This is part 2
Charlie Mattera's life story is something you'd expect to see on the silver screen, not just hear about in our latest podcast episode. We follow Charlie's incredible journey from his early days in New York to his unexpected rise in Hollywood, where he sold his first screenplay to Roger Corman and rubbed shoulders with stars like Jason Bateman. It's a tale of culture shocks and close encounters, of electric nights in the club scene to electric shocks at home—literally. The lights of Los Angeles shine bright, but as Charlie reveals, they can flicker without warning, a stark reminder of the industry's capricious nature.
Flipping through the pages of Charlie's life, we uncover the depth of Hollywood's unpredictable script. One moment you're being fitted for a wetsuit for a big role, and the next, your scenes are left on the cutting room floor. We honor the memories of those we've lost, Farrah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal....from industry titans to personal mentors, and we delve into the emotional side of the business that isn't captured on camera. The conversation turns to the art of scriptwriting, where Charlie shares the passion, frustration, and hope involved in breathing life into a story that's been years in the making.
Wrapping up our session, we reflect on the profound connections and aspirations that drive our creative ventures. The future brims with possibilities as we discuss a screenplay—a World War II narrative that's as much a part of our lives as the history it portrays. The collaborative spirit is alive and well, with the promise of more to come. Our dialogue with Charlie may have reached its conclusion for now, but the shared journey of crafting impactful stories is far from over.
Video:
https://youtu.be/EkWWfKFrCV4
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.
This is part 2
Charlie Mattera's life story is something you'd expect to see on the silver screen, not just hear about in our latest podcast episode. We follow Charlie's incredible journey from his early days in New York to his unexpected rise in Hollywood, where he sold his first screenplay to Roger Corman and rubbed shoulders with stars like Jason Bateman. It's a tale of culture shocks and close encounters, of electric nights in the club scene to electric shocks at home—literally. The lights of Los Angeles shine bright, but as Charlie reveals, they can flicker without warning, a stark reminder of the industry's capricious nature.
Flipping through the pages of Charlie's life, we uncover the depth of Hollywood's unpredictable script. One moment you're being fitted for a wetsuit for a big role, and the next, your scenes are left on the cutting room floor. We honor the memories of those we've lost, Farrah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal....from industry titans to personal mentors, and we delve into the emotional side of the business that isn't captured on camera. The conversation turns to the art of scriptwriting, where Charlie shares the passion, frustration, and hope involved in breathing life into a story that's been years in the making.
Wrapping up our session, we reflect on the profound connections and aspirations that drive our creative ventures. The future brims with possibilities as we discuss a screenplay—a World War II narrative that's as much a part of our lives as the history it portrays. The collaborative spirit is alive and well, with the promise of more to come. Our dialogue with Charlie may have reached its conclusion for now, but the shared journey of crafting impactful stories is far from over.
Video:
https://youtu.be/EkWWfKFrCV4
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.
Let me just say welcome to the private lounge, Charlie Matera. Okay, again, thank you for doing this. I appreciate you. I'll make this the part two. So we ended the first part of our conversation where you had just moved to Los Angeles. You were here for three weeks. You sold your first script to. Roger Corman, three weeks.
Charlie Mattera:What was it called Concord New Horizons? They were right on San Vicente, which was funny because I was living right around the corner and I ran in there and I was like, hey, I don't know if my check, you know for my check.
Carmen Lezeth:No, I tell you it doesn't work that way and I didn't realize this. But you had mentioned Richard Roundtree, richard.
Charlie Mattera:Cool guy.
Carmen Lezeth:But he died this past October.
Charlie Mattera:Yeah, john Shaft, he was in Blood Fist 3. He played the old Wyzen Sage yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:That was the first script you sold here.
Charlie Mattera:Yeah, yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay. So for those people who are coming into this podcast and didn't see the first part, I just want to give a little recap of what we talked about. We talked about your past, how you ended up getting in a little bit of trouble. Yeah, a little bit of trouble.
Charlie Mattera:I hated when that happened.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, I hate when that happened, but it was like you were incarcerated for eight years. Very bad, you got out, Just to be clear you didn't murder anybody.
Charlie Mattera:No, no, like I told you before, I just heard a lot of feelings.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, you what.
Charlie Mattera:I heard a lot of feelings.
