There's no business like show business, and Charlie Mattera knows it all too well. As we cozy up in our private lounge, we're swapping tales that traverse the spectrum of Hollywood life—from the shared ache of rejection to the warm buzz of camaraderie that fuels our creative fires. Our stroll down memory lane takes us back to the legendary Pro Gym, where stars like Cindy Crawford and Kate Beckinsale blended into the background, and to our cherished moments with the one-and-only Ryan O'Neal. Charlie's stories are not just fascinating on several levels, but a testament to the genuine connections that weave through the tapestry of the movie industry.
Sometimes life scripts a plot twist that even Tinseltown couldn't dream up. We sit with bated breath as we absorb the transformative journeys of redemption and reinvention. From a former inmate's candid account of his path to personal liberation to the mentorship found in the unlikeliest of places—a prison cell, we're reminded that it's never too late to rewrite your narrative. The raw emotion of these life lessons challenges our preconceived notions and celebrates the resilience of the human spirit. And lest we forget, we also uncover the magic of his first sold script—cue the drama of "Bloodfist III."
Our lounge is echoing with laughter and poignant reflections as we wrap up an episode that's as multifaceted as the guests who grace our mic. We've felt the pulse of Hollywood's heartbeat, witnessed the towering strength of human transformation, and shared in the exhilarating rush of carving out success against all odds. Charlie's insights are as captivating as they are enlightening, offering a glimpse behind the curtain at the humanity that fuels the stars we admire. So draw the curtains, settle in, and prepare for a behind-the-scenes journey that's as authentic as it is inspiring. This is part 1 of Charlie Mattera's story.
Thank you for stopping by. Please visit our website: All About The Joy and add, like and share. We'd appreciate that greatly. Also, if you want to find us anywhere on social media, please check out the link in bio page.
Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth
DISCLAIMER: As always, please do your own research and understand that the opinions in this podcast and livestream are meant for entertainment purposes only. States and other areas may have different rules and regulations governing certain aspects discussed in this podcast. Nothing in our podcast or livestream is meant to be medical or legal advice. Please use common sense, and when in doubt, ask a professional for advice, assistance, help and guidance.
There's no business like show business, and Charlie Mattera knows it all too well. As we cozy up in our private lounge, we're swapping tales that traverse the spectrum of Hollywood life—from the shared ache of rejection to the warm buzz of camaraderie that fuels our creative fires. Our stroll down memory lane takes us back to the legendary Pro Gym, where stars like Cindy Crawford and Kate Beckinsale blended into the background, and to our cherished moments with the one-and-only Ryan O'Neal. Charlie's stories are not just fascinating on several levels, but a testament to the genuine connections that weave through the tapestry of the movie industry.
Sometimes life scripts a plot twist that even Tinseltown couldn't dream up. We sit with bated breath as we absorb the transformative journeys of redemption and reinvention. From a former inmate's candid account of his path to personal liberation to the mentorship found in the unlikeliest of places—a prison cell, we're reminded that it's never too late to rewrite your narrative. The raw emotion of these life lessons challenges our preconceived notions and celebrates the resilience of the human spirit. And lest we forget, we also uncover the magic of his first sold script—cue the drama of "Bloodfist III."
Our lounge is echoing with laughter and poignant reflections as we wrap up an episode that's as multifaceted as the guests who grace our mic. We've felt the pulse of Hollywood's heartbeat, witnessed the towering strength of human transformation, and shared in the exhilarating rush of carving out success against all odds. Charlie's insights are as captivating as they are enlightening, offering a glimpse behind the curtain at the humanity that fuels the stars we admire. So draw the curtains, settle in, and prepare for a behind-the-scenes journey that's as authentic as it is inspiring. This is part 1 of Charlie Mattera's story.
Thank you for stopping by. Please visit our website: All About The Joy and add, like and share. We'd appreciate that greatly. Also, if you want to find us anywhere on social media, please check out the link in bio page.
Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth
DISCLAIMER: As always, please do your own research and understand that the opinions in this podcast and livestream are meant for entertainment purposes only. States and other areas may have different rules and regulations governing certain aspects discussed in this podcast. Nothing in our podcast or livestream is meant to be medical or legal advice. Please use common sense, and when in doubt, ask a professional for advice, assistance, help and guidance.
You have such great reception, wherever you are Well you're going to stand like that the whole time.
Charlie Mattera :Hey, I was going to walk around the neighborhood.
Carmen Lezeth:I love this, for us this is Chase Bank. Ok, but you're not going to get tired because you know we're going to talk about some stuff. I don't care, ok, so first, let me just say welcome to the private lounge, charlie Matera. I created this for people like you who never are able to meet with me on Thursday night, so I appreciate you doing this. I do.
Charlie Mattera :Well, you know I'm working all week and then you know I'm having the nonstop disappointments of whatever audition or thing you didn't get, or whatever callback you didn't get, or whatever it might be. So that's just like oh no no, it's not.
Carmen Lezeth:That's what I'm saying. We all are in that boat, so I don't want to turn around and make it like you know what I mean. I was trying to make it easier for people. So I love this for us and I'm glad you're doing this for me. I appreciate you being so supportive, but so Well, you're such a New Yorker with the, with the chewing gum.
