know, you're, you're fighting bigger names all the time.
Billy Burke:00:12:31
And, uh, that's just.
Billy Burke:00:12:34
It's just the way it goes.
Marc Preston:00:12:35
You know, the things you've landed in have always been, like I said,
Marc Preston:00:12:38
it's just very memorable, you know.
Marc Preston:00:12:39
In fact, the kids, I have three teenagers, one just started college
Marc Preston:00:12:43
this year and, but when COVID first kicked off, I mean, they're home and
Marc Preston:00:12:47
we're all just like, okay, well, how are we going to be managing this?
Marc Preston:00:12:49
So it's, of course, online school.
Marc Preston:00:12:51
It's been really fun, hasn't it?
Marc Preston:00:12:53
Yeah, you know, it's been an adventure, you know, and I, I'm lucky I got
Marc Preston:00:12:57
three kids who are smarter than me and they just managed it beautifully.
Marc Preston:00:13:01
But, uh, it was an opportunity to kind of do that, those shows that were out
Marc Preston:00:13:05
when they were a little bit too young.
Marc Preston:00:13:06
I got a, uh, uh, I've got an 18 almost, gosh, he's almost 19, uh, 19, a 17 year
Marc Preston:00:13:11
old son and my youngest daughter is 16.
Marc Preston:00:13:13
And so what we did was like, what can we binge?
Marc Preston:00:13:16
So we went through lost, which is kind of a, kind of a head trip of a show to, to,
Marc Preston:00:13:20
to power through, you know, but we also.
Marc Preston:00:13:22
Cut up at 24 twice, you know, it was one of my, I thought, I thought
Marc Preston:00:13:25
it was just a fun, great series.
Marc Preston:00:13:27
Um, and you've literally done so much.
Marc Preston:00:13:29
I like pop, I'm like, oh yeah, Billy Burke, he was
Marc Preston:00:13:32
right, he was in this episode.
Marc Preston:00:13:33
And that one of my favorite things about that.
Marc Preston:00:13:35
Uh, spin was, was, um, I was talking to somebody about this the other day.
Marc Preston:00:13:39
Some of my favorite roles, some of my favorite people to watch or, or ones
Marc Preston:00:13:42
you watch, even when they don't have dialogue, cause you're wondering,
Marc Preston:00:13:45
okay, what are they going to do?
Marc Preston:00:13:45
What are they thinking?
Marc Preston:00:13:46
You know?
Marc Preston:00:13:47
And that, that character in 24 was, uh, he was a gnarly cat, but
Marc Preston:00:13:52
you didn't quite put it together.
Marc Preston:00:13:53
I mean, that was, how did, I'm curious how that one role came together,
Marc Preston:00:13:57
cause I'm a little bit of a 24 nerd.
Marc Preston:00:13:58
I mean, I'm going to put it out there, Mike, you know, how did that,
Marc Preston:00:14:01
how did that come together for you?
Billy Burke:00:14:04
I don't really remember clearly.
Billy Burke:00:14:06
It was kind of in the thick of, um, some other stuff going on.
Billy Burke:00:14:11
And I don't really remind me if you can, what, what year that even was.
Billy Burke:00:14:16
So I could put it, I think I
Marc Preston:00:14:17
wrote, I made a little note cause I know it's 2002, uh,
Marc Preston:00:14:21
2003, which makes me realize that was.
Marc Preston:00:14:23
Doesn't seem like 20 years ago.
Marc Preston:00:14:26
You know, getting to that age, like, wait a minute, that's 20 years, man.
Marc Preston:00:14:30
Okay, so, uh, but yeah, that, I mean, I know you were busy and things
Marc Preston:00:14:33
were ramping up nicely for you, but I talked to, uh, Reed Diamond, uh,
Marc Preston:00:14:39
and I'm always curious about the experience of shooting that show.
Marc Preston:00:14:42
It was just really fast, 24?
Billy Burke:00:14:47
Um, Well, first of all, by the time I got there,
Billy Burke:00:14:51
they had their machine down.
Billy Burke:00:14:53
I mean, they were, they were clicking real well and, um, just a really
Billy Burke:00:14:59
great atmosphere and, you know, uh, When you, when you, there's big
Billy Burke:00:15:04
differences between working on shows that have certain successes and shows
Billy Burke:00:15:07
that, you know, may just kind of be meandering out there in the atmosphere.
Billy Burke:00:15:11
But, um, but 24 was clicking by then.
Billy Burke:00:15:15
And I don't really remember how it came about, but, uh, but I think that.
Billy Burke:00:15:23
John Kazar, one of the creators, um, I think I met with him and, and he
Billy Burke:00:15:29
sort of told me a little bit about the scope of the character and, and
Billy Burke:00:15:33
the arc and what it was going to do and sounded, sounded great to me.
Billy Burke:00:15:37
And, uh, and so we just kind of dove in, but the, The story that I would tell
Billy Burke:00:15:45
about that is not that you're necessarily looking for stories, but I'm going to
Marc Preston:00:15:51
I'm not going to turn you down, please.
Billy Burke:00:15:54
But, um, so what happened was, is we shot all my episodes and on
Billy Burke:00:16:00
the very last one, I got the script.
Billy Burke:00:16:04
Um, and it was.
Billy Burke:00:16:06
It said something along the lines of he goes searching through his,
Billy Burke:00:16:09
he's in a big rush and he's panicked and he's going searching through his
Billy Burke:00:16:13
house for something, blah, blah, blah.
Billy Burke:00:16:15
And he lifts up a lamp or something like that and finds his stash of,
Billy Burke:00:16:20
I guess, what we assume is meth.
Billy Burke:00:16:24
So, um, unbeknownst to me, I, uh, My character was apparently on meth the
Billy Burke:00:16:32
whole time, and I didn't really know it.
Billy Burke:00:16:35
Really?
Marc Preston:00:16:36
That's okay.
Marc Preston:00:16:37
I need to go re watch this now.
Marc Preston:00:16:39
I know.
Marc Preston:00:16:42
It's kind of like behind the music, but behind 24.
Marc Preston:00:16:45
I always wonder what it's like to shoot that show, because
Marc Preston:00:16:47
there's so much going on.
Marc Preston:00:16:48
You have, um, you know, it just, it was a show that, I think kind
Marc Preston:00:16:54
of at the time it was post 9 11.
Marc Preston:00:16:56
It was just primed.
Marc Preston:00:16:57
I know Kiefer Sutherland's talked about.
Marc Preston:00:16:59
It's like if they come up, can come up with a new script.
Marc Preston:00:17:01
I'm like, maybe they focus on domestic terrorism now.
Marc Preston:00:17:04
God, I don't know.
Marc Preston:00:17:05
But it was definitely you kind of saw the impetus of how that thing took off.
Marc Preston:00:17:09
in the early 2000s.
Marc Preston:00:17:10
And it just was one of those shows.
Marc Preston:00:17:12
You don't know if they could really do a show like, or I don't mean
Marc Preston:00:17:15
the subject matter, but a show that just take off and just catches on
Marc Preston:00:17:18
fire and runs for that many seasons.
Marc Preston:00:17:20
You know, if something gets three seasons nowadays, that
Marc Preston:00:17:22
seems like a long time, you know,
Billy Burke:00:17:24
it's, it is, it is, and has always been, and will probably
Billy Burke:00:17:28
continue to be lightning in a bottle.
Billy Burke:00:17:30
I mean, you, you just, you're, you're putting the best stuff
Billy Burke:00:17:34
out there that you possibly can.
Billy Burke:00:17:35
And, and hoping that, that people get.
Billy Burke:00:17:39
interested about it.
Billy Burke:00:17:41
My, my storyline on that show, um, happened to be, you know, one
Billy Burke:00:17:48
of the B or even C storylines.
Billy Burke:00:17:51
Um, so I didn't really, there wasn't, I didn't experience what, uh, most
Billy Burke:00:17:57
of them experienced on the show with the, with the big stuff going on.
Billy Burke:00:18:01
And the, you know, um, I was, uh, Which I was totally fine with it, by the way.
Marc Preston:00:18:08
Yeah, I think most of the scenes were pretty contained.
Marc Preston:00:18:10
A couple, probably a couple, three locations at the most, like at a house.
Marc Preston:00:18:13
I think, you know, so not a, you weren't as sincere.
Marc Preston:00:18:16
As I remembered, I'm,
Billy Burke:00:18:16
I, I, I feel like I was pretty much just, uh, chasing Alicia
Billy Burke:00:18:21
Cuthbert around the whole time.
Marc Preston:00:18:23
Basically, she was cute, you know, I understand.
Marc Preston:00:18:26
I'm just kidding.
Marc Preston:00:18:26
Um, but no, they, You,
Marc Preston:00:18:35
you've had some fun.
Marc Preston:00:18:35
It's such a resume and done so many things, it's like, okay, you know,
Marc Preston:00:18:39
you've had a chance to work with, I mean, um, got Anthony Hopkins.
Marc Preston:00:18:42
I mean, that's, that's right there.
Marc Preston:00:18:44
It's like, you know,
Billy Burke:00:18:45
it doesn't get a whole lot better than that.
Billy Burke:00:18:47
Right.
Billy Burke:00:18:49
I mean, in terms of a company to be in.
Billy Burke:00:18:52
Right?
Billy Burke:00:18:52
Yeah, indeed.
Billy Burke:00:18:53
Indeed.