Carmen Lezeth:You heard a lot of feelings. Yeah, you stole a lot of money.
Charlie Mattera:You know, that's stuff you can replace.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah. So it was the feelings that would okay. So you were there for eight years. You got out and you ended up going back home. You become a bouncer.
Charlie Mattera:I saw him open the door at a couple of places, mainly from my buddy, matt DeMatt, who's a big promoter of clubs all over town. We became fast friends. He lived like five blocks from where I was Ended up working at this place called Heartbreak downtown. Then I was working at the China Club for a while, peggy Seuss and under Indochine. That was one of the groovy gravy places I was working at. Yeah, wow, I was a big artist.
Carmen Lezeth:But then what was your friend's name? Who was like you should be an actor, you should write a script.
Charlie Mattera:This was a guy I met years later. His name was Al Burnett. I met him through another friend who used to hang out on 83rd Street and he was an actor also. This guy named Mark Petraca and he was like he worked in William Morris, you know he was doing yeah, yeah. And you know, because when I was bouncing there was all these types around. You know, guys were trying to be actors.
Carmen Lezeth:And then Jason Bateman fit into this.
Charlie Mattera:Jason Bateman in the city bopping around. Somebody said, oh, that's my boss, this is. I'm not answering that. It's Saturday.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, you can go ahead if you want.
Charlie Mattera:I don't want to.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh okay, why is it light? Why is the light?
Charlie Mattera:Because that's my phone. You know, when you're old you want it to light up so you can see.
Carmen Lezeth:Charlie, you're not that old. Are you really that old?
Charlie Mattera:I don't know I got a few years on me.
Carmen Lezeth:You say that all the time.
Charlie Mattera:Well, you know, you got to remember, you know you don't want to go go crazy and blow a gas, get a blow out of me or your back, and that could happen just sneezing.
Carmen Lezeth:You're going off on a tangent here. I need you to go back to Jason Bateman, so I met.
Charlie Mattera:Jason to my friend John. What was John's brother's name? Chris and John? The two brothers both worked the clubs. Also, one was working at Columbus, which was the famous bar restaurant that Chaz was at the door, paul Paul Herman used to own the place of Robert De Niro and a couple of people and he met Jason and he had said to him they were at the bar hanging out and he said you don't want to go out tonight I don't want to pop around the clubs and he goes.
Charlie Mattera:You need to find my cousin Charlie. He goes. Go find Charlie and Charlie will take you everywhere you know and you won't have to wait, you just walk right in. So all of a sudden I think I forget where the hell was he?
Carmen Lezeth:Well, because he was a big deal, even because he was a kid actor, yeah, he was like he wasn't nobody.
Charlie Mattera:I mean, he was pretty well known, his biggest pet peeve was when people used to call him half his sister's name. They Justin.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh yeah, he was Justin Bateman and he used to flip out on that one. I was his podcast smart list with the other two there, Will Arnett and what's his name? Sean Hayes. Have you listened to their podcast? No, I'm not.
Charlie Mattera:Mr Podcast guy, I really don't. You know, this is more of my first experience doing this kind of stuff.
Charlie Mattera:I feel so honored, jason found me in the city and for like two days of nonstop partying we just I took them everywhere, all these places. I even took them to an after hours club that was downtown, inside of a loft in the village that was like filled with bikers and like the half of the Ramones and some of the older studio musicians in town. At four o'clock in the morning they were up, the kids sleep. They would come to this place and my friend, jerry Adams, who ran the cat club, the front door, he would became security at this place, the loft, and the secret was you had to come to the door and you had to bring beer or something or whatever. And I used to go to the deli around the corner and get like a couple of cases of Heineken and I'd call from the deli and tell him I'm coming. And then I came in and I brought Jason there. So Jason was like you know he was this child, that kind of he's hanging around with these bikers and this.
Carmen Lezeth:He was probably pretty young. He probably should not have been in this.
Charlie Mattera:Chris Penn used to be, chris used to hang out there, and a lot of athletes so when you wait.
Carmen Lezeth:So when you came to LA, you already had all these contacts.