Charlie Mattera :Because I remember, I know that O'Neill used to say to me he goes, look at this guy. We're like watching a movie. He'd go, look at this. He'd say who's the director? I go. What? He goes? Who's the? Who's the unit production manager? He goes. You guys freaking chewing gum in the movie. Figuring is not to get that out of there. Ok, wait.
Carmen Lezeth:So do you want to talk about Ryan? And then that could be a conversation.
Charlie Mattera :I don't mind. I could talk about everything, but I could talk about Ryan.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, no, no, I mean because we lost him in December and I know you and Ryan O'Neill were pretty close.
Charlie Mattera :Let me tell you something, probably one of the funniest, craziest people I've ever met in my whole life. I had a lot of laughs with him. You know there were times I wanted to. You know I wanted to geeky, geeky and look at a chocom, you know. But you know most of the time he was the big brother I really never had. You know.
Carmen Lezeth:How did you guys meet? I never heard the story of how you guys met.
Charlie Mattera :I walked into his gym. He used to have the gym in the club.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh my god yes, in San Vicente, Not San.
Charlie Mattera :Vicente.
Carmen Lezeth:It was off of Montana right.
Charlie Mattera :Remember it was called Pro Gym. You know what that means. Yep, wait, I'm sorry. Volume OK, ok, I'm losing you.
Carmen Lezeth:You're going in and out a bit. Maybe you should go back in your car. You're going in and out now.
Charlie Mattera :That meant Patrick Ryan O'Neill Pro Gym.
Carmen Lezeth:Can I just tell you I was sitting there trying to figure out how I met him. Yeah, I could not remember how I had met him, and that's right. I was a member of the gym for like a minute.
Charlie Mattera :Well, everybody, and his mama was in that gym. You know what I mean. You'd walk in there to go work out and there was Cindy Crawford. It was like Caleb Deschanel. There would be the guy I forget his name, Kate Beckinsfield. There would be a heart-pounding, the door.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, because it's the neighborhood. It's the neighborhood we live in.
Charlie Mattera :Well, no, not only that, that gym was sort of a sanctuary for the entertainment crowd, because they knew they could go there and it wasn't a hassle and, truthfully, they would be around their own kind in a lot of ways and everybody was kind of wouldn't.
Charlie Mattera :It was like you didn't mention it. It was the funniest thing, because when I used to work out in there, the bigger the star you were, the more I would just like I would see you. I'd be working out at the gym and I'd look over and I'd see you, or I'd walk past you and I'd go and they think I was going to go like hey, you know, hey, you want to give me that 20 pounder, right, I'd walk past them like they were ghosts.
Carmen Lezeth:You know what's so funny? I really did forget that he had it just hit me when you just said that, but I forgot that that's where I had met him. So weird.
Charlie Mattera :I remember I went and I went in that gym thinking, you know, maybe I might run into somebody with the fuck, you know, sell the screenplay, get a gig, you know.
Carmen Lezeth:I don't know. Are you serious? Why are you joined?
Charlie Mattera :Well, I lived right there and I said you know, if I'm trying to get working the entertainment business, wow, and I just go join that gym. Everybody and his mom is in there. You know, fuck, trying to get, I never spoke to anybody in our neighborhood?
Carmen Lezeth:I don't ever, you know how you did it.
Charlie Mattera :You know my boy, todd, who I write with Todd Newman. He's very talented director. He directed the documentary about Dave Navarro called Morning Son. You know the guitar player Dave Navarro. Rock and roll guy.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah.
Charlie Mattera :It's a hell of a picture called Morning Son, about his life and what he went through growing up and tragedy and holy shit. I don't know how the guy functions after what he went through as a kid His mom got killed by a boyfriend of hers, his mom and his mom's best friend and he was literally in school and came home to this. You know, and he knew the guy, he was very freaky, yeah, so the documentary talks about that and then he actually goes to San Quentin this guy's on death row and goes and visits him and faces him. You know, for the first time in like 20 something years, the guy who killed his mother.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my.
Carmen Lezeth:God. Ok, I do have to watch that.
Charlie Mattera :I told him I was like Dave, God bless me. I don't know how you do that, but you know, great guy, great guy. It's funny because a lot of people are who are enamored of celebrities and when you meet them, a lot of them are just, you know, just regular people. Yeah, they're just banging nails. You know, it's just a job. And if they the best ones, the best ones. I think the most talented ones seem to have been people before they ever got into the business.
Charlie Mattera :Of course they had real jobs, Right, Right, you know I met one guy I'm not going to say his name, but he's a big star now and this guy was literally working to destruction. You know, with me up on a roof.
Carmen Lezeth:Right Somewhere.
Charlie Mattera :Until one day I was doing some bullshit horror movie, this crazy horror movie, and Ryan was going to do it with me. He wanted to do it with me. No, the only reason why he wanted to do it with me? Because he didn't want to stay home. He goes what are you doing? I said I want to do this horror movie. He goes well, they need some. I said wait, wait, give me. He said you know it's a million dollar price. He goes what the fuck? We'll go, hang out. They'll pay us. You know he goes we'll chill out. You know we'll smoke.
Charlie Mattera :See, he was so cool like that he was so cool, so you know how great it was. Like I would be on the set of a film and they go.
