BILLY BURKE DOES THE ACTING SHUFFLE

Life has gotten kind of surreal for Billy Burke.

One day he’s doing the painful ‘Scallion Shuffle’ dance as aspiring country star Dill Scallion, then the next he’s fighting animatron Dragons in the upcoming Disney feature “Komodo”. Just another week in the life for this lanky, raven haired actor. Originally from Seattle, the 32 year old Burke wanted a career in music, but the Seattle grunge movement took the shine off his pop chart aspirations. He then spent years crisscrossing the country from New York to LA and back again doing endless auditions. But persistence is the name of this game, and the roles have started to two-step in for Burke.

“This lead role in Dill Scallion came pretty fast,” says Burke while taking a long Marlboro drag in the red velvet back lounge of the Dill tour bus. “I got the role on Friday and Monday morning we were on the bus driving to Nashville.”

The film Dill Scallion had been shopped around by director/writer Jordan Brady for several years. As the country music version of “Spinal Tap”, Brady had to convince both investors and the country music industry that it was indeed a comedy that didn’t take too hard a jab at it’s subject. Its’ documentary style had a low budget, as most of the filming was done on locations along the way from LA to Nashville at country bars, county fairs, borrowed offices and cameo appearances by Travis Tritt, LeAnn Rimes and Willie Nelson. They even managed to crash Country Fest in Texas, the largest country festival of them all. Brady pushed Burke on stage during a set break just to get shots of him in front of the enormous crowd. The biggest cost was the bus itself, an authentic tour bus that sleeps 8, festooned with trailer park lights shaped like jalapeno peppers.
Burke spent two months in the bus during the filming, writing songs and shooting scenes along the way The crew is once again along for the ride as the group hits a dozen or so film festivals across the US, including Sundance and New York.

Burke’s film roles have included parts in “Without Limits:, “Jane Austen’s Mafia” and TV’s “Party of Five” and “Star Trek”. An ABC TV show is up next for mid-season 1999–tentatively called “Bedlam” about a psychiatric hospital in New York.”it’s “one Flew Over The Cukoo’s Nest” meets ‘Chicago Hope’,” says Burke. “it’s written and directed by Peter Berg of ‘Chicago Hope’. It’s very heavy duty, he’s amazing even with his twisted vision. I’m thrilled that I’m involved with it. When I saw the pilot I thought Wow, this is too good to be true. It’s set in New York but from may experience there are more crazy people in L.A.,” he says with a laugh. “It’s hard to be grounded and get motivated there when you’re in a car all the time. That’s why I keep moving around.” Hitting the big screen this fall is “Komodo”, a Disney produced feature that finds Burke explaining ‘It’s big animatronic lizards! It’s meant for kids but I think adults will like it too, lots of special effects. It’s the only chance I’ll ever have to run around an island with a gun shooting lizards. We shot in the cane fields of Australia.”

The on the move Burke is still single and has no kids.

“Oh I’m not prepared for any of that yet,” he says a bit shyly. “i’m still a kid myself and I think I have the mentality of a 12 year old sometimes. I don’t know what will happen. If I get surprised then beautiful, but I’mhaving a good time right now. I have some movies I’m looking at doing this summer before the TV show starts, but if they don’t happen I’m going to play golf out West and record some of my music. But I’ll tell you, right now I’m having the time of my life.”

 – Sandra Schulman