Charlie Mattera:No, I just knew Jason. I mean, I knew that there was a bunch of New York guys out here, but I really didn't know anybody. And you know, when you first come out here from New York, you're like a stranger in a strange land. You know the whole pace is different. Nothing gets done. If you're from New York, it's like okay, let's go, let's go fast, that's the thing I told you to get, the thing to do, the thing we're like okay, get it tomorrow or else that's it. You know you can't call up and say, hey boss, it's raining today and I don't think I'm going to make it. That's a legitimate excuse now, okay.
Carmen Lezeth:I was thinking about this after our first conversation. I was like I'm going to ask him a whole bunch of questions because I feel like you have a love hate relationship with Holly. No, I love LA.
Charlie Mattera:I'm a California guy.
Carmen Lezeth:Now Okay, because you know you come across as.
Charlie Mattera:No, no, no, you don't understand. Okay, I am a bro Cephas now. I would never move back to New York. I can't do it. There's nothing there. It's not happening. There's no clubs, there's no, it's changed. Yeah, well, you know, in the late 80s to the early 90s, man, New York was Dodge City. You could do whatever you wanted. We used to walk down the street four o'clock in the morning in the middle of the street, champagne bottles, just walking through the street. Cops would come by and say, hey, what's up? They all knew us because they don't have the cops. The cops were the greatest back then.
Carmen Lezeth:I think it's weird that you knew and were okay with the cops after what you just I never had a problem with those guys.
Charlie Mattera:They were doing the job. You know, I never thought of it as good guys or bad guys. I thought of it as my job to beat them and their job was to catch me. You know, I hated cops.
Carmen Lezeth:I mean, I still hate cops.
Charlie Mattera:I don't get it. But you know, I think the problem with the police in the country is that they don't really screen these guys and really put them through their paces to find out who they really have. You know, and I think a lot of these guys, the new ones, they hire them right out of. You know Afghanistan and Desert Storm and whatever, and these guys they have shots still from that and I don't think it's smart.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, I actually think I mean I'm going to disagree with you. I would actually prefer a cop who actually served in the military. I think a lot of these cops don't have an educational background or an experience, or understand the proper chain of command and that kind of stuff.
Charlie Mattera:I totally get it, but see, the point I'm making is, a lot of these guys are still PTSD.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, fair, fair, Fair, let's make sure.
Charlie Mattera:Hey look, there's nothing wrong with going to talk to somebody if you've got some issues. I mean if there's something wrong with not going to talk to somebody if you've got issues if you're thinking about hurting yourself or hurting others. I mean, you owe it to yourself and everybody else to go speak to someone. But my point is they got to hire the right guys, they shouldn't just. It's not a 12-week training course.
Carmen Lezeth:That's right. And also there's something about the community, like even when I was growing up, we knew all the cops in the neighborhood. That's right.
Charlie Mattera:A lot of the cops lived in them, but we knew them Well a lot of the cops who worked that neighborhood lived in that neighborhood, so they knew the players and they knew the people and they would walk around and they would say, hey, years ago they used to have the boxes and they would have to stop, open up the box, click the thing, because they knew that they came by. Or they would call Right, they knew they weren't sitting in the car, sleeping or something, right, okay, back to you and coming to Hollywood.
Carmen Lezeth:You get your big break.
Charlie Mattera:Let me explain to you. See, my buddies come from New York who don't come out here or who have never been out here. It's funny because they always have the three questions after they've been here three weeks. Charles, you know these people out here. Yeah, yeah, I know these people. They're friends of yours. Yeah, some of them are, charles. What the fuck kind of people he's? And I'm like dude, you don't understand. You ain't been here a year. Man, you shot. You need to go home. This is going to take too long. You don't have the time. I'm telling you you should go home.
Charlie Mattera:You tell people. I tell them it's not for you Soon, as they call me up and tell me they're on Wilshire and Sepulveda, wilshire and Sepulveda, that's when.
Charlie Mattera:I go around Cahunga. Right, I got to stop them right away and tell them dude, it's not for you, he's going to get done immediately. Everybody's chilling out out here. As you notice, people look healthier, look better, last longer. We're in the beautiful weather. How you people deal with the four seasons, which kicked the shit out of people. Four seasons will ruin your trees and the tides. It's awful.
Carmen Lezeth:So what's your favorite part of Hollywood as the industry?