Charlie Mattera :God, we need to die in his 60s, got a good look, was cool, was good acting I would say I got a guy for that. And they go Charlie, come on, get the fuck out of here. I go, wait, wait, let me make a phone call and I reach out to her. He goes hey, ryan, you want to work? And he goes Ryan, what are you doing? And they go this is it. And they would go, ryan, who? I go Ryan O'Neill. And they go what I go? Yeah, yeah, I said Ryan, I'll tell you what. I'll have him send the car by the house, small, right, pick you up, I'll be in it, me, and you will go. We'll go have some fun, shut the fuck up. And they get off the phone, these guys. And they go.
Charlie Mattera :Man, how are we going to pay him? It's Ryan O'Neill. I said I already spoke to him about that. He said take the money and give it to the old actors home. You know this is what he would do and he would come work with me for like two, three days and we would literally be in tears, correct, the whole time. Even in it he was one of those guys. This is what's great about movies you can watch a shit movie. You can watch any shit movie and you look in the background not just the 56th guy in the back and you go. You know what this movie sucks, but that guy is awesome, he's got something.
Charlie Mattera :That guy's worked. He's going to go somewhere and we would always have fun finding that guy. And we would always have fun finding that guy that, whatever in the film world that we would do, and I go, I'd say, right, he go, you're not kids, not bad, I go, he's pretty good. Huh, he goes. Hey, come to come on in here some coffee with us, you know, and this is what I would do and come in. Oh, she's Mr O'Neill, you know he goes first. Look, take a picture with me, show it to your mom. I'm sure your mom will freak out. He goes. My back color.
Charlie Mattera :Oh he's cool, you're not right. You know, man, believe me, nobody else wants to be me right now, like my friend Kimmy. My buddy, Kimmy Talbot, is a Boston, southie guy and we would do in love letters, me, Rye and Ali, like 11 cities and we go to Boston and I go a ride.
Charlie Mattera :No, he said to me. He said to me it was your boy, timmy Talbot. Isn't he up here? He goes, the guy you said. I said, yeah, yeah, timmy's here. I said he said, come up. So I called Timmy, I left you and I spoke to him in like a year and a half, two years. He's like hey, charlie, how's it going? I go, I go. I go. Well, you're hanging out with Dooley Patty, you know. And he starts laughing and he goes no, it's not. I go. You know we're doing the play right. He goes. I saw the posters all over town. I said, well, right here, and he's like hey.
Charlie Mattera :Timmy and then Jimmy, he goes. Get your mom, get your aunt, get the whole crew together. He goes. I'm a kid, this 10, the dozen of them. He goes. Hook it up with Charlie, get some tickets and show he's a show up early. You come in the back, meet Ali with your mom and the ladies and we'll get some laughs in and he goes. And then, you know, go check out the show. He goes in. Then after we'll all go get something. You know he's me and your whole family and Ali.
Charlie Mattera :He was just the real deal, he was well, you know it's, then they're not around anymore. You know, the only other guy I hung out with who's like that was Pierce Brosnan. Just years ago I had lunch with him at that place, in the grill in Beverly Hills. You know, forget about.
Carmen Lezeth:So here's my question. I wanted to ask you if you were okay. I mean, I know you did a whole movie about this, but, um, because I think that's them, I can't find that movie anywhere either. What is it? Yeah, yeah, I know I owned it for some reason.
Charlie Mattera :I know I you know what if I would have made that movie myself. Jordan's a great guy and me you want to see a better movie. The better movie is. The first one is a black and white film called love and happiness. Jordan Allen, who made terminal bliss Okay with, was Lou Perry and I think who else is in there. There was some big kids who became big. It was sort of like his lesson zero Okay do you?
Carmen Lezeth:need to attach your your phone to your whatever I don't have a thing with attached.
Charlie Mattera :Oh, I'm low-tech.
Carmen Lezeth:It's not about low-tech, that's just the thing you buy and it holds you phone, oh.
Charlie Mattera :I think I bought they all suck.
Carmen Lezeth:I've yet to find one that's really any, yeah, no, I just go back is.
Charlie Mattera :I don't want to get tired anything, they keep falling out of the air conditioning, you know, and especially when you're driving you know I look at, I never use my phone in my car, so I just don't want you to be uncomfortable.
Carmen Lezeth:No, I'm. So. Here's my question, because I think one of the things I found surprising about you because you, you were incarcerated and I didn't know if you wanted to talk about that or share that information. I I find that to be one of the most amazing things about you. Not because you were, you became.
Charlie Mattera :I am no problem. I have no problem with that. Hey look, you do stupid stuff. You want to be a gangster, you better be prepared to get locked up. That's just part of them. That's part of the job. Right, you know. Right, you got a guy where you keep money. Just for that reason, bail bondsman money. You know you got to prepare. You don't walk out of the house. You're gonna be a burglar. You don't walk out of the house without your tools. You're gonna be a carpenter.
Carmen Lezeth:You're gonna have a ham right a couple of things, but you never thought you were gonna get caught.
Charlie Mattera :No, you know what the back of my mind, I knew I always get caught well, do you want? To tell people what you actually know people are curious, you know, because remember when I got caught. When I got caught Literally, and I was sitting where I was sitting, I breathe the sigh relief I was but what did you do?
Carmen Lezeth:You need to explain to people what you did I.
Charlie Mattera :Did everything the robbed, I stole a lie that cheated.
Carmen Lezeth:But is it the movie the gentleman? What is it? The gentleman Disorder based on this whole kind of?
