Tours including Burn After Reading
Explore Washington D.C.'s famous TV & movie locations!
Tours that feature Burn After Reading
D.C. TV & Movie Tour
What People are Saying
“This tour was very entertaining. Our guide was a hoot. You still get to see DC, but in a different light.”
- Female, Age 50-59, Domestic Tourist
“On Location Tours’ Washington DC TV and Movie Sites tour is not like your usual guided trip around the city…”
-Washington Post, Sept. 2009
Burn After Reading is a black comedy written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Burn After Reading was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards.
Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), a CIA analyst quits his job at the agency after being demoted for a drinking problem and then decides to write a memoir about his life in the CIA. His wife (Tilda Swinton) is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), and wants a divorce from Osborne; as part of her defense, her divorce lawyer tells her to copy Osborne’s personal and financial files off his computer and onto a CD. That disc then mistakenly falls out of the lawyer’s receptionist’s purse at the gym. Chad (Brad Pitt) and Linda (Frances McDormand), two gym employees, happen upon the CD and try to turn it into cash by selling the disc back to Osborne. After a blackmail attempt and a 
bloody nose, Chad and Linda (who also happens to be having an affair with Harry Pfaffer) decide to bring what they think is the top-secret disc to the Russian embassy. After realizing they are short on information, Linda and Chad decide to break into Osborne’s house to extract more of his secrets. This leads to a string of hilarious and violent events culminating in the CIA scratching their heads as to how they ever even got themselves into this mess in the first place.
Filmed on location in New York City and Washington DC, you’ll be able to see locations from Burn After Reading on two tours offered by On Location Tours. Take the New York TV & Movie Tour and drive past Sunshine Cinema, the movie theater where Harry and Linda went to see a Durmot Mulroney film together (even though it was supposed to be in Washington DC!). And on the DC TV and Movie Sites Tour, visit Georgetown, the neighborhood where the Osbornes and his wife live.
A decision was made at the outset that, although several exteriors for Burn After Reading would be shot on location in Washington, D.C., where the story takes place, the majority of the action would be filmed in the New York area. One major factor in the decision was that the Coens wanted remain close to home and their families; another was that Clooney was working on another project in and around New York.
New York and New Jersey
Principal photography on Burn After Reading began in Manhattan, in a downtown law firm which stood in for the D.C. offices of Katie Cox’s lawyer. The film then moved to Paramus, New Jersey, where all the scenes at Hardbodies Fitness Center – the gym where Linda, Chad, and Ted work – were filmed. At an abandoned building that had until recently housed a Tower Records, the crew transformed the newly emptied space into a working gym. The makeover was so realistic that several Paramus residents walked in and went up to the reception desk to inquire about membership.
The production crew next went to New Rochelle, where both exteriors and interiors of Harry’s Chevy Chase, MD residence were filmed. Scenes were also shot in Westchester for a sequence set at a Chesapeake Bay Yacht Club; in Manhattan, at Club Macanudo, a cigar smokers’ club; in Manhattan’s Riverside Park; and on the grounds of Bronx Community College, for the exterior/entrance of the Russian embassy.
In and around Brooklyn Heights, a succession of townhouses stood in for the Coxes’ swanky Georgetown residence. The neighborhood was made to look very convincingly like Georgetown by painting the brownstones various colors.
Washington D.C.
After New York, the crew traveled to Washington, D.C. for a few days to capture locations that couldn’t be duplicated or re-created, including the Washington Mall, near the reflecting pool in between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, in the vicinity of the World War II Memorial. Scenes were also shot on the Key Bride over the Potomac River, and at the Tidal Basin.
The Coen Brothers
Known for their screwball comedies (like Raising Arizona and The Hudsucker Proxy) as well as their more hardboiled films (like Miller’s Crossing and Blood Simple), the Coen brothers have been making films together for over twenty years. They have won numerous Academy Awards for their films No Country for Old Men, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Fargo.
* In an effort to stay current, we are constantly updating our tours with new locations and cannot guarantee the presence of locations mentioned on our site. If you have a particular interest in locations from a specific TV show or movie, please let your tour guide know and we will do our best to accomodate your request.
Advance purchase required - tours usually sell out in advance!
Get more information, check availability, and buy tickets online:
On Location TV & Movie Tours
Or to purchase tickets by phone, call Zerve at (212) 209-3370.