Charlie Mattera:And then we can talk about the other when you're doing it, when you're doing it when you're on set. Hey, I worked for Stephen Summers. Okay, I hit the floor in GI Joe. I was supposed to be. I played Snake Eyes, father. Oh, I'm still there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I never made the cut, you know.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, okay, I had a couple of those movies, so get this you want to laugh?
Charlie Mattera:The guy is sitting on my couch hanging out. The nicest guy in the world, stephen Summers, I had no idea. I met him through the guy who used to play the mummy. Okay, arnold, arnold Vosloo.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, I don't know his name. Yeah, he's.
Charlie Mattera:South African guy. He played the new mummy in the mummy movies you know like with Brendan. Frazier, he plays the mummy.
Charlie Mattera:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah and in Blood Diamond he plays the evil Colonel. You know he's got the Okay, so great guy, Swizz guy in the world. So I met Stephen through him, you know, just hanging around, knock around buddies. And one day Stephen calls me up and he goes and I was in great shape then, I was still I didn't get, I was before I got hurt. And Stephen calls me up and he says, hey, charlie, I got some work for you. I was like dude, you know, just because I'm in shape, don't mean I move furniture and stuff. He was like, no, no, he goes, I'm doing a movie. I got something for you. I'm doing a movie. What? Some indie thing? And he goes no, charlie, it's a big movie.
Charlie Mattera:I was like fuck, stephen, I didn't know. I said what? Are you an editor or something? He goes, no, I'm directing the movie. And I was like holy shit, steve. I said I thought you were just some jagged ass who sat on my couch. He goes, I'm not also, but I also happen to be a director. I said you know, I wrote Catch Me If you Can. He goes, you know he goes. I'm directing GI Joe. You know GI Joe. I said, oh, you mean the Doss with the guy with the life I get. I said cool. I said what do you want me to be an extra something? He says no, no, you're going to play Snake Eye's father.
Charlie Mattera:He goes there's going to be a scene in an alleyway in Tokyo and you're all in the alleyway and you grubby, and you're, you and your kid are looking to the garbage pails and something to eat and then your kid goes inside a dojo. He goes, so, you know, I says, can you do it? I said I can't do it, you know. And so now I don't even know what's going on. You know, he sends me to wardrobe and it's like, you know, it's not like wardrobe, like you go to an independent film.
Carmen Lezeth:You know, like your own, this is a major, major trailer. You're all set.
Charlie Mattera:I'm like you know, and I come popping in here oh, Mr Matero, it's just Charlie, I don't. Okay, stay away, they're going at it. There's like five of them. I'm just like, oh shit. So now I show up at the set when they're shooting little Tokyo downtown. I drive into the crew put and I swear this is what happened they given me this wardrobe in this trailer. They put me in a trailer and I see the wardrobe and I hadn't shaved in like three days because I'm supposed to be a homeless bum, you know right, right and uh and Steve comes in and he goes, why?
Charlie Mattera:I said, steve, look at this stuff. I said I'm supposed to be a homeless guy. This stuff was actually clean. I said this looks like it went to the dry cleaners. It's all dirty. I said where's the clothes at? So I had my own jeans and I had my own grubby boots. I brought these old lace up ropers, you know, and they were brown and grubby and knocked around. So we go into the trailer. It was like right out of freaking chaplain, we walk in there. And I said, give me that light blue shirt thing. And I put the light blue shirt and I just looked at Steve and I went and I ripped the pocket, you know, and I said the wardrobe's freaking out.
Charlie Mattera:And then I said give me the uh, the Pico in the blue Pico. I said get me the watch cap, you know, and I put it on, but I rolled it in where it was just over here. And then I looked at Steve and I was like I'm starting to feel it. I said the stuff is still clean. I said we walked out of the trailer and I see him. I said where's the prop dude? He calls the prop dude over and he's laughing at me because we were friends for like two years, right, you know, and he never seen me work or do anything. So I'm just winging it out there.
Charlie Mattera:And I said hey, the prop guy. I said you got that stuff, the gk. It's like mud, you know the gk. He goes. Yeah. I said go get it. So he gets it and I rub it in my hands and I pull it, yeah, all of my face and my nose in my ears. I even rubbed it on my teeth in my hands, all up in my nails, and he's looking at me, steve, and he's like holy shit, charlie. I said relax, dude, it's Hollywood. So he's laughing and the clothes are still like this. I said this ain't cutting it and there was a giant mud puddle in the crew parking.