Charlie Mattera :Oh, it's all bullshit. It's the only thing. It's all bullshit. The only thing real is is that I went out of my way to screw my life up. Really, you know, and if you had, if you had something and I wanted it, it was only a matter of time. I need to shit who you were. I was gonna get it, you know okay but that was just.
Charlie Mattera :I saw rich people with stuff and cars and Not jewelry, but just look beautiful in the clothes and I had nothing, man. You know, I had no old man around, straight me out. He was more concerned. We get laid right and and, and my mother was so mad at him that I was just the evil man you know that to be destroyed, especially because I looked exactly like her right so.
Charlie Mattera :I think more her trying to hurt herself instead of me, and I had a crazy sister I Considered a mother or sister, you know, and and I represented all the men that left them.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah.
Charlie Mattera :You know you're a tough childhood.
Carmen Lezeth:You did not have an easy childhood.
Charlie Mattera :No, I was not what I would call some Norman Rockwell shit. It was the absolute opposite right. But you know what? I the worst things that have happened to me in my life. I made it my job to take those and Make myself a better person. Right, because I truly believe if those things didn't happen.
Charlie Mattera :I wouldn't be the guy I am now. I mean, I'm in the last part of my my, my life, you know the last 20 to last quarter. But you would have, and you know I'm happier now Then I ever was. Before I had plenty of fun. You know I had false fun and then I had genuine when I met you in like 2002 or something. Something like that. I came to California in like 1990, right. I must end in you. I don't know about 98, 99 right in there 2000 something.
Carmen Lezeth:I mean 2002, when I met you. I thought you were amazing. Then you were. You were already living your best life in an authentic way.
Charlie Mattera :Well, I was doing the thing you know with the screenplays and I was like I was getting work. I got in the union, I got you know, I was like you were amazing.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, wait, wait, here's something you don't remember. So you know I grew up with a lot of people and I know a lot of people who went to prison a lot, but when a friend of mine's kid ended up in trouble I don't think you remember this I called you, and I called you because you were one of the few people you're one of three people I know that were in in prison, got out of prison and made their lives Better. You didn't go back to all the bad stuff.
Charlie Mattera :That would have been easy.
Carmen Lezeth:I Love that.
Charlie Mattera :That was easy because when I'm a New York guy who's got some scars, comes out the LA. These people are so fucking soft out here they're very lucky. They have no idea that if the right four or five guys came out here you could take the whole state. I mean literally they don't get it. You know they're not California. People are non confrontational. That's right, they do not like being called under bullshit behavior. Right, they do not like being confronted and they are extremely Fear. They fear everything.
Carmen Lezeth:Right.
Charlie Mattera :I'm sorry. I mean I met some great people out here, but you know this is not a state loaded with balls, you know it's just, it's never has wait wait, you're talking about Hollywood people, right?
Carmen Lezeth:You're not actually talking about the whole state of.
Charlie Mattera :California.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah, I'm talking about Hollywood people, the street people I've met out here a Rock, right you know, to surf guys, the beach bombs, they got nothing to hide, they were all genuine. I can hang out with anybody. I could talk to anybody, always did. You know? I've been places, man, you would, you would never walk in a million years. And my wife would say to me you know, is this anyway, we need to be right now. You know, oh, the way, by the way, but it's so cool. And then run into like sketchy crew and all sudden wanted a people out of the to go. So and she goes. You know, these people, I go again. Those people, friends of mine, man, these are the guys. Yeah, trivenals, they're bad guys. I go to other people. They're very guys. For me they're not big yeah, I think that's.
Carmen Lezeth:What people don't understand is that you can have a past and have moments where things didn't work out. That doesn't mean you're a bad person. You know, like everyone does the best.
Charlie Mattera :I look at it this way I paid for my that's right two thousand tons, nobody else, just paid for that.
Carmen Lezeth:That's right.
Charlie Mattera :You have no idea. You know I look at this way not to be religious because I'm not a religious guy. But whatever the grand poob are, mystic, majestic ruler up there, the Toronto things, or is, george Carlin would say, the giant, or you know. Whatever it is, you know it has way of Cutting your space off. Yeah if you're too fucking out of control. Yeah and what it does is, if you're really out of control. It puts you in a room the size of a friggin closet, about eight by six.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah and then you have no Alternative but to look at you, okay, and figure out what is it about you that brought you to this, to find your fucking self, do you?
Carmen Lezeth:regret that that had to happen, or are you saying no, I thank God for that.
Charlie Mattera :I thank God they locked me up. I needed it. If they wouldn't lock me up, I'd be dead how long?
Carmen Lezeth:how long were you locked up for?
Charlie Mattera :long fucking time. Okay yeah, high school, high school in college Wow, in one stretch.
Carmen Lezeth:Wow.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah, almost eight years, wow, buddy and change, and I'm glad they did it. I'm glad they did it cuz they saved my life.
Carmen Lezeth:They really that's, that's how my Very different people understand you get locked up.
Charlie Mattera :You are with some real evil villains man. Yeah, I mean, these guys are arched criminal villains and everybody is there to be victimized and picked off and torture if you let yeah, people have no idea. You know they think you go get locked up and you're gonna learn a lesson. You know you got cops there. They're supposed to protect you and protect everybody.
Carmen Lezeth:They don't care, you're on your own. That's in real life too.
Charlie Mattera :That's not even. You gotta get a garbage pail top and I'm offering a handle. Man, it's gladiated, school, it's on.