Billy Burke:00:18:53
And in that movie that you're speaking of, that's, that's Hopkins and, uh,
Billy Burke:00:18:57
and Gosling all in the same shot.
Billy Burke:00:18:59
So, yeah,
Marc Preston:00:19:00
I think that had to have been pretty soon after it was
Marc Preston:00:19:02
the, the notebook, I think it was, he was still, Ryan Gosling was still
Marc Preston:00:19:06
kind of on fire with that, I think.
Marc Preston:00:19:08
Yeah,
Billy Burke:00:19:09
well, he was, he was catching big fire at that time.
Billy Burke:00:19:12
There's no question about it.
Billy Burke:00:19:13
Um, and, you know, I, You, you can tell when you work with people, you
Billy Burke:00:19:23
know, there's, there's sometimes where you can sort of sense a trajectory
Billy Burke:00:19:27
that's, that's going to happen.
Billy Burke:00:19:29
Um, and that was always pretty obvious, uh, with, with him and he was, you know,
Billy Burke:00:19:34
despite all that, just, Really solid guy.
Marc Preston:00:19:38
Yeah, he's Canadian.
Marc Preston:00:19:39
So he's, you know, real friendly, naturally, you know, the Canadians,
Marc Preston:00:19:43
you know, indeed, indeed.
Marc Preston:00:19:45
Now the, uh, now all along while you're doing this, is music still part of your
Marc Preston:00:19:49
ecosystem, part of the thing you're doing, or is that, or was it, I don't,
Marc Preston:00:19:52
I'm not saying shelved, uh, was it put on pause a little bit while you were
Marc Preston:00:19:56
focusing on what was going on at the time?
Billy Burke:00:20:00
It's, been something that I have never not paid attention to.
Billy Burke:00:20:06
It is just one of those things that, you know, a lot of people talk about,
Billy Burke:00:20:12
uh, the things that, you know, keep them sane or keep them grounded.
Billy Burke:00:20:16
Uh, I suppose if, because I have.
Billy Burke:00:20:20
No better terminology for it.
Billy Burke:00:20:22
That would probably be, that'd probably be it.
Billy Burke:00:20:24
I, I, I do it cause it's there, you know, it's, uh, I, I'm constantly writing songs,
Billy Burke:00:20:34
I'm constantly writing a lot of stuff.
Marc Preston:00:20:37
Are you sticking to one particular genre, or are
Marc Preston:00:20:39
you kind of, or just whatever kind of hits you at the moment?
Billy Burke:00:20:42
No, as a matter of fact, so the, the, the two, you know, self made
Billy Burke:00:20:46
albums that I've, that I've actually released, uh, that are both on Spotify.
Billy Burke:00:20:51
One was kind of a collection of everything that I had built up while I was, uh,
Billy Burke:00:20:57
getting caught up in movies and TV.
Billy Burke:00:21:00
Um, and then years went by, and then I decided I wanted to make,
Billy Burke:00:21:05
you know, a, a music video.
Billy Burke:00:21:07
that kind of, uh, paid some tribute to the stuff that I grew up with.
Billy Burke:00:21:13
Um, so I put that one out and, uh, now I'm doing one that is inspired by, uh,
Billy Burke:00:21:20
a lot of the country influence stuff that, uh, I've always appreciated.
Billy Burke:00:21:26
So that's what, that's what's in the can.
Marc Preston:00:21:29
Yeah, my, my daughter now, my youngest, is just out of the blue, you
Marc Preston:00:21:32
know, I was getting a new, uh, I needed to get a new vehicle, and my daughter's
Marc Preston:00:21:36
like, why don't you get a pickup truck?
Marc Preston:00:21:37
I was like, pickup truck?
Marc Preston:00:21:38
You know, she's as, she's as much of a city girl as they come, and the next
Marc Preston:00:21:41
thing you know, I get the pickup, and I'm like, that doesn't make sense to me,
Marc Preston:00:21:44
you know, I'm from Dallas originally, gotta have a pickup, you know?
Billy Burke:00:21:46
You can't go wrong with one.
Marc Preston:00:21:47
No, now she's like, let's listen to country music.
Marc Preston:00:21:50
I was like, you like country?
Marc Preston:00:21:51
I was like, yeah.
Marc Preston:00:21:51
And, uh, and she said, we're driving and she's like, daddy, did they have like
Marc Preston:00:21:56
country music when you were younger?
Marc Preston:00:21:57
I'm like, Oh baby, bless your heart.
Marc Preston:00:21:58
And I was like, and so I said, okay, now I'm realizing I got Spotify on
Marc Preston:00:22:03
the phone, plugged into the car and I'm like, you know, I'm going to
Marc Preston:00:22:05
go and educate you a little bit.
Marc Preston:00:22:07
I said, tell you what, I'm going to give you a little bit of a
Marc Preston:00:22:09
sample of high school music.
Marc Preston:00:22:13
Brooks and Dunn, uh, Neon Moon.
Marc Preston:00:22:15
I kick it on.
Marc Preston:00:22:16
She starts singing it.
Billy Burke:00:22:17
Dude, I cover
Marc Preston:00:22:18
that song.
Marc Preston:00:22:18
I love it.
Marc Preston:00:22:19
Yeah, and what, she starts singing the song.
Marc Preston:00:22:21
Baby, how the hell do you know this song?
Marc Preston:00:22:23
She's like, it's TikTok.
Marc Preston:00:22:25
Apparently somebody's singing the song in TikTok.
Marc Preston:00:22:27
But, so we went through and just, it's, it's just kind of funny.
Marc Preston:00:22:31
She just, she, she enjoys it.
Marc Preston:00:22:32
I haven't quite gone into the whole Willie thing.
Marc Preston:00:22:35
Thing.
Marc Preston:00:22:36
I mean, that's gotta be part of her, uh, education.
Billy Burke:00:22:38
So many songs have, I mean, through my daughter as well,
Billy Burke:00:22:41
my daughter's 13 and there are so many songs from my youth and, you
Billy Burke:00:22:48
know, early adulthood that she.
Billy Burke:00:22:51
Knows every word to now, um, that she shouldn't, but she does.
Billy Burke:00:22:57
And that is due to tick tock.
Billy Burke:00:22:59
So I guess, uh, no matter how you feel about it, there's one good thing about it.
Marc Preston:00:23:04
I talked to my old radio buddies.
Marc Preston:00:23:05
I'm like, man, what in the world?
Marc Preston:00:23:07
Would people listen to now kids, uh, you know, uh, the impressionable
Marc Preston:00:23:11
age and make them think, God, I want to do that radio thing.
Marc Preston:00:23:13
You know, back when we were young, there was the music, there was
Marc Preston:00:23:16
the personality, but it was, that's how kids discovered music.
Marc Preston:00:23:20
We all had the boom box with a tape ready to go at a moment's
Marc Preston:00:23:23
notice to record that mixtape.
Marc Preston:00:23:25
Uh, but they're all discovering on Spotify and in a way that almost opens up
Marc Preston:00:23:28
a whole other world for them, you know, on demand, they can listen to anything.
Billy Burke:00:23:31
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:23:32
It's.
Billy Burke:00:23:33
It's great for music lovers and appreciators, uh, and for the
Billy Burke:00:23:38
perpetuation of, of music itself, but it has yet to really come to a place
Billy Burke:00:23:46
for musicians and bands and people that's, that's, that's a tough one.
Billy Burke:00:23:51
I mean, yeah, my business is, is tough.
Billy Burke:00:23:54
I'm glad I don't have to make them.
Billy Burke:00:23:57
as a musician.
Billy Burke:00:23:58
It's, that's a weird, weird landscape.
Marc Preston:00:24:01
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:24:01
Now, now they, they used to be the, uh, the, the muse,
Marc Preston:00:24:03
especially on the first album.
Marc Preston:00:24:05
I remember the L the folks got to get out on tour and make their money.
Marc Preston:00:24:08
And then now I think record labels do that all around deal where
Marc Preston:00:24:11
they get a piece of the tour also.
Marc Preston:00:24:12
So, you know, if you got it used to be, you don't make your money until
Marc Preston:00:24:15
you get through your second album.
Marc Preston:00:24:16
Hopefully you get a second album.
Billy Burke:00:24:18
And then your second album usually sucks because that's the
Billy Burke:00:24:21
sophomore slump that everybody expects.
Billy Burke:00:24:23
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:24:24
So what were you listening to?
Marc Preston:00:24:25
You mentioned something about your musical inspirations and that's kind of what
Marc Preston:00:24:27
feed has fed into what your choices on writing and performing, but what were you
Marc Preston:00:24:32
listening to back, uh, back in the day?
Billy Burke:00:24:34
In, well, in which day?
Marc Preston:00:24:36
Well, I mean, when you were coming up as a teenager,
Marc Preston:00:24:38
like what I want to say the word influence is what we heard.
Marc Preston:00:24:40
Like, damn, I, you just want to go pick up a guitar.
Marc Preston:00:24:42
Even if you didn't know how to play, just wanted to kind of,
Marc Preston:00:24:45
you were just like jazzed by it.
Billy Burke:00:24:48
Yeah, well, the stuff I grew up with, the stuff that made me
Billy Burke:00:24:52
interested in music was, um, uh, the songwriters, you know, I would listen
Billy Burke:00:25:01
to my, I'm sure this is the case with a lot of people, but I would listen
Billy Burke:00:25:04
to my mom's music and my dad's music.
Billy Burke:00:25:06
Um, that was constantly playing around the house.
