january / february 2007:

Kibbitz Cover Boy: Billy Ray

By Esther D. Kustanowitz



Billy Ray, the scribe behind the critically acclaimed Shattered Glass (which he also directed) and the successful Flightplan has a new movie, Breach, starring Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, and Laura Linney being released this month. And although AJL had many questions for the writer/director, there’s one question we get out of the way immediately. What’s the deal with his name?

“My name is a curse,” he acknowledges. “I’ve known this for a long time, and always asked my parents ‘what were you thinking?’” Turns out, it’s not an homage to the country star responsible for perpetrating “Achy Breaky Heart” on an unsuspecting America. Ray explains that he is named for his uncle Willy Burns, whose famous brother George Burns (who portrayed the deity in three films) changed his name from Nathan Birnbaum to go into show business. Which essentially makes Billy Ray the Lord’s nephew.

Divine providence or good fortune, Ray is carving out a place for himself in contemporary cinema. A native of California, who began his writing career with an episode of The Jetsons, Ray’s newest film, Breach, tells the story of Robert Hanssen, an FBI operative suspected of spying for the Russians, and the young associate who investigates him. While his films are different, all deal with major characters who cannot be trusted, and others who try to discern the deception and uncover the truth. “It’s a screenwriting 101 rule,” Ray reveals. “You make a movie interesting by infusing it with subtext. A character says one thing and means something else. When it’s a story about a person who lies, every word of the screenplay means something else. That’s just gold for a writer — the story is just handed to you.”

Just like his new film. “Hanssen worked in a world where people deceive one another as an article of faith, even with one another.” Although the movie is based on a true story, much of it is not in the public record. Once the FBI knew Hanssen was their mole, they assigned a 26-year-old kid (Eric O’Neill, played by Ryan Phillippe) to gather information. The real O’Neill, as a consultant on the film, aided Ray in his quest for authenticity. “For me, the movie is about O’Neill. He comes in thinking he knows what he thinks. But because of his relationship with Hanssen, he is forced to reevaluate how he feels about his religion, career, and marriage. The experience of getting to know him and then betraying him changes O’Neill on all those levels.”

As much as anything else, the filmmaker notes, he does seem to “gravitate toward stories about integrity,” which, he’s sure, goes back to his upbringing. “When you’re Jewish, a certain world view is definitely part of your DNA,” says Ray. “It has to do with the ethics of the universe.”


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