Carmen Lezeth:When did you decide in prison or out? Maybe it's when you left that you were gonna change your life like when did that happen?
Charlie Mattera :I was in, I think like about it, it was like two, it was about two years, maybe year and a half years, and I'm sitting in the center of this dorm, right, you know where? They had like four, you know, a, b, c, d, and then a control room and they had a center grass area with some tables when the animals could sit and have a picnic. You know, whatever we wanted to when they weren't torturing us, you know, and and uh, I was sitting out there in a pair of boxy shorts, high-top sneakers and a t-shirt.
Charlie Mattera :That's the uniform at night Okay you always gotta, always gotta, have rubber on your feet, man.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, and I don't mean flip-flops.
Charlie Mattera :You gotta be back there ready to ride at any moment. I think you go down, and you might as well go down swinging, because you're going down.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay.
Charlie Mattera :So this is in jail. This is at night, you're no, this is joint jail's different this is Hell, is the state.
Carmen Lezeth:The joint is federal right.
Charlie Mattera :No, the joint is you got state and you got federal, two different things. When you go to jail.
Carmen Lezeth:Jail is the county.
Charlie Mattera :You're an inmate now. You're not a convict yet right Okay you know when you get sentenced and you get sent to prison. Now you belong to the department of corrections. You are in prison. This is a different story.
Carmen Lezeth:So that's where we're in the joint.
Charlie Mattera :It's a, it's a village, where people, a thousand people, and everybody in there is the fucking straight out criminal. Okay, well, I didn't do it, I'm not guilty, I've been some travesty. No, no, everybody.
Charlie Mattera :Yes, you did it, you did it, you did it and you get it do it again I mean, I saw guys get out, come back, get out, come back, get out and come back again, and I was still there and I hadn't gotten out yet and I used to ask the way you like the food? What's wrong with you? Right, why are you keep coming back?
Carmen Lezeth:So wait.
Charlie Mattera :So two years in, you're sitting in this I'm sitting on the table and I'm, and the sky is clear, it's blackest night and the stars everywhere. And I literally said to myself I said, oh, what the fuck? I'm not getting out of here for a while? These people are fucking animals. What am I gonna do? I'm fucking a kid. What am I gonna do? I'm not going anywhere. This is it. And I said you know, well, I could be one of the animals you know, just like everybody else, but I've never been like everybody else. Did you know what? I'm gonna go to that library and I'm gonna read every fucking book in there the law books, the regular books. I'm gonna educate myself. I might as well. I ain't got nothing else to do. I ain't fucking going anywhere, that's for sure.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah, I ain't gonna like. Oh, by the way, we made a mistake.
Carmen Lezeth:Right.
Charlie Mattera :We're gonna let you go home. I'm afraid there's a car waiting to take you over and use some money. No, I knew. I knew that wasn't gonna happen, so I decided to just make the best of a bad situation, you know.
Carmen Lezeth:You knew you had to do the hustle in order to start changing your life. Reading book Well, nobody was sending me any money in there.
Charlie Mattera :You gotta survive. You know you need some smoke to eat the barter. You need to get things done. You need to juice people. You know that's the way. You know you need to the child. You want to go guys regular in the chow hall. You want to jump the line. Know the guy up front. You know if you can give him a pack of cigarettes now you juice the line for the next week.
Carmen Lezeth:You know you were preparing yourself to get out of there by surviving.
Charlie Mattera :I met a guy in there who was a way for life, my friend Ricky D. He was older, older Italian guy and he came over to me one day and he said to me he said you're gonna be a low life your whole life.
Carmen Lezeth:Wow.
Charlie Mattera :Like what the fuck, ricky? I said it's depressing enough in here. You know he goes. I'm being serious. He says you're a good-looking guy, you got your shit together, sort of like he goes. But you're a fucking asshole. He goes. I watch it. You're all over the fucking place he goes. You're gonna get killed in here, man.
Carmen Lezeth:Was he right.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah.
Charlie Mattera :I was up to fucking old guys, it's it. So he says you're gonna get whacked out in here. He goes. But you everybody loves it, man. He goes. You make people laugh. You know you're up to something every day to screw the cops. He goes. I like that. He goes. But it's time for you to educate yourself. He goes, you get out of here. You need to class yourself up. He's just Charlie. You know you're only gonna be considered who you are by the crowd You're seen with right.
Charlie Mattera :And you stick out like a sore thumb. He goes you're the biggest little guy I know. He goes, you need to get it together. He goes I got something for you to read. I said okay. He says come by over there and I'll let you have it. I'll see you later. So I go over there and they sit me down and ricky slides me a book across the table. I said what's this? He says I want you to read this book. He says and I'm gonna ask you questions about it he goes, cover to cover. I want you to know this book. You know what he gives me. He gives me the emily post book of etiquette Shut up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like well, the fuck is this? He goes you need this book, cover to cover.
Charlie Mattera :He goes you'll know how to behave in life. He goes rich people, poor people, they'll all understand that you have a way about you. He goes. It may be over the top, he goes, but it's something to know. It's information. He goes. What you do with it is on you.
Charlie Mattera :He goes, but, like I told you, he says you have the ability and the talent to be and go wherever you want. He says put you lack the initiative man. He goes I could have had a whole life. He goes I fucked up. I'm here forever. He says you're going home Some point at some time. You better be fucking ready.