Billy Burke:00:25:09
And so it was, it was the, the James Taylors and, uh, Jim Croce's and, uh,
Billy Burke:00:25:16
uh, the first time I heard, uh, you know, songs, you know, the deeper cuts by Elton
Billy Burke:00:25:24
John that Bernie Taupin wrote with him.
Billy Burke:00:25:26
Like, that's what I was really, I was really into this, that
Billy Burke:00:25:30
sort of, uh, amalgamation of, uh, of words and music together.
Billy Burke:00:25:36
But I was always pretty heavily bent towards the more melodic
Billy Burke:00:25:42
than the more, uh, experimental.
Billy Burke:00:25:45
I appreciate the experimental, but I like a song that, you know, that,
Billy Burke:00:25:51
Sticks to your gut and you can't stop singing after you hear it, you know
Marc Preston:00:25:55
Or somebody just mentions the name of the song and it starts
Marc Preston:00:25:57
playing in your head immediately
Billy Burke:00:25:59
Yeah, and i've noticed that my my daughter actually has
Billy Burke:00:26:01
that sort of Way better than I did my my daughter can hear a song one
Billy Burke:00:26:07
time and she knows the entire chorus I don't know how that happens.
Billy Burke:00:26:12
But uh, is she playing
Marc Preston:00:26:13
instruments right now?
Marc Preston:00:26:14
Are you uh,
Billy Burke:00:26:15
She's she's She's, um, she's becoming a pretty decent drummer.
Billy Burke:00:26:20
Um, that seems to be the one that she is sort of, you know, leaning towards most.
Billy Burke:00:26:27
She plays a little bit of guitar, um, and she sings, um, has yet to, uh,
Billy Burke:00:26:34
sort of, you know, really find, she's a good singer, but she has yet to
Billy Burke:00:26:40
find where her voice really lives yet.
Billy Burke:00:26:44
So I'm hoping that once that happens, she, uh, uh, Comes out and
Billy Burke:00:26:49
you know explodes with something,
Marc Preston:00:26:51
you know, it's funny.
Marc Preston:00:26:52
He's listening to a podcast in a pin Gillette was on it.
Marc Preston:00:26:55
He was talking about his daughter moxie crime fighter.
Marc Preston:00:26:58
I'm like, that's one hell of a Name and then and then I ran across the
Marc Preston:00:27:03
name that you blessed your child with bluesy LaRue I'm like you just you've
Marc Preston:00:27:08
you've birthed a rock star just out of the gate right there that names
Marc Preston:00:27:11
is ready for Album cover, you know
Billy Burke:00:27:15
Could be a rock star, could go a lot of different ways, but, but,
Billy Burke:00:27:19
um, yeah, that's another, that's another thing that just kind of came out of the
Billy Burke:00:27:24
ether, um, wanted, you know, something,
Billy Burke:00:27:30
something musical, um, and something that, you know, said something, so
Billy Burke:00:27:39
the name Blue was played around with.
Billy Burke:00:27:40
And then, uh, we landed on Bluesy and I said, I said to her mother at
Billy Burke:00:27:46
the time I said, uh, if it's going to be bluesy, she's got to have a sing
Billy Burke:00:27:49
songy middle name and heard the blues.
Billy Burke:00:27:52
This all credit to her.
Billy Burke:00:27:53
The first, first one out of her mouth was LaRue and I just went done.
Marc Preston:00:27:57
And it crosses all genres.
Marc Preston:00:27:59
I can imagine a rock country blue, you know, she's kind of at that age.
Marc Preston:00:28:03
Now, now you have a teenager, you know, as my people say,
Marc Preston:00:28:05
Mazel Tov, welcome to the teens.
Marc Preston:00:28:07
Um, how has that, how has that, she, how's she looking at dad doing the
Marc Preston:00:28:10
music thing, doing the acting thing?
Marc Preston:00:28:11
Is she, is she enamored by like, that's really cool.
Marc Preston:00:28:14
Or is she just like.
Marc Preston:00:28:15
You know, whatever about her dad doing this thing.
Billy Burke:00:28:20
I think because we're living in the times we live in and she's
Billy Burke:00:28:23
13 years old, that she is much more influenced by, um, what's going on.
Billy Burke:00:28:31
Uh, In her atmosphere than she is by, by this.
Billy Burke:00:28:37
Now she recognizes what this is.
Billy Burke:00:28:38
She grew up on sets.
Billy Burke:00:28:40
She, you know, she's traveled tons.
Billy Burke:00:28:43
She's got more on her passport.
Billy Burke:00:28:44
Uh, she had more on her passport at 10 years old than I had by the time I was 30.
Billy Burke:00:28:49
Um, so she's, she's lived in that world, but in terms of, I mean,
Billy Burke:00:28:57
and she does appreciate, uh, you know, the fact that I've had some
Billy Burke:00:29:05
success in, in this business, but she's not seen almost any of it.
Billy Burke:00:29:14
Really?
Billy Burke:00:29:15
No.
Billy Burke:00:29:15
She's 13.
Billy Burke:00:29:16
She still hasn't seen the Twilight movies.
Billy Burke:00:29:18
I was, I
Marc Preston:00:29:19
was just about to say, you know, what's really wild is I, I
Marc Preston:00:29:21
know, um, Ian Somerhalder's sister.
Marc Preston:00:29:24
And I was talking with her and I said, you know, it's so funny that, uh, my
Marc Preston:00:29:28
daughter, uh, Emma, my 16 year old has a friend who has a picture of her brother.
Marc Preston:00:29:33
It's a blanket, but it's got a picture of her brother on it.
Marc Preston:00:29:36
I'm like going, I said, isn't that the weirdest thing?
Marc Preston:00:29:37
I said, wait a minute, I'm doing the math on this.
Marc Preston:00:29:40
I was like, you know, uh, vampire diaries was a little while back.
Marc Preston:00:29:44
And from what I gather, kids, uh, the, this teenage group is starting
Marc Preston:00:29:47
to discover a lot of that stuff and they're starting to rediscover twilight.
Marc Preston:00:29:51
Have you noticed that at all?
Marc Preston:00:29:52
Like with your daughter and, uh, her, her tribe.
Marc Preston:00:29:55
Have you noticed that like a twilight's kind of coming
Marc Preston:00:29:57
into their like ecosystem now?
Marc Preston:00:29:59
Have you, has that happened?
Billy Burke:00:30:00
Yeah, it never really went away.
Billy Burke:00:30:03
It's always been hovering there in this sort of, uh, the mist underneath.
Billy Burke:00:30:10
Um, but yes, just very recently in the past year, I mean, Twilight had
Billy Burke:00:30:16
some sort of, uh, resurgence on, on Netflix or one of the streamers.
Billy Burke:00:30:23
Um, and, but it was never because of the juggernaut that that whole series was.
Billy Burke:00:30:32
And it was it.
Billy Burke:00:30:33
It was never really not present.
Billy Burke:00:30:34
I mean, people sort of just kind of found out that, you know, the guy
Billy Burke:00:30:41
who played Charlie Swan was her dad.
Billy Burke:00:30:43
And so there's always been trickles of that everywhere, but yeah, now in
Billy Burke:00:30:49
high school, it's, it's, it's, I just.
Billy Burke:00:30:54
I try to make it the least big a deal that can possibly be, and she goes
Billy Burke:00:31:00
with that, so I'm happy for that.
Marc Preston:00:31:02
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:31:03
When that screenplay landed in your lap and you're looking at it, did you
Marc Preston:00:31:07
kinda, it's like a two part question.
Marc Preston:00:31:08
Did you get what it was supposed to be about out of the gate or, and did you
Marc Preston:00:31:12
also kind of say, okay, this is gonna be so something, this is gonna turn into
Marc Preston:00:31:16
something you, did you have a sense of that or did you kinda look at it like,
Marc Preston:00:31:19
okay, this is gonna be a job I'm gonna knock out here, and what was first blush?
Marc Preston:00:31:23
What was your vibe on it?
Billy Burke:00:31:26
First of all, I didn't get the whole screenplay.
Billy Burke:00:31:29
Um, I had no idea of, uh, what the book series was.
Billy Burke:00:31:35
I had never heard of it.
Billy Burke:00:31:36
Um, I went in to meet Katherine Hardwick, the director of the, of
Billy Burke:00:31:40
the first movie, and we talked a little bit, and then we, we sort
Billy Burke:00:31:48
of read through a couple of scenes.
Billy Burke:00:31:51
Um And as I was leaving, she said, she said, how do you feel about this?
Billy Burke:00:31:59
I'm like, like, I don't know.
Billy Burke:00:32:01
I haven't read the whole script.
Billy Burke:00:32:02
I guess I, she said, go home and Google twilight.
Billy Burke:00:32:08
And so it did.
Billy Burke:00:32:09
And then I, I was like, Oh, this is a, it's a big deal.
Billy Burke:00:32:13
Um, and so I think.
Billy Burke:00:32:17
I mean, I don't know.
Billy Burke:00:32:18
I've heard, of course, a lot of the other, uh, participants and actors
Billy Burke:00:32:23
talk about their experience on the movies and whether or not they thought
Billy Burke:00:32:27
it was going to hit like it did.
Billy Burke:00:32:29
I think I'm the only one who kind of knew I'm the only one who admits it.
Billy Burke:00:32:34
Anyway, I kind of knew, uh, I looked at it like, this is just,
Billy Burke:00:32:38
it's a recipe for absolute success.