Carmen Lezeth:I did not.
Charlie Mattera:I did a friggin swan dive. Everybody's watching, there's like 100 people out there and I went Cha cha cha, she got booze and I rolled in it and got all up in it. And then I got up and it was dripping and I looked like fucking hell. And then I said to the guy he said get me a pair of those knit gloves, cut the fingers off. I said get me a box of cheap shit cigars. I said so, you put it in here. I said. And then get me a bottle, a glass bottle, put a Japanese label on it and throw some iced tea in it. So he says great. He says okay, and I stick it in my waist and then lit up this friggin cigar and it's like broken in half, you know. And I look at Steve and I go hey, he said to me holy shit.
Charlie Mattera:He says perfect, perfect. So we go to camera. Now it's getting nighttime. Yeah, oh my, I couldn't believe it. They spent money, they had like cranes and they brought in 1960s like Datsuns and Toyotas, the cars, and they even had people all dressed out. You know carrying, you know I forget what they call them. You know the rickshaws and it was people hanging out of the windows from those. You know, in little tubules, little tights, people were hanging out the windows out of the top. You know, it was just insane. They had the rain machines there.
Carmen Lezeth:So cool. I love Hollywood.
Charlie Mattera:They're setting up the shot, I come over to the side of camera. There's a bunch of suits, there's camera, there's the tent, the big tent. There's three or two, 300 people running around doing all kinds of shit. You know, and I don't realize the shot. This whole shot is me and this kid. So basically there's about 300 grand going on, 400 grand just for this, and with the rain machine, who knows what that fucking costs. So I'm standing in. Right, we don't have the rain machine. You know well, it's $3,000 an hour. Fuck it. You know independent film, we'd have guys throwing buckets of water.
Carmen Lezeth:Right throwing water, yeah with sprinklers.
Charlie Mattera:We'd come on the roof with sprinklers. So now I'm standing next to camera and I sit, you know, I'm standing next to camera and I get the lump, you know, and I look like and I'm in my whole bag, I'm just rocking and rolling in my bag and I see one of the suits guys sees me and he goes hey, excuse me. Well, he goes. You know, you're not supposed to be hanging around here. You know we're making a movie, you know? No, he don't know.
Carmen Lezeth:He doesn't know. It's you. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, that's so great.
Charlie Mattera:He comes over and he goes really it's not. But I look at it and he goes you gotta get lost. I go, hey, what's in for me? You know, I said to my guy what's in for me. But yeah, you know, pull out the bottle. You know, wipe my sleeve and just looking and doing the whole thing to the guy, he lifts out his roll, he pulls out a 20. He hands it to me.
Carmen Lezeth:This is a dumb ass person on set who has no idea. Is it a closed set?
Charlie Mattera:Yeah, but he was probably an executive producer. So all of a sudden Steve goes. I hear Steve, way back in the county. He's in the tent, charlie, and I was like yo, steve. I said yeah, I'm good he goes. Hey, get up in there to show you your mark. I said you got it bud. So I start walking away and the guy goes. Who the fuck is that? That's the actor. He says plain and safe. I swear you know the homeless bungee. He goes. I just gave the guy a 20. And Steve's like Charlie, he's like Charlie. I took the guy to the other day and I was like fuck, no, I'm keeping it.
Charlie Mattera:I said man, that's mine. I said I may never work again after this day. Who?
Carmen Lezeth:is such a dumb ass to be on set and not realize that I mean I get it because you're so in that moment I was just having fun with it, I was enjoying myself.
Charlie Mattera:I was like this, is it baby? Look how beautiful this is. You know all this money and it was me and this little kid was, and the kid was the most well-behaved kid I ever met. This little kid in the in the alleyway, and I'm supposed to be laying in the muck and the mire by the garbage pails and the kid is picking through each guy's best and he finds a rat. They had a rat, professional rat. The rat was making more money than I was Because he had hours in here All the same hours this rat was a big rat, he'd been in a lot of movies, you know.
Carmen Lezeth:Willard Indiana.
Charlie Mattera:Jones, you know any rat movie.
Carmen Lezeth:Right, this rat was in there.