Charlie Mattera :He goes you're all that in the bag of chips in here. He goes out there. You're just another ex convict fucking scumbag that nobody wants to give a job to you ever. He says you can never tell him who you are. Right, he's the only thing. So you have to be something they all want to be around. He goes, and these books and these lessons will help you do that. Nobody cares where you've been or what you are, only care about who you are now, in this moment. He goes you could be a bad guy, but what are you gonna do now, right in this moment in time? Who are you gonna be? So I left them guys. My fucking head was hurting for like two days, but you read that damn book.
Charlie Mattera :I sure did. I read everything. I read the Holy Bible as a dot book, I read some of the Quran, I read the Torah, whatever, all of it, whatever I can get my hands or whatever they had you know. And when I finally got out, my stepfather came to get me and I was. I was finished. Expiration of sentence, no parole, no probation or nothing. Day for day I walked out. It was like no, I didn't have to report anybody, nothing.
Charlie Mattera :Okay and I remember I was banging on the window in the morning, 8 am, but at the control room I was wearing a pair inside.
Carmen Lezeth:I was.
Charlie Mattera :you're about to be let go, okay, I thought I got this box with all my shit and the cops are like what, what you want material? I was like dude, you're on my time now, right, free man, right now. I said no parole, no probation, expiration, sense, open the fucking door. And they look at me like, well, you know, we're all. I still got property and I was like my friends.
Carmen Lezeth:I was like take it.
Charlie Mattera :He was like I said Mike. I said the old man's out there right now to get me in the car. I said all you gotta do is let me sign and let me get the fuck out of this. They don't make me, and I'm big as a house. I mean working out dark as a teakwood table my hair was like lemon yellow. I mean, people don't look like this in the free world and I remember he brought me.
Charlie Mattera :He says let's go take a ride because we're checking to a hotel hang out for a couple of days. So right away I know what's going on. So I said, okay, sure, sure, you know.
Charlie Mattera :And we're driving around, I'm looking at everything outside, people, cars, we don't see shit. I mean, we see television, we don't see shit. And I see, in 1987, we're just we're. She takes me to the mall. I wanted to get some clothes, I wanted to get a new pair of sneaks and walk her to the mall. I see, I mean I'm big as a fucking house Damn shit, looking handsome as hell, and People just looking at me. And I looked at the old man. I said what the fuck do? I got like conflict stapled on my fire, I don't know.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh yeah, you were taking it the wrong way.
Charlie Mattera :I had seen a mirror in in eight years. We don't got mirrors in there, we got bent up pieces of metal. You know, oh wow, you don't even know what you look like. You go in there you 20. You come home you 28. You don't know what you look like anymore. Who's that fucking guy?
Carmen Lezeth:You know. So you were. You were being self-conscious, whereas everybody else was looking at you.
Charlie Mattera :Do I fit in right? Do I not look like a fucking crazy person, criminal? You know that these people have any idea that.
Charlie Mattera :I just Fell into the planet Earth. I've been in another planet for eight years, you know. You know I see women. I could fucking smell them 200 feet away. You know, you smell, smells. This food is everything. You know. Perfume, you know, beautiful scented lotion we don't smell that. We're all state-raising animals, you know. Oh well, I've been smelling this button feet for like eight years, you know, and now there it is, you know, and they're beautiful and they're looking at me and I'm looking at them, you know, and I could see their faces. They're like wow.
Carmen Lezeth:You know, I was like no drugs.
Charlie Mattera :Don't know, you know and you know you come out. You're a gladiator man, you're a warrior. You've been, you've been to school and, and I remember the old man.
Carmen Lezeth:Were you scared, were you scared.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah, I was terrified of the world. I was like, oh man, what the? And a million thoughts are going on my mind. What am I gonna do? I'm like gonna survive. Where am I gonna live? I'm gonna get by. You know, I don't know anyone. I don't have any friends. My friends are gone, or dead or Back there in jail right.
Charlie Mattera :Who are put those people's? The only friends I had, my friends, were killers, you know, oh, burglars, diamond thieves, you know, gangsters, real ones, not like these fucking punks. I see on the street these guys with fucking bad guys, but they were my friends, we, whatever, anybody was away for you get past it. And I remember. So we checked into the Howard Johnson's Hotel in Fort Lauderdale.
Carmen Lezeth:This is you and your stepdad after yeah, I mean it's cool.
Charlie Mattera :You know we're all right. You know, and he was a knock-around guy, you know I'm tying guy. So we get into the hotel, we walk past the pool and I see all the bikinis. And I see guys wearing those fucking speedos and I'm like With the crazy mullet, like the atomic mullet, oh, yeah, I guess it's 1980s.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah, fuck you know the old man she's. They could say we're good, though. I Said what's up with that? He goes, hey, you've been away a long time. I said I can't tell who's who over here. He goes, don't worry, nobody else can either. It's alright, this is what he says to me. So I said okay, we check in.
Charlie Mattera :We go upstairs to the hotel room and he's like taking his shoes off. He goes hey, I'm gonna take a snap. I'm fucking exhausted. So I says to him and I'm staring in the middle room, I look to myself. I said to him you know what I said I'm gonna go take a walk. Let me go to the beach. All right, he goes to me. What the fuck you asking me for ain't the warden? I said no, I'm just saying you know. I said he says fuck, dude, you're free. Whatever you want, man. He goes in. He's some scratch. He reaches his pocket and pulls out a couple of hundred. He goes here yeah, go to fucking go get, go have a sandwich, whatever. Take a stroll, whatever. Here's the room key. He goes yeah, I'm gonna sleep for a few hours. I said all right.