Billy Burke:00:32:40
There's no way this is not going to speak to, to, uh,
Marc Preston:00:32:43
To its audience did the adults quote unquote adults were they
Marc Preston:00:32:48
hanging out together and the kids are hanging out together Uh, and I you
Marc Preston:00:32:51
know, I I haven't seen the full series.
Marc Preston:00:32:53
I've seen I think one or two of the me and
Billy Burke:00:32:55
facinelli were the only adults no, with the exception of I
Billy Burke:00:32:59
mean elizabeth reaser and and and some others were there as well, but
Billy Burke:00:33:04
the rest of the you know, the rest of the cast was somewhere between a 18
Billy Burke:00:33:11
and 25 and um So there really was no.
Billy Burke:00:33:17
Uh,
Billy Burke:00:33:20
everybody hung out with everybody when we were on set.
Billy Burke:00:33:23
And if you felt like hanging out, uh, off the set, uh, you may or may not.
Billy Burke:00:33:28
And, you know, I most of the time kind of keep to myself anyway.
Billy Burke:00:33:33
So
Marc Preston:00:33:35
it's so funny that the kids, um, my kids grow up in this era
Marc Preston:00:33:38
where they have these movies, uh, based off books or what, the great movies.
Marc Preston:00:33:41
Don't get me wrong.
Marc Preston:00:33:42
It's just, I'm remembering I'm hitting rewind.
Marc Preston:00:33:44
And I remember back right about the, uh, John Hughes movies, the Brat Pack times.
Marc Preston:00:33:49
And it was kind of when most movies are really crafted
Marc Preston:00:33:52
for adults up to that point.
Marc Preston:00:33:54
You know, you really didn't have teen driven movies for the most part.
Marc Preston:00:33:57
And then all these movies started popping out.
Marc Preston:00:33:59
Like, and of course you had a chance, you spent some time with Rob Lowe, you know,
Marc Preston:00:34:02
and that has to be kind of interesting.
Marc Preston:00:34:04
Cause he was, you know, there was a time when these, you had like.
Marc Preston:00:34:07
That whole Brat Pack thing, that's what I grew up on.
Marc Preston:00:34:10
And there wasn't any, I don't think there were any sci fi or
Marc Preston:00:34:13
kind of movies like that out there.
Marc Preston:00:34:14
So this is, uh, I don't know, it's kind of cool.
Marc Preston:00:34:17
It's a little different.
Marc Preston:00:34:17
It's kind of neat to kind of live vicariously through my kids as they
Marc Preston:00:34:20
experience these movies, you know?
Billy Burke:00:34:22
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:34:23
I think, uh, as far as I can tell, I mean, the Harry Potter series really started
Billy Burke:00:34:27
that entire Uh, movement of like, Oh, if we can get ahold of a, of something
Billy Burke:00:34:33
that can become this kind of franchise, then, then that's probably the way to go.
Billy Burke:00:34:38
That's, you know, and that's where we live today.
Billy Burke:00:34:41
I mean, Marvel rules the world, you know,
Marc Preston:00:34:44
Hey, as an actor, that that's some job security too.
Marc Preston:00:34:46
I mean, I, I remember when I was working at ABC years ago and I was
Marc Preston:00:34:50
interviewing somebody that was there.
Marc Preston:00:34:51
In fact, I was interviewing John Favreau when he did a movie called PCU.
Marc Preston:00:34:54
I mean, we're going way back.
Billy Burke:00:34:56
Oh, I sort of remember that.
Billy Burke:00:34:57
I don't remember seeing it, but I sort of remember that.
Billy Burke:00:34:59
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:34:59
He played a character called gutter, who was the kind
Marc Preston:00:35:02
of stoner guy at a university.
Marc Preston:00:35:04
It was back there's politically correct university.
Marc Preston:00:35:06
It was Jeremy Piven played kind of the, the, the main dude.
Marc Preston:00:35:11
Uh, but he said, listen, he said, you know, whenever a
Marc Preston:00:35:13
show raps, I'm out of work.
Marc Preston:00:35:15
Technically, I was like, and it just kind of just registers.
Marc Preston:00:35:17
Oh, yeah, until you get another gig, you're out of work, you know So these kind
Marc Preston:00:35:21
of movies that you know, you're gonna get two or three films out of that's that's
Marc Preston:00:35:25
some security That must be kind of nice.
Billy Burke:00:35:27
Yeah, and even then you don't know.
Billy Burke:00:35:29
I mean, I like I said, I I was pretty sure that the first film would have
Billy Burke:00:35:33
some success but uh You know, do you know that it's going to have the
Billy Burke:00:35:37
kind of success that is definitely going to catapult it into the making
Billy Burke:00:35:41
the rest of the, of the movies?
Billy Burke:00:35:43
You don't know that.
Marc Preston:00:35:44
It, yeah.
Marc Preston:00:35:45
Cause you, you don't have that crystal ball.
Marc Preston:00:35:47
Certainly.
Marc Preston:00:35:48
If you look at kind of the arc of, you know, you've done
Marc Preston:00:35:50
the films, you've done TV.
Marc Preston:00:35:51
Is there any preference in your mind on the workflow?
Marc Preston:00:35:54
Like, okay, TV, I can stay close to home.
Marc Preston:00:35:56
I, you know, do you have a preference?
Billy Burke:00:36:00
I, I have a tendency to.
Billy Burke:00:36:05
On the whole, I have a tendency to, uh, get more involved probably than anybody
Billy Burke:00:36:12
would prefer me to when it comes to the content and the writing and the actual,
Billy Burke:00:36:17
what we put on film or, uh, digital image.
Billy Burke:00:36:22
Um, so indie films were always like a playground, you know, whenever an
Billy Burke:00:36:28
indie film would come along, it would be just, you know, Even if it was not
Billy Burke:00:36:32
a great script, it would, it would be a place where you could kind of do stuff
Billy Burke:00:36:38
that, uh, wasn't on the page, you know?
Billy Burke:00:36:41
And then there are places that are very stringent.
Billy Burke:00:36:43
Stringent and, uh, where the work environment is very like, uh,
Billy Burke:00:36:48
this is, this is what we do and these are the rules on this show.
Billy Burke:00:36:51
And, you know, I don't get along very, very well with rules and . So
Marc Preston:00:36:58
it was, uh, like, kinda like, um.
Marc Preston:00:37:01
Oh God, it did West Wing.
Marc Preston:00:37:02
Um, I, I'm vapor locking on the, uh,
Billy Burke:00:37:06
good example.
Marc Preston:00:37:06
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:37:07
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:37:07
So, because every word is there for a reason, it carries its own
Marc Preston:00:37:11
weight and you gotta, you know,
Billy Burke:00:37:12
and for what it is, it works.
Billy Burke:00:37:14
I mean, that's Aaron, so Aaron Sorkin works that way.
Marc Preston:00:37:17
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:37:17
You, you like being able to kind of float in the moment and kind
Marc Preston:00:37:21
of riff a little bit, you know?
Marc Preston:00:37:23
Is that kind of the way you prefer to, to work?
Marc Preston:00:37:25
Usually,
Billy Burke:00:37:26
I, I have to be able to, I gotta be able to.
Billy Burke:00:37:31
Um, because the words that are on the page are there and they're there
Billy Burke:00:37:37
for a reason to, you know, show you who the character is and move
Billy Burke:00:37:41
the plot along and stuff like that.
Billy Burke:00:37:42
But, but I gotta be able to work with them and massage them a little bit.
Billy Burke:00:37:48
Um, otherwise it feels really uncomfortable and false.
Billy Burke:00:37:52
And I, I just don't like it.
Billy Burke:00:37:55
I've never been in an, uh, I've never had to work in an environment
Billy Burke:00:38:01
that's apparently that strict.
Billy Burke:00:38:03
I don't know.
Billy Burke:00:38:03
I've never worked on a Sorkin show, but there are, I know that there are
Billy Burke:00:38:08
Places like that, where it's very important that every word is the word.
Billy Burke:00:38:12
Um, I don't know how I would get along in that.
Billy Burke:00:38:16
Um, uh, I suppose if, you know, if one is doing Shakespeare, one
Billy Burke:00:38:22
has to sort of stick to the text, but, uh, I, I, I don't know how
Billy Burke:00:38:31
this guy works in that environment.
Marc Preston:00:38:34
Well, it's almost like music, you know, it's kind of jazz.
Marc Preston:00:38:36
You gotta, you know, kind of riff a little bit.
Marc Preston:00:38:46
Now, I know my son and I back when he's 17, not back when he was 7, 8, 10.
Marc Preston:00:38:51
years old or so.
Marc Preston:00:38:52
We got really into Revolution.
Marc Preston:00:38:54
He loved that show.
Marc Preston:00:38:55
So we dug it.
Marc Preston:00:38:56
And that's one of those shows.
Marc Preston:00:38:57
I'm like, man, well, that's that
Billy Burke:00:38:59
audience seemed to be pretty big on that show.
Billy Burke:00:39:01
But by the way, I mean, it was like, you know, it was it was preteen to
Billy Burke:00:39:06
teen boys that really dug that show.
Billy Burke:00:39:10
And then and then it jumped to like an older crowd from there.
Billy Burke:00:39:13
In terms of demo, um, but it doesn't surprise me that your seven year old
Billy Burke:00:39:18
at that time was, was into it, yeah.
Marc Preston:00:39:20
Speaking of Jon Favreau, that was, wasn't J.