Charlie Mattera:They even had two guys off the frame when the kid tossed the rat. There was a guy there with a big, giant, fluffy towel and caught the rat. I wish somebody would be there when I hit the rat, it's Peter.
Charlie Mattera:If I hit the garbage pails. It fell on my back. Hey, charlie, somebody help Charlie. Up over there, exactly, the rat had three guys and they had like a thing and he the rat food and they covered him up because the rain machines were gone. So I see them out of frame and the kid goes in and he pulls out like some Japanese food and then all of a sudden you see me, give me a rat. You got your whole life to eat. Let your old man get a little something. You know they were trying to prompt me to say something. So I was improv in my own life and I still had the cigar and I still eat you with the cigar. So now I've.
Charlie Mattera:I worked that night. I can't sleep for two days after that night. You know there was a couple takes all different. This way. I had the camera right here on my freaking face. The thing was this big on a crane, charlie, you don't mind if the crane goes over your head, fuck you. Tell me All right. Oh good, hey, if you hit me here with the crane and the little blood, you know it was great, I was down for anything, it didn't matter.
Charlie Mattera:So I couldn't sleep for two days, like five days later, I get a call at like 10 o'clock at night. It's Steve and he goes hey, charlie, and they're in dailies, they're watching dailies and there's a guy in there I took a meeting with 15 years prior. I mean this is like 12 years into my career, right. And you know you get hired and you can't get hired and nobody wants to know you. He sucks, he's crazy, he's difficult, which means you're good at what you do and you don't take bullshit from anybody, right? That's what that means. So you know, I get a call and it's like 10 o'clock and Steve's like. I can hear people and one of the guys is this guy, lorenzo de Bonaventure, which is a huge, huge, gigantic producer. I mean, the guy's untouchable. I wish I could get him in a room for 20 minutes and pitch to him all the shit movies that are being made. But I was in the room and he's there. He had them talking and they're laughing. They're staring at Charlie. Wow, they're like it looks great, this looks amazing. Holy shit, he did a great job and they're all laughing. Good job, charlie. I hear him in the background and they go.
Charlie Mattera:He goes look, I need you to go next week and they're going to dress you out for a wet suit and some uniforms because now you're going to be in a one man submarine. We're going to shoot you in a one man submarine underwater. And he's like you're not close to your phone because I said I get over it. I said I'll get over it, don't worry about it. So then he says and then you'll be on a pier wearing your uniform, looking like a million bucks, and your son sees you. And now he's grown up snake eyes and he's got the whole face on. He knows it's you, but you're not sure it's him, right, or he the other way around. He doesn't know that's your dad, but he knows it's something. He goes. And this is when you got your shit together, like you get your stuff together after that. Later on I was like wow, steve. I said, well, you're paying for this. He goes, charlie, relax.
Carmen Lezeth:Aren't you already sad at this point?
Charlie Mattera:Yeah, I was. You figure you're getting what? $600 a day, whatever it was back then, Whatever it was back then.
Carmen Lezeth:But yeah, you're getting that minimum I gave it away.
Charlie Mattera:You know, to keep the money. Man, just keep filming me, get as much coverage as you can. So I'm jazz. They sent me down to I don't know where it was, like Long Beach or Manhattan Beach, to this warehouse, this long warehouse place, and they got costume for miles in there. I mean I never see and they're fitting me for a wetsuit, my own individual wetsuit, and it's other uniforms and this long ass warm jacket that's wearing, a set when you're freezing and all this shit. And then about a week and a and I got paid for the fitting and then a week and a half after that, bingo. He says Charlie, studio, there's just too many characters that they people are loose focus. I said whatever man, we had a blast, I appreciate the opportunity. Man. I said hopefully, whatever I did, do somebody sees it and we get some more work. I see.
Carmen Lezeth:I mean we work on a film and then they cut us.
Charlie Mattera:When I got off the phone with them I was like yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:I mean so you did all that work.
Charlie Mattera:You got paid for all that time. But you ended up not in the film. Nobody ever see it.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, and the same thing happened to me too.
Charlie Mattera:I was in a big time movie, same kind of thing, I ended up getting cut and it sucks.
Carmen Lezeth:I was not as gracious as you.
Charlie Mattera:I was I had to believe me. That's been a lot of my problem. I, you know I say what I mean, I mean what I say, and always at the wrong fucking time.