Charlie Mattera :So I go outside and I walk across a 1a to the beach and I see this old couple and I go over to and I scared them too, cuz that took a shirt off. I look like miles, I look like Miles O'Keefe and Tarzan and and my hair's, you know, short and just her. Everything was perfect. And I looked at me. Could you guys and watch my stuff? I just want to take this one. I hadn't been in the water in a million years. Oh my god, that's right. So I took my stuff and they were like, yeah, sure, no problem. So I said thank you very much, you know. They're like, oh, you knew, yeah, I live from Jersey. I said, oh, thanks, I really appreciate it you know and I Go into the water.
Charlie Mattera :I got about waist deep. And I dove in and I just started swimming and I'm strong as a fucking ox. I'm cutting through the water like it's Not and I get out there most. I spin around and I look back at the beach and you know I am, I'm floating in the ocean and it was like it was just wondrous you know, the co-chair.
Charlie Mattera :Maybe I am free, you know, just maybe I'm like I'm waiting for, I'm waiting to see it, like you know we made a mistake. Come on, go back. You know I'm waiting for it. And I remember I swim back in and I'm coming out of the water, like slowly coming out of the water, and I look to the left and there's like four girls walking down the beach and I'm coming out of the water like like Godzilla and I'm soaking wet and I got the bathing suit on and I am fucking nails and I remember that's when I realized, oh, I guess I'm something to look at you know.
Charlie Mattera :And then I saw a little baby running, little baby like one and a half or so, with a bucket, just laughing his ass off. I almost want that. I wish I could have put a wire in my head and to his to let him know what could happen, what moves not to make. Just don't be like me, be like Mike. You know. I never forgot it. So then the old man takes me to dinner that night.
Carmen Lezeth:He goes, wait a minute.
Charlie Mattera :I said there's this place over here, over there, over here by the intercoastal waterway, whatever, come on. So we go over there and we have a cup of drinks sitting at the bar and I'm having a beer and we just sitting there quietly and I'm looking all around, I'm casing the place and he looks at me. He goes you robbed this place, didn't you? I said yeah, it's a long time ago. I said this place, the place next door, the place over there across the water, the one down there, you know, and he said Jesus Christ, what the fuck were you thinking? Yeah, he goes. What was going through your head? He says you're running around with a gun like a crazy person. I said I guess I just couldn't give a fuck. I wanted to. I didn't care about anybody or anything. I said but I'm glad everything happened. I'm glad it happened the way it did.
Charlie Mattera :You never killed anybody, you just you went through this feeling just to be clear.
Carmen Lezeth:You stole a lot of money.
Charlie Mattera :I heard a lot of feelings. Yeah, that's what I did.
Charlie Mattera :Okay, so now I mean, I feel, I said you want to laugh, you want to die laughing. So I said to I said what happened? I said mom sent you down here. I said if you see, if I'm gay or I'm fucking crazy, and I lost my mind. And I said she gave me a pocket full of money and if any of those was true, you're supposed to hand it to me and tell me to go on my marry way. I said but if I'm okay and I'm done and I'm finished, I could come home. I said that's what I'm here, right? He does. He turns his head and he takes his sandwich drinking, he goes, he just looks up and he goes. Boy, you know your mother, man, you good, you know your mom? Of course I do. I said I know exactly what she's thinking all the time.
Carmen Lezeth:But you didn't go home, did you?
Charlie Mattera :I went back to New York. I didn't go back to their home. He was saying that I could come back to New York.
Carmen Lezeth:Right.
Charlie Mattera :And he let me know that everybody had said back in New York I could come home, because if they said I couldn't come back I wouldn't be able to go back there. I went back for a little while I worked at night clubs and everything. And then I got involved in all of that fucking shit. Everybody was getting high and drinking. And then in the middle of the night one night I got it in my head. I packed my bags. I met a guy in the nightclubs.
Charlie Mattera :He used to hang out at all the clubs outside watching me carry on with the crowd and he said you ought to be an actor. I was like, yeah, OK, be an actor. I need a real fucking job. Man, I got money, I got to pick bills. I go those people are fucking. I said I'm a real person. He goes this is what I'm talking about. He said you would kill it. He says if you could be what you are here, there he goes. I don't think you'd have a problem.
Carmen Lezeth:OK, but you were just saying it was really. It was hard for you to deal with people who aren't.
Charlie Mattera :Because people could say anything to you out here, especially in the entertainment business. Hey, I'll get back to you. That means fuck you, nothing, nothing. Hey, I'll read that to you. You're not going to read anything. Right, people make instead of reading a script. You got coverage. She's taken halfway through the coverage, you know what I mean. How are you going to make million dollar decisions if you don't read what you're you got to read?
Carmen Lezeth:So people here say they're going to do something but they don't follow through on it because it's all cheesy. But when you're incarcerated?
Charlie Mattera :what they're going to say. They're not going to read it unless they see you walking down the street one day and you're with Jim Cameron.
Carmen Lezeth:Right.
Charlie Mattera :Or you're walking with Robert DeNiro one day and they see you having lunch with Ryan O'Neill and they're like is that, charlie, who has been read the script Right? Get to Ryan O'Neill for six months I can't even get near. Oh, charlie works for him. What? Hey, charlie?