Marc Preston:00:39:22
J.
Marc Preston:00:39:22
Abrams involved in that as well?
Marc Preston:00:39:24
He
Billy Burke:00:39:24
was, he was the exec producer on that, yeah.
Marc Preston:00:39:26
Yeah, that was, that was just kind of a fun, just one
Marc Preston:00:39:28
of the shows like, ah, I wanted a few more seasons out of it.
Marc Preston:00:39:30
But, you know, it's like that thing, it's like
Billy Burke:00:39:32
We did too!
Marc Preston:00:39:34
Yeah, you know, you got those shows out there that
Marc Preston:00:39:36
are, um, I think sci fi ish stuff.
Marc Preston:00:39:39
Seems to be the one thing, it's, it's, it's a little more finicky.
Marc Preston:00:39:42
There are a lot of great shows that seem to end a season or two too early,
Marc Preston:00:39:46
but they were sci fi based, you know, but there's definitely one enjoyed it.
Marc Preston:00:39:49
In fact, I was, uh, I auditioned at least a couple, three times for zoo.
Marc Preston:00:39:54
And when I, I was like, I only got pieces of the script and I was like, I didn't,
Billy Burke:00:40:00
What?
Billy Burke:00:40:02
When did you do this?
Marc Preston:00:40:03
Oh, uh, back in, was it 2050?
Marc Preston:00:40:08
Oh, I'd be like a day player.
Marc Preston:00:40:09
I wasn't, I wasn't doing anything, uh, certainly I wouldn't be a regular.
Billy Burke:00:40:12
Were you living in, in New Orleans or Vancouver?
Billy Burke:00:40:15
Yeah, I'm
Marc Preston:00:40:15
here right now, in fact.
Marc Preston:00:40:16
Yeah, in New Orleans and, uh.
Billy Burke:00:40:18
Oh!
Marc Preston:00:40:19
So, yeah, that's, uh,
Billy Burke:00:40:20
that totally makes sense.
Marc Preston:00:40:22
Oh, I show up in all kinds of random stuff shot
Marc Preston:00:40:24
here, but, uh, but no, I know.
Marc Preston:00:40:25
In fact, I have friend of mine, Terry Weibel acted with you, I think
Marc Preston:00:40:28
a couple, a few times on that show.
Marc Preston:00:40:29
And she said, Oh, he's so sweet.
Marc Preston:00:40:31
He's so nice.
Marc Preston:00:40:32
He's such a nice guy, you know?
Marc Preston:00:40:33
So I was like,
Billy Burke:00:40:34
well, she's a liar.
Marc Preston:00:40:36
Well, she's, she's, she's, she's diplomatic.
Marc Preston:00:40:38
Uh, it was funny that when I got this, I couldn't quite get my head around.
Marc Preston:00:40:43
What is this supposed to be?
Marc Preston:00:40:44
Because even if you're a day player, week player.
Marc Preston:00:40:47
You're really not getting, uh, the full scope of what's going on.
Marc Preston:00:40:50
And when I saw it, I was like, what the hell is this all?
Marc Preston:00:40:52
This seems like fun.
Marc Preston:00:40:53
Um, I think I did a callback and I was about as far as I got with that.
Billy Burke:00:40:57
Well, I wish I had known you at the time.
Billy Burke:00:40:58
I could have, I probably could have swung something for you.
Marc Preston:00:41:02
Well, I'll put that in my pocket for later.
Marc Preston:00:41:05
It's, it's worth a muffaletta, maybe some beignets for you.
Marc Preston:00:41:07
Something I'll throw, throw a little lanyard your way.
Marc Preston:00:41:10
I
Billy Burke:00:41:11
was about to say too.
Billy Burke:00:41:12
So yeah, the.
Billy Burke:00:41:13
We didn't either, if this is where your question is going.
Billy Burke:00:41:16
We didn't, uh, week to week, script to script, we didn't have a clue
Billy Burke:00:41:22
what was about to happen either.
Billy Burke:00:41:25
I mean, it, it's, and I'm sure you hear this all the time from actors,
Billy Burke:00:41:28
uh, on television shows that you just, you, you get scripts and you go, oh,
Billy Burke:00:41:34
well, That, that's what we're doing.
Billy Burke:00:41:39
This is
Marc Preston:00:41:39
the ride we're taking now.
Marc Preston:00:41:40
All right.
Marc Preston:00:41:41
Okay.
Marc Preston:00:41:41
But it was, it was a, it was a very cool idea.
Marc Preston:00:41:44
And it's, it's, I see, I sometimes wonder when I watch shows going, okay,
Marc Preston:00:41:49
would that show a couple of years later have more of an opportunity to take
Marc Preston:00:41:53
off because just whatever reason is it, you know, did it find the right time?
Marc Preston:00:41:56
And I just thought it was such a cool idea.
Marc Preston:00:41:59
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:41:59
I've seen some shows since then, as a matter of fact, that that made
Billy Burke:00:42:05
me kind of think for a second, like, well, had we done that and been there in the,
Billy Burke:00:42:11
you know, in the time that we're in right now and, uh, had that been acceptable and
Billy Burke:00:42:16
perhaps had the show not been on a, uh, a network, um, um, we'd have been able to
Billy Burke:00:42:26
get away with some things that would have made it You know what it could have been
Marc Preston:00:42:33
Um, you know, I think as a streamer that would do really well
Billy Burke:00:42:36
Yeah as a network show it did as well as as it could I think on
Billy Burke:00:42:40
a network, you know selling commercial television time um, but in order to do
Billy Burke:00:42:47
what what I and probably a lot of other people thought it could have done without
Billy Burke:00:42:53
those restraints, um, it Yeah, it could have gone a lot of really cool places.
Marc Preston:00:42:58
I think that's kind of, I was talking to a director the other day,
Marc Preston:00:43:01
uh, Ariel Roman, and we were talking about the, with Netflix and all the streamers
Marc Preston:00:43:06
and his idea is that you're basically going to get these big companies are
Marc Preston:00:43:08
going to be aggregating together and they're going to be creating their own
Marc Preston:00:43:11
content and you've got to subscribe.
Marc Preston:00:43:12
It's, it's, it's not like the wild west, but the rules are changing a little bit.
Marc Preston:00:43:15
He said, but right now there's so much work and so many opportunities.
Marc Preston:00:43:20
Um, but like a show like that, I think would just be golden if they
Marc Preston:00:43:24
were on Netflix, uh, you know, You know, no restrictions at all.
Marc Preston:00:43:27
It would have been, uh, I thought it was great as it was.
Marc Preston:00:43:30
Don't get me wrong, but, uh,
Billy Burke:00:43:31
yeah, I know exactly what you're saying and there's no, there's
Billy Burke:00:43:34
no offense going to be taken about that.
Marc Preston:00:43:36
Well, my daughter, I have yet to see it.
Marc Preston:00:43:38
I told my daughter, Lily, my 19 year old, I says, watching as me speaking with
Marc Preston:00:43:41
him, she's like, Oh yeah, he's on made.
Marc Preston:00:43:43
I put that in the bank of shows.
Marc Preston:00:43:44
I'm still have yet to watch.
Marc Preston:00:43:45
There's so much stuff out there to catch up on.
Marc Preston:00:43:47
I said, well, I'm watching nine one, one lone star.
Marc Preston:00:43:49
And she's like, okay, good.
Marc Preston:00:43:50
Well, you can't, I'm watching that too.
Marc Preston:00:43:51
So we both.
Marc Preston:00:43:52
Have that in comment.
Marc Preston:00:43:53
I'm going to watch made here shortly, but you're obviously staying busy,
Marc Preston:00:43:57
you know, so 911 that shot in.
Marc Preston:00:44:00
It was supposed to be in Texas shot in LA.
Marc Preston:00:44:02
Um, those kind of episodic things where you're coming in.
Marc Preston:00:44:05
Um, and you know that you got an established team there.
Marc Preston:00:44:08
Is that is that ever, uh, not uncomfortable, but is it.
Marc Preston:00:44:12
Is it something you're, you're, you're, you're comfortable stepping in?
Marc Preston:00:44:14
You got an established cast, you're coming in for an arc.
Marc Preston:00:44:17
Is that, is that still cool for you?
Marc Preston:00:44:19
Or are you kind of prefer to be a, you know, one of the primary characters?
Billy Burke:00:44:22
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:44:23
I, um, like I said, on 24, when I stepped into that, I mean, the
Billy Burke:00:44:26
machine had already been working so well and everybody was gelling and it
Billy Burke:00:44:30
was a really comfortable atmosphere.
Billy Burke:00:44:32
The difference in COVID times is vast.
Billy Burke:00:44:36
Okay.
Billy Burke:00:44:36
Um, it is just, you know, if you allow it to.
Billy Burke:00:44:41
The masks and the testing and all this stuff, it will suck
Billy Burke:00:44:45
the fucking joy right out of it.
Billy Burke:00:44:47
You know?
Billy Burke:00:44:48
So you've got to be, you know, you gotta be mindful of, of that and
Billy Burke:00:44:54
put that caveat on it all the time.
Billy Burke:00:44:56
That said, the first time I stepped onto the Lone Star set, I mean, just
Billy Burke:00:45:02
beautiful people all around, like such a lovely environment and their machine
Billy Burke:00:45:07
was running really, really well as well.
Billy Burke:00:45:09
Um, and, you know, And the character itself, again, I didn't really
Billy Burke:00:45:15
know where it was going to go.