Carmen Lezeth:You know yeah, that's key.
Charlie Mattera:Well, you know it's like sometimes. You know and I've heard through my whole career you know I got hurt. You know, after me and my wife got married, we went to the house. I got electrocuted in the freaking house. I was walking around like this.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh no, what happened?
Charlie Mattera:I couldn't walk my whole face. I was like in the hospital for a week and I'm telling my wife don't worry baby, and I'm drinking the water and it's just falling out the side of my mouth.
Carmen Lezeth:Wait, but what do you mean?
Charlie Mattera:you got electrocuted we were living in a house in off a pico I touched an ungrounded, unwired Garbage disposal with a wet hand. Oh, oh, my hand was wet and I was literally. Was immediate you knew I flew Eight feet the air back in the air and I hit a stove in the middle of my back and when I hit the ground I curled up like my whole face. I can hear everything. I couldn't speak and I couldn't move.
Carmen Lezeth:But you know, my body was convulsing like how long were you in this, in this situation?
Charlie Mattera:All I heard was this in the background yeah, because where I lived on pico the firepump was literally like three blocks away. There was a helicopter over my house. Okay, I'm like just finished doing that stupid reality show house. Husbands of Hollywood.
Carmen Lezeth:I can't believe you did that actually. Well, no, I was broke.
Charlie Mattera:What was I supposed to do?
Carmen Lezeth:No, I'm not making a judgment. I didn't even want to do the show.
Charlie Mattera:I thought of it and the total flu. The guys are home, they're doing and the women are at work and my wife was like that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. It'll probably sell in five seconds.
Carmen Lezeth:It went into Fox.
Charlie Mattera:Five seconds. They were like this is the show. The guy was a game show producer and he had buttons on his desk. One was the and he told me when I came to the office you don't want to hit this button. And he hit it. And with as soon as I pitched the show, inside of a minute, he went and hit the button. I heard I said that means it's pay time, Don't it? He goes? Yes, it does.
Carmen Lezeth:So you got paid. Okay, there are people don't I mean okay, not a left field.
Charlie Mattera:They came in and the guys that were on the show God bless them. You know they weren't. They weren't the most engaging. And you know snippy snappy, you know me, you could watch me and you sleep. You know what I mean. At least I keep you laughing and if somebody does something stupid, you know I'm gonna call them out on it.
Carmen Lezeth:So wait. So you turned around and you got hurt. Yeah, yeah, that was.
Charlie Mattera:I did the show. Everything was cool. Yo, uh. We left the Brentwood and moved to like over by Pico oh, pella Manning over there and we had a nice little house. It's cool. We backyard we had the squirrel, you know, he was only like a year and a half. I didn't want him hanging out in Brentwood you know Brentwood, especially now. Yeah, a little scimulated. You know, brentwood looks like westwood now man.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, I hate Brentwood and, by the way, I mean I'm in Santa Monica now and I'm ready to move to the Palisades.
Charlie Mattera:I'm ready to go. I don't know what's going on.
Carmen Lezeth:That's a whole other conversation, oh wait.
Charlie Mattera:I hand everybody a bucket with some soap and some scrubbages. Let's go, folks.
Carmen Lezeth:The whole place. Wait, wait, let's go back. So you finished the show. I finished the show.
Charlie Mattera:We're living in this house and this happens. You know, we're there just like a couple of weeks or something and um, and then I think even before then, my mother passed away. And then I got her. My mother passed away, yeah, and I flew back to New York. And that was a Slipped at nightmare people to go back home people taking pictures off the walls. You know they pulling up floorboards looking for money freaks.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh.
Charlie Mattera:You people are not related to me, man.
Carmen Lezeth:It goes back to you reading the Emily post manners and etiquette. Classy, you know you would never do that.
Charlie Mattera:This is a rule book to life. It's not actually written, but it's a book and it's a book and that book of rules is you open the door for people. You let people leave the restaurant before you enter it. Sometimes you even hold the door for them when they leave. It's just please and thank you. Uh, you know you need help with the bags. You know, hey, these days I even sometimes I see a Um, a woman. That's just wow, immaculately. And I I even say to him is it? Am I allowed to say you look nice today? And they're like, yes, you certainly are. Well, you look very nice today. I I've done it a ton of times because I admire somebody who's got their shit together and they should hear it. People should we, we should congratulate each other. We, we spent a lot of time kicking each other in the butt and I think, I think we should all congratulate each other. For no apparent reason, then, it's just the right thing to do.