Carmen Lezeth:Hey, beth Bepperson, here I was thinking about you don't meet Todd Bradford, ok, but I'm going to say something that's going to make you feel like you're going to yell at me. It's not just Hollywood, that's in every industry. No, no, yeah, and it's all about the networking, both literally.
Charlie Mattera :I'll get back to you.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, it's all the bullshit. Ok, wait, let's not skip. You get out of prison. You go back to New York.
Charlie Mattera :You decide you were just going to tell me how you came to LA. How did you come? The guy who asked and told me I should be an actor. He said why don't you try being a writer? I said well, he goes. Yeah, you're bullshit. You could do characters all day long. He goes. I'll show you how to do it. He goes. I go to his house one day and this is the weirdest thing he flipped on the computer and it was the little one. Remember the little square one with the floppy gems.
Carmen Lezeth:And the little screen.
Charlie Mattera :It looked like the little TV, like the old one.
Charlie Mattera :And I saw some stuff he had on the screen and it was like Bill and John went there there, there and I was like what the fuck? That doesn't sound like people. I'm not even interested. He goes what do you mean? I said look, do like a dog street. I said the light from the street shines in the car. A match is struck. It lights a cigarette. We followed a smoke up to a balcony where a guy is hanging. I said he's looking through a single eyepiece of two guys down the street in the car and they're talking. I said now we cut to the car and he goes. And the guy says Bill, what? I said no, no, no. The guy says what the fuck are you doing? You fucking idiot? I've been waiting for you for three hours. We're supposed to clip this fuck and you're dicking around eating a sandwich in some fucking restaurant. What's wrong with you? And I saw the guy's eyes light up. I said I want to know. I said I want to know. I said the information's got to be happening. I said I watch a movie. Because I watch movies to be in lockdown.
Charlie Mattera :I was the guy who used to put the movies on the car. We used to see movies every week. We used to order them. So I've seen every black and white movie, every movie you can imagine, every TV show. I was raised by television so I've seen them all and I know what's good and I know what's bad. So I said, just because of being a kid. And I said to him I got to hear the music. See, sister Bee, what do you mean? I said I got to hear the. I said I said now I'm in, I want to know what the fuck's going on. I said the moment the music goes, I said I'm fucking lost, I'm over it. I said every scene we write starts in the middle, not, I said, the part we don't see. That's the beginning. We're in the.
Charlie Mattera :They're at it when we go in. Somebody's like you gonna eat this fucking sandwich. I said that's how you start seeing the guy hoax up a front and put on your Sims. You're gonna fucking eat this. You want mustard on this or what I go to me? I'm interested. Is he gonna put mustard on it? Does he have a bit to get the coleslaw? Now I'm in.
Carmen Lezeth:So when did you move to LA? When did you make the decision?
Charlie Mattera :So, with this guy. I, we wrote like, we literally Wrote three scripts in New York like this I was writing 20 pages, 30 pages dialogue a day, and I could still do it. You know, because I knew how people spoke. You know, I knew how to Latin. They see it. You know say, I knew I had it all. You know, I knew how the brothers taught them. You know how the crazy chicks taught they do have the elegant. You know. You know bitch fuck. You know the swells. I knew how the swells talked. You know, I've been around them, you know, and so it was easy for me. And on a fluke, we sent a script to some Agent in LA and I don't know where. We get a call. Hey, I'd like to represent you. I'm fucking a Hollywood agent. And the reason why I said yes was because she was a woman. It was this kid named Wesley strict who wrote wolf. He wrote a bunch of stuff. He's a big screenwriter wrestling Wesley strict and his mom, shirley strict, was an agent.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh. Very agent, another name yeah.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah, yeah, she wanted to represent us. So all of a sudden I'm like, oh shit, you know we gotta get out there and my writing partner? He didn't. I just took off, I ran out there with it.
Carmen Lezeth:When did you come out here? When did you come out to LA?
Charlie Mattera :1990, I think, I had a double bag full of clothes, 500 bucks cash in my pocket and I Befriended Jason Bateman in New York and he told me come to fucking LA man, I got it. You come sleep upstairs, don't worry about it. You got you killing yourself out here. So I came, I was living with Jason down in Santa Monica.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah and every day I would get on the bus and ride to my writing partners place. He came out because I found a manager, this crazy girl. She brought a script of mine, a prison script, into Roger Corman. Oh yeah, okay, boom, I'm here. Three weeks Self-script. That's crazy, I love that people come to LA to sell the script.
Carmen Lezeth:Millions, man, and now Roger Corman years and it's years and they don't get that. They don't get.
Charlie Mattera :Roger Corman says to me, says I'll give you extra amount of dollars for the screenplay or I'll give you this much less and you could direct it. I should give me the city, you direct it, give me the money. Give me the money that was our first sale, which turned out to be it was a serious prison drama based on race relations in prison Wow. And turned out to be blood fist three for With Don the dragon Wilson.
Carmen Lezeth:That's awesome.
Charlie Mattera :Yeah, yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh.
Charlie Mattera :So and and starring Richard roundtree and I got to hang out. Richard Rousey was the coolest night.
Carmen Lezeth:Thanks for stopping by. All about the joy be better and stay beautiful. Folks. Have a sweet day.