Billy Burke:00:45:16
I had an idea, you know, they, they talked about, you know, who he was and that there
Billy Burke:00:45:22
was going to be, you know, certain red herrings and, and twists involved, but the
Billy Burke:00:45:28
experience on that has been mostly that I've just had such a fun time with him.
Billy Burke:00:45:34
You know, he's a, he's, he's so unpredictable.
Marc Preston:00:45:38
I was about to say that you don't know, kind of like, okay,
Marc Preston:00:45:41
these guys seems like the, I'm going all the way back to you, the other
Marc Preston:00:45:45
characters, even the unpredictable.
Marc Preston:00:45:48
Go even go back to 24, even still.
Marc Preston:00:45:49
That's one of the things I love.
Marc Preston:00:45:50
And I really admire about your work is you do have that, uh, your, the,
Marc Preston:00:45:54
the, uh, I put like a Gary Oldman or a, uh, Sam Rockwell, people you just
Marc Preston:00:46:00
like to look at and watch and just watch them think with no dialogue.
Marc Preston:00:46:03
They're just equally as interesting.
Marc Preston:00:46:05
And, and you had plenty of opportunities in that, you know, where you're kind
Marc Preston:00:46:08
of like, how's he going to react?
Marc Preston:00:46:09
What's he going to say?
Marc Preston:00:46:09
Is he going to be the good guy?
Marc Preston:00:46:10
Like I said, it's, it's, it's certainly fun to watch it.
Marc Preston:00:46:13
That's, you know,
Billy Burke:00:46:14
first of all, thank you.
Billy Burke:00:46:15
That's good company.
Billy Burke:00:46:16
Um, Gary Oldman, again, one of the.
Billy Burke:00:46:20
I mean, not only in the pantheon of greats, but, uh, again, it's just
Billy Burke:00:46:26
a really super sweet, genuine guy.
Billy Burke:00:46:30
I, I did a movie with Gary Oldman.
Billy Burke:00:46:32
I mean that, you know, that nobody, I mean, some people saw, but, uh,
Billy Burke:00:46:38
directed by Katherine Hardwick, who, uh, Who did the first Twilight movie?
Billy Burke:00:46:42
Oh, yeah, that's right.
Billy Burke:00:46:43
That's right.
Billy Burke:00:46:44
Yeah, it was a Red Riding Hood.
Billy Burke:00:46:45
That's Yeah And you know, it was what it was but but I
Billy Burke:00:46:52
did a movie with Gary Oldman.
Billy Burke:00:46:54
There it is
Marc Preston:00:46:55
Yeah, that's something that bugs me.
Marc Preston:00:46:56
I don't speak to Ariel Roman I he directed him and with Kevin Costner
Marc Preston:00:47:00
in criminal and I was like, I meant to ask one question What asked Gary Olman?
Marc Preston:00:47:03
What's it like to be directing?
Marc Preston:00:47:05
Yeah, I'm like crap.
Marc Preston:00:47:06
I'm like two seconds later.
Marc Preston:00:47:07
I'm like, God, I forgot to ask that question, but kind of as we're wrapping
Marc Preston:00:47:11
up here, and I appreciate you being so generous with your time, most
Marc Preston:00:47:13
certainly, but, um, but you know, what I like to do is kind of wrap up
Marc Preston:00:47:16
whenever I talk with folks, the, um, some call my Preston's lucky seven.
Marc Preston:00:47:20
I just like to throw out seven questions.
Marc Preston:00:47:21
I think it's just kind of, kind of a fun way to find out a little
Marc Preston:00:47:24
bit of insight beyond all the, all the, who is this like the actor's
Billy Burke:00:47:27
studio thing?
Marc Preston:00:47:28
You know what?
Marc Preston:00:47:29
Uh, you know, I'm not going to say I'm nearly as eloquent as, uh, as him.
Marc Preston:00:47:33
Uh, but I'm also not gonna go, you know, Barbara Walters and ask you what kind
Marc Preston:00:47:37
of tree you would be, so I'm not gonna, uh, but what, what is, first question,
Marc Preston:00:47:40
what's your favorite comfort food?
Marc Preston:00:47:42
The thing you just like, man, when it comes down to snacking or it's like
Marc Preston:00:47:45
when you're just chillin with it, you just gotta, you just, okay, this is,
Marc Preston:00:47:47
I'm gonna chill at home and eat it.
Billy Burke:00:47:49
So easy.
Billy Burke:00:47:50
Um, uh, My favorite food of all time is, uh, Vietnamese soup.
Billy Burke:00:47:56
Some call it pho, but we know the, I guess pho is right, um, but we still
Billy Burke:00:48:04
call it pho because it's more fun to say.
Billy Burke:00:48:06
Um,
Marc Preston:00:48:09
uh, so that's
Billy Burke:00:48:09
it.
Marc Preston:00:48:09
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:48:10
God, I'm hungry right now.
Marc Preston:00:48:11
Now you're sitting there making me think.
Marc Preston:00:48:12
It's like, I don't know.
Marc Preston:00:48:13
We're trying to decide what to do with, um, my kids for dinner tonight.
Marc Preston:00:48:15
I could eat it any
Billy Burke:00:48:15
time of day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, doesn't matter.
Marc Preston:00:48:18
No, that's one thing I love watching Anthony Bourdain and,
Marc Preston:00:48:20
uh, he, he was, I got turned on to the idea of eating something like that, but
Marc Preston:00:48:24
for breakfast, but have it be spicy.
Marc Preston:00:48:25
That's a, you know, in America we always have something sweet, but that's actually
Marc Preston:00:48:29
kind of a cool way to start the day.
Marc Preston:00:48:30
Like a hot soup is kind of spicy, you know, and it'll look
Marc Preston:00:48:33
in a cup of coffee after, but
Billy Burke:00:48:34
done it many times, my friend,
Marc Preston:00:48:37
um, now, okay, next question, three people, you're
Marc Preston:00:48:40
going to have a cup of coffee and you're going to sit down with them.
Marc Preston:00:48:42
Uh, who would those three people be, uh, for you?
Billy Burke:00:48:45
Uh, I always go back to music and most of my,
Billy Burke:00:48:56
um, well, a lot of my favorites are, happen to be actors as well.
Billy Burke:00:49:04
Uh, Tom Waits.
Marc Preston:00:49:07
Oh, and oh indeed.
Marc Preston:00:49:07
Yeah, he's a great at both both actor and uh, and a musician you cover both
Billy Burke:00:49:11
He's
Marc Preston:00:49:12
just a
Billy Burke:00:49:12
magical human being.
Marc Preston:00:49:14
I want to hear a documentary that he narrates I would
Marc Preston:00:49:17
love to hear a documentary come out.
Marc Preston:00:49:18
It just I just be glued to it the entire time
Billy Burke:00:49:21
Oh, yeah, anytime he opens his mouth.
Billy Burke:00:49:23
It's just it's there's there's poetry coming out.
Billy Burke:00:49:26
It's great So Tom Waits the late David Bowie
Billy Burke:00:49:33
Would be on the list Also a great actor in his right.
Billy Burke:00:49:37
I don't know speaking of vampires, by the way Oh indeed kids out there haven't
Billy Burke:00:49:42
you know, if they're thirsting for some vampire movies and want to see no pun
Billy Burke:00:49:46
intended One of the best one of the yes One of the best vampire movies ever
Billy Burke:00:49:51
made the hunger made back in I think 79 or 80 Uh, with, uh, him and Susan
Billy Burke:00:49:59
Sarandon and, uh, it's, it's so awesome.
Billy Burke:00:50:03
Anyway.
Billy Burke:00:50:04
So Tom and Dave, um, I guess the third one is going to be Barack Obama for me.
Marc Preston:00:50:16
He's shown up a couple of times.
Marc Preston:00:50:17
Uh, yeah, he's, uh, I think that.
Marc Preston:00:50:20
People that have a story to tell, I think that would be, or, or have
Marc Preston:00:50:23
a unique way of seeing the world.
Marc Preston:00:50:25
That's gotta be the best people to sit down with.
Billy Burke:00:50:26
But also, he just seems like a fucking cool guy, you know?
Billy Burke:00:50:30
I like hanging out with cool people.
Billy Burke:00:50:33
Yeah, speaking of, speaking of,
Marc Preston:00:50:34
uh, I Bourdain a moment ago.
Marc Preston:00:50:36
Did you see, there was an episode where he happened to be in Vietnam.
Marc Preston:00:50:39
And, and Obama happened to be there at the same time.
Marc Preston:00:50:42
They connected, and they sat down, and they had a bowl of pho.
Marc Preston:00:50:44
And I'm like, what?
Marc Preston:00:50:46
I was like, you know, there's some things you can't fake.
Marc Preston:00:50:47
You can't fake a certain level of being that genuine, you know, and disarmed.
Marc Preston:00:50:51
I'm like that.
Marc Preston:00:50:52
He would be a lot of fun.
Marc Preston:00:50:53
I'm going to put him on my list.
Marc Preston:00:50:55
Um, now, okay.
Marc Preston:00:50:55
Who was your celebrity crush when you were a kid?
Marc Preston:00:51:00
Uh,
Billy Burke:00:51:01
had several, um,
Billy Burke:00:51:05
um, and you know, I, I think you and I are around the same age, so, um, this
Billy Burke:00:51:10
is going to date us both, but, uh,
Billy Burke:00:51:18
I, you know, I How old was I in the late 70s?
