A violent bigot seeks to turn his life around in Director Andrew Heckler’s redemption drama, Burden.
Heckler’s film tells the true story of Mike Burden, an orphan raised within the Ku Klux Klan, who eventually becomes a local Grand Dragon. After he is persuaded to leave by his girlfriend, the Klan seeks him out for vengeance and a black congregation led by a benevolent reverend take him, his girlfriend and her son in.
On January 31, Heckler discussed the making of Burden in a DGA Virtual Q&A moderated by Director Reinaldo Marcus Green (Joe Bell).
During the conversation, Heckler spoke about preparing his lead actor, Garrett Hedlund, to play his real-life character.
“I took Garrett to meet [the real Mike Burden],” recalled Heckler. “It was brutal for Garrett and Garrett was sort of like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ And I said, ‘Throw it away. You’re not playing Mike Burden you’re playing the character on the page as you understand him.’ But I said, ‘Trust me. You’ve now breathed him in and that will pay dividends.’”
Burden is Heckler’s directorial debut. He has been a DGA member since 2016.
You can listen to Heckler's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.
About the DGA Virtual Q&A Program
Mirroring the ever-popular DGA Membership Screening Q&A program in the virtual space, DGA Members can now learn more about films directly from the filmmakers in this series of livestreamed conversations.