Billy Burke:00:51:24
Um, when Charlie's Angels was on.
Billy Burke:00:51:27
Um, you know, I was 12.
Billy Burke:00:51:32
Yeah, something.
Billy Burke:00:51:33
Um, so, all the angels, pick one.
Billy Burke:00:51:39
Um, that was But, but did you have the poster I had the first poster
Billy Burke:00:51:45
I had was, uh, was Cheryl Teagues.
Marc Preston:00:51:48
Oh, Cheryl T.
Marc Preston:00:51:49
Okay.
Marc Preston:00:51:49
Okay.
Marc Preston:00:51:49
So I was going to go see, uh, Farrah Fawcett has come up once already.
Marc Preston:00:51:53
Yeah,
Billy Burke:00:51:53
but she was like, she was, I mean, and God bless her.
Billy Burke:00:51:56
She was awesome and continued to be so awesome, uh, after that show.
Billy Burke:00:52:01
But, uh, I feel like even at that age, I felt that was too typical.
Billy Burke:00:52:06
I had to go, you know, in a slightly sideways direction.
Billy Burke:00:52:09
You and I think a lot
Marc Preston:00:52:10
alike.
Marc Preston:00:52:10
Okay, I like that.
Marc Preston:00:52:11
Like, you know, I haven't heard anybody say Olivia Newton John yet, but that
Marc Preston:00:52:14
was kind of, she was up there, uh, something that the Australian accent
Marc Preston:00:52:17
mixed in there was mesmerizing.
Marc Preston:00:52:19
Sure.
Billy Burke:00:52:21
I mean, I, I can see that.
Billy Burke:00:52:23
I guess, you know, when Greece came out, that was, uh, that would have
Billy Burke:00:52:26
been a direction to move in as a kid, my age, but, uh, probably,
Billy Burke:00:52:33
Probably too wholesome for me.
Marc Preston:00:52:37
Well, I, again, we have a lot in common.
Marc Preston:00:52:40
Uh, now next question is, um, uh, you're okay.
Marc Preston:00:52:44
You get up morning definition of a perfect day for you.
Marc Preston:00:52:47
It's just like, all right, this is how I want to live my day and everything.
Marc Preston:00:52:50
Smooth as silk, man.
Marc Preston:00:52:51
It goes perfectly for you.
Billy Burke:00:52:54
Um, well, first of all, I, I would prefer to
Billy Burke:00:52:59
have, um, you know, something.
Billy Burke:00:53:04
Even though I don't like schedules, I would prefer to have something
Billy Burke:00:53:08
that day that had to get done so that I knew that I had to, but you
Billy Burke:00:53:14
know, let's face it in this life, most days are, are not like that.
Billy Burke:00:53:19
So I would say on a perfect day.
Billy Burke:00:53:24
And I live in New York now, so this isn't really, um, That possible, especially
Billy Burke:00:53:29
with the weather recently, I would get up, get on my motorcycle, go for a ride,
Billy Burke:00:53:37
go have some pho, pho, um, uh, come back, uh, and start fiddling on guitar and,
Billy Burke:00:53:53
um, and then probably help my daughter finish homework and, uh, Hang out with
Billy Burke:00:54:01
her a little bit and, uh That would be it.
Marc Preston:00:54:03
She was going to school in New York?
Marc Preston:00:54:05
She is now, yeah.
Marc Preston:00:54:06
That's one hell of an interesting place.
Marc Preston:00:54:07
Everybody I've ever talked to or know that, uh, musician, or anybody that
Marc Preston:00:54:12
grew up in New York, it's definitely an ecosystem, an interesting place for a
Marc Preston:00:54:17
kid to kind of, you know, take in stuff.
Marc Preston:00:54:19
So, you know, I was a suburban kid in North Dallas growing up,
Marc Preston:00:54:24
so it's definitely intriguing to me to be like, what's that
Marc Preston:00:54:27
experience like for a kid, you know?
Billy Burke:00:54:29
Yeah, I was such a, uh, you know, sort of suburban, but
Billy Burke:00:54:36
you know, Washington state's weird.
Billy Burke:00:54:37
It's, you know, I always consider myself coming from, you know, the,
Billy Burke:00:54:43
the roots of a little bit of white trashness, just that sort of, you
Billy Burke:00:54:50
know, that sort of, I mean, we, I actually did live in that world where.
Billy Burke:00:54:55
I don't care where you go, just be back at a certain time.
Billy Burke:00:54:58
And I mean, I had a lot of freedom as a kid.
Billy Burke:00:55:01
You can't have that with your kid here.
Billy Burke:00:55:03
It just doesn't happen.
Marc Preston:00:55:04
It, I never remember my parents saying the same thing to me to a
Marc Preston:00:55:07
degree, but man, I, I, the freedom I had, uh, and I, and, and to even think about
Marc Preston:00:55:13
my kids going to my son driving it, I trust my kids implicitly, but it's, it's
Marc Preston:00:55:16
everybody else that I got to, you know, you see other people, other people out
Marc Preston:00:55:20
there in the world that you don't know.
Marc Preston:00:55:22
And, you know, it's, uh, one thing to trust your kid, but man, I tell you, by
Billy Burke:00:55:26
the way, to make the motorcycle analogy, it's the
Billy Burke:00:55:29
same thing with a motorcycle.
Billy Burke:00:55:30
I trust myself.
Billy Burke:00:55:31
I'm fine.
Billy Burke:00:55:32
I'm going to be fine.
Billy Burke:00:55:33
It's all the, it's all the other fuckers out there who are like,
Billy Burke:00:55:35
you are not paying attention.
Billy Burke:00:55:37
You know,
Marc Preston:00:55:38
I, you know what, I, I've always been intrigued
Marc Preston:00:55:40
at the motorcycle thing.
Marc Preston:00:55:41
I did learn how to fly, but I, I kind of felt like I got a lot of
Marc Preston:00:55:44
space between me and other people and it's controlled space, you know,
Marc Preston:00:55:47
but you and Keanu Reeves got, got.
Marc Preston:00:55:49
You know, I think he's probably living that dream at
Marc Preston:00:55:51
loving bikes, making his own.
Marc Preston:00:55:53
I mean, that's kind of cool.
Marc Preston:00:55:54
Um,
Billy Burke:00:55:54
yeah, that's pretty cool.
Marc Preston:00:55:56
Now, last two questions.
Marc Preston:00:55:58
You're both musician, actor, desert Island, one year,
Marc Preston:00:56:01
taking one album, one DVD.
Marc Preston:00:56:04
What are you going to bring with you that you're just not going to tire of?
Marc Preston:00:56:06
You're going to be cool watching it over and over and listening
Marc Preston:00:56:08
to it over and over again.
Billy Burke:00:56:11
Uh, that's one album, one DVD, right?
Billy Burke:00:56:14
Yes, sir.
Billy Burke:00:56:17
Um,
Marc Preston:00:56:19
I know this is kind of like a Sophie's choice for you.
Marc Preston:00:56:21
I know that, but yeah.
Billy Burke:00:56:22
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:56:23
Uh, the, the album is going to be a toss up between, um, between
Billy Burke:00:56:36
Elton John's greatest hits back in the seventies, not the later ones,
Billy Burke:00:56:42
the very first greatest hits album.
Billy Burke:00:56:46
Um, and.
Billy Burke:00:56:51
And probably Tom Waits Small Change.
Billy Burke:00:56:56
Uh, those would be the two top that I would have to wrestle
Billy Burke:00:57:01
with while I'm on the island.
Billy Burke:00:57:03
I'd have to throw one away, but I'll take both and throw one in
Billy Burke:00:57:07
the fucking ocean if I have to.
Billy Burke:00:57:09
Um, the, uh, the top DVD, the movie, right?
Marc Preston:00:57:13
Yes, sir.
Billy Burke:00:57:14
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:57:16
Well, my lifelong number one has always been Willy Wonka
Billy Burke:00:57:19
and the Chocolate Factory.
Billy Burke:00:57:21
Um, but At this point, I've seen it so many times that I wouldn't
Billy Burke:00:57:28
need to bring it with me so I can keep that in my memory.
Billy Burke:00:57:30
Um, uh,
Billy Burke:00:57:35
oddly, the other movie that sticks out in my mind is my, I, I've got a lot
Billy Burke:00:57:40
of favorite movies, obviously, but the one that sticks in my mind in recent
Billy Burke:00:57:44
years that I just think is genius in so many ways is Blue Valentine.
Marc Preston:00:57:51
Really?
Billy Burke:00:57:52
Yeah.
Billy Burke:00:57:52
I think that's one of the most honest depictions of a relationship
Billy Burke:00:57:57
I've ever seen in a motion picture.
Marc Preston:00:57:59
God, I'm brain farting on the actor.
Marc Preston:00:58:01
That's Gosling and, um,
Billy Burke:00:58:04
uh, and why am I blanking on her name?
Billy Burke:00:58:09
We all know who she is.
Billy Burke:00:58:10
I've always
Marc Preston:00:58:11
done this thing where I try to remember a name.
Marc Preston:00:58:12
I mean, I get, I mean, it's like, I've been out hanging out with people.
Marc Preston:00:58:15
My brain goes, Oh, you're trying to access that name.
Marc Preston:00:58:17
Are you?
Marc Preston:00:58:17
No, you're not.
Marc Preston:00:58:19
Yeah.
Marc Preston:00:58:19
But Gosling, he is such.
Marc Preston:00:58:21
He's another guy.
Marc Preston:00:58:22
He's just kind of fun.
Marc Preston:00:58:23
Just kind of watch like just kind of his His kid just when he and
Marc Preston:00:58:27
Steve Carell were in that that
Billy Burke:00:58:29
it's magic
Marc Preston:00:58:30
You know, he's just his his physicality just the guy
Marc Preston:00:58:33
just all right This is who he's gonna be and then he disarms for
Marc Preston:00:58:37
Steve Carell's, you know daughter.
Billy Burke:00:58:39
That's a another movie I've seen a jillion times Yeah,
Billy Burke:00:58:44
Carell's another one of those guys who just he's he's just so unique and
Billy Burke:00:58:52
so Uh, I just appreciate him so much.
Marc Preston:00:58:56
Oh, and both on both and dramatic, both that and comedy, most,
Marc Preston:00:58:59
most certainly, you know, anything Judd Apatow has done with him in it, I'm,
Marc Preston:00:59:03
I'm just going to put that on like a big DVD set and bring that to the island.
Marc Preston:00:59:06
The 40
Billy Burke:00:59:07
year old virgin changed the, it absolutely changed the game of adult.
Billy Burke:00:59:12
Comedies did it not right?
Billy Burke:00:59:15
Yeah, I was dry landscape and all of a sudden that came out and then it was like
Billy Burke:00:59:19
Oh, it's okay to make this movie again
Marc Preston:00:59:21
again.
Marc Preston:00:59:21
Yeah, we need and it's kind of gone away a little bit And he's come back again.
Marc Preston:00:59:25
I think I think Judd Apton.
Marc Preston:00:59:26
He's got there making more of those movies.
Marc Preston:00:59:28
Just that's absurdly funny rated r movies that I miss, you know,
Billy Burke:00:59:33
the kind of movies that I, you know, that made me want to be
Billy Burke:00:59:36
that not, you know, they weren't as extreme back then, but you know, all
Billy Burke:00:59:41
the best stuff, music and movies were, was made in the seventies, by the way.
Billy Burke:00:59:44
Um, so, you know, the smoking, the bandits and cannonball runs.
Billy Burke:00:59:49
And, you know, those kind of pictures made for adults.
Marc Preston:00:59:53
Oh, the best, the best part of those movies were the outtakes.
Marc Preston:00:59:56
The best part.
Marc Preston:00:59:56
I remember you being a kid.
Marc Preston:00:59:57
My parents would take me to movies I probably shouldn't have gone to.
Marc Preston:01:00:00
Uh, but I was like the smoking, I mean, uh, Burt Reynolds was just
Marc Preston:01:00:05
who he was, especially when he was married to Lonnie Anderson.
Marc Preston:01:00:07
He was just like on fire.
Marc Preston:01:00:08
There was, he was his own like thing.
Marc Preston:01:00:10
Yeah.
Marc Preston:01:00:10
I don't know if there's anybody been as bigger in that time.
Billy Burke:01:00:13
Oh, and.
Billy Burke:01:00:13
You should really, like, go back and, and look at some, uh, YouTube,
Billy Burke:01:00:18
some, uh, some interviews with him and Johnny Carson, uh, I mean,
Billy Burke:01:00:22
there was nobody doing what he did.
Billy Burke:01:00:24
There was nobody who had the abandon that this guy had.
Billy Burke:01:00:27
He was like
Marc Preston:01:00:28
When he showed up on a panel on Carson
Billy Burke:01:00:30
Yep.
Billy Burke:01:00:31
I'm a movie star.
Billy Burke:01:00:33
Yeah, it was It was, that was just great shit.
Billy Burke:01:00:35
It was kinda
Marc Preston:01:00:36
like, he was kinda like, fuck you.
Marc Preston:01:00:37
You know who I am.
Marc Preston:01:00:38
I'm gonna come here.
Marc Preston:01:00:38
Have some fun with you.
Billy Burke:01:00:39
He was the reason.
Billy Burke:01:00:41
Yeah.
Billy Burke:01:00:41
When I was a kid, he was the reason when I saw smoking in the Bandit
Billy Burke:01:00:44
for the first time, he was the rea.
Billy Burke:01:00:45
I just, I, I looked at that movie and I looked at him and
Billy Burke:01:00:48
I was like, that guy's had.
Billy Burke:01:00:49
Way too much fun.
Billy Burke:01:00:50
I want to do that.
Marc Preston:01:00:52
You know, I identify with Jerry Reed a lot.
Marc Preston:01:00:53
I mean the guy and his dog
Marc Preston:01:00:58
Well last question here you got you jump into Deloria and your cruiser
Marc Preston:01:01:03
back when you're 16 What piece of advice and guidance are you thinking?
Marc Preston:01:01:07
I needed to hear that when I was 16 So I'm gonna zip back and tell myself that
Billy Burke:01:01:14
Well, let's establish first that I I don't
Billy Burke:01:01:18
Live with laments or regrets.
Billy Burke:01:01:21
Um, but, um,
Billy Burke:01:01:27
I probably would have told myself to be less.
Billy Burke:01:01:37
I don't know if I can encapsulate this in a word.
Billy Burke:01:01:40
So let's just say as my life and career have gone on, I could
Billy Burke:01:01:46
have made choices that would have put me in a different place.
Billy Burke:01:01:51
easy choices for other people to make.
Billy Burke:01:01:54
Um, but for me, we're just not the right choice.
Billy Burke:01:01:58
Um, I, I don't do well at self promotion.
Billy Burke:01:02:02
I don't do well at, um, at, you know, like this right now
Billy Burke:01:02:08
that we're doing, it's cool.
Billy Burke:01:02:09
Cause we're just talking and that's fine, you know?
Billy Burke:01:02:12
And so I guess the advice that I would have given myself is that, um, you
Billy Burke:01:02:17
know, maybe be more open to things that.
Billy Burke:01:02:21
Could perhaps give you more and different opportunities as opposed to
Billy Burke:01:02:25
shunning them because you don't want to.
Billy Burke:01:02:31
Do them, you know,
Marc Preston:01:02:33
yeah, you know, it's, I don't, I, I, I'm the same way.
Marc Preston:01:02:36
You can't really live with regrets, but it's, uh, it's one of those things
Marc Preston:01:02:39
where if you're enjoying where you're at now, it took all those screw ups.
Marc Preston:01:02:43
And I mean, you learn, you know, when they say something, I
Marc Preston:01:02:46
don't want to mess up the quote.
Marc Preston:01:02:47
They say, uh, a captain doesn't learn how to be a captain in calm seas,
Marc Preston:01:02:50
you know, in that kind of a thing.
Marc Preston:01:02:52
So, um, But no, man, my friend, uh, I appreciate you being so generous
Marc Preston:01:02:56
with your time, and I'm glad we had a chance to, uh, uh, to connect.
Marc Preston:01:02:59
Uh, one last question.
Marc Preston:01:03:00
What do you got?
Marc Preston:01:03:01
What's, what's up next?
Marc Preston:01:03:02
Anything on the, uh, in the pipeline that's gonna be coming out soon, or?
Billy Burke:01:03:06
Um, nothing coming out soon.
Billy Burke:01:03:08
We're actually, as we speak right now, as I'm, uh, as soon as I get off this, uh,
Billy Burke:01:03:14
podcast with you, I'm, uh, going to be talking to the Team we're in negotiations
Billy Burke:01:03:21
for, uh, for something right now.
Billy Burke:01:03:23
Um, so we'll see what happens.
Billy Burke:01:03:26
Um, but, uh, yeah, but there's nothing in the pipeline right now.
Billy Burke:01:03:31
That's going to, that's, uh, that's about to come out.
Marc Preston:01:03:34
Well, very cool, my friend.
Marc Preston:01:03:35
Uh, I'll keep my fingers crossed for it to be a good thing for you.
Marc Preston:01:03:37
Thank you.
Marc Preston:01:03:41
Oh, there you go.
Marc Preston:01:03:42
Billy Burke.
Marc Preston:01:03:43
Pretty cool guy, huh?
Marc Preston:01:03:45
I tell you he's he's one of my favorite working actors.
Marc Preston:01:03:48
He is one of those guys You see show up and you're you're just glad to see him.
Marc Preston:01:03:52
Okay.
Marc Preston:01:03:52
Tell you what?
Marc Preston:01:03:53
Don't forget story and craft pod Dot com head to the site once again story and
Marc Preston:01:04:00
craft pod Dot com all the social media goodness is there and don't forget to
Marc Preston:01:04:06
subscribe Like and subscribe and all that kind of fun stuff to the show.
Marc Preston:01:04:09
Um, next week, another great show going to have a great chat
Marc Preston:01:04:13
and hope you're part of it.
Marc Preston:01:04:15
I know it's a new show and I thank you so much for taking the time to check it out.
Marc Preston:01:04:20
And of course, if you want to shoot off a note and say howdy and
Marc Preston:01:04:24
just kind of give your feedback.
Marc Preston:01:04:26
By all means, shoot an email to hello at storyandcraftpod.
Marc Preston:01:04:32
com.
Marc Preston:01:04:33
And, uh, once again, I'm Mark Preston and I will check you next
Marc Preston:01:04:37
time right here on Story Craft.
Announcer:01:04:40
That's it for this episode of Story Craft.
Announcer:01:04:42
Join Mark next week for more conversations.
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Right here on Story Craft.
Announcer:01:04:47
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