Carmen Lezeth:You know, I think that was one of the first things you said when you came on my show the first time. Um, you know, back when we had just started, you had said that you liked that I'm trying to spread joy.
Charlie Mattera:Even when I'm being silly and I'm like goofing on you, I'm just loving up on you, man, I'm trying to I take it all like people in the street, like you know somebody, and I'm like the the shoes, the shoes on the time with the ship. That's not working. I've done it before. My wife's like right. My wife's like what's wrong with you?
Carmen Lezeth:Who is your wife? Do I know your wife? I don't think I know your wife.
Charlie Mattera:She's the best. She's the best I'm gonna have to. She took on this.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, she took on you so.
Charlie Mattera:I love her already congressional medal of honor.
Carmen Lezeth:But do I know her? I don't know her. You if?
Charlie Mattera:you saw you probably I've seen her around because she was in san maca, brentwood.
Carmen Lezeth:She doesn't rub it all the time too.
Charlie Mattera:Yeah, I used to see me sitting with her, sometimes at the bean or at the rosti. Wow, very pretty.
Carmen Lezeth:You know that pc go, though is gone right.
Charlie Mattera:Well, yeah, now it's your tinos, right?
Carmen Lezeth:I don't know what it is, but I was just driving there the other day.
Charlie Mattera:It's the same people, it's just a different name and the prices are more expensive. Oh is it good, the son the son-in-law of the guy ago who owned it originally and his family. They owned toscana, they owned the rossies and then he sold the rossies and the toscana to joya pizza. I don't know if they still own it anymore, but rossies are gone. There was like six of them. I think there's only two. I went to one in on the tenth of montana recently. It was awful.
Carmen Lezeth:Here in san maca.
Charlie Mattera:Yeah, it was wait.
Carmen Lezeth:Let's go back to hollywood, so you do love hollywood. What is? That I love california, I love california, I didn't say california, I'm talking about the industry. What is it that you love about hollywood?
Charlie Mattera:Because, you know when you're, when you're working. There's nothing like it in you're always trying to do.
Carmen Lezeth:You're still writing right now and you're acting.
Charlie Mattera:No, I just finished the screenplay with the guy I was telling you about, todd newman, director, morning son, david navarro. Everybody see it, you'll love it. It's depressing as shit. If you feel like being depressed.
Carmen Lezeth:Wait, you already sold it.
Charlie Mattera:Yeah, yeah, it's out, it's. You can look at what movie.
Carmen Lezeth:It's called morning son, you are and I god, that's all I didn't know about the avarro.
Charlie Mattera:Believe me, it's like something out of like Uh, this is date line. I mean it's crazy. They did interviews with the fbi profiles who was looking for this guy. For like 11 years he was on the run. He escaped when they finally caught and then they gave him the death penalty. He's still I don't know if he's still alive or dead in.
Carmen Lezeth:Don't hate me if I don't watch it, because that does sound depressing.
Charlie Mattera:No, it's creepy, but it's more about him, it's more it's. It's more about mental health and you know. Don't give me a watch it and all of this stuff for trying to get your life together, the fact that that guy has become as successful and been as creative as he is With all of that shit. That's why I respected him. I said to him once I said you know, I feel a lot like you. I said because we've both been put into unbelievable circumstances and somehow we've come out.
Carmen Lezeth:The other side we can still function.
Charlie Mattera:You know we have our demons, but we can still function. But I, like I said, to get back to it, I, when you, when you do get the opportunity, like when I worked on californication with dave du covney- David du covney and David is a great guy. He's very funny he's. He has that kind of smarmy, sarcastic wit. But it's all bullshit because deep down he is a really nice person. He is a sweetheart. He is a sweetheart of a guy? Yes, he is. He's very uh he's very handsome.
Charlie Mattera:If you see david du covney in the street, go up to him and give him a hug.
Carmen Lezeth:You tell Charlie that people will do it, don't see that.
Charlie Mattera:How do we right now, if you see him in the street and tell him, charlie said I should give you a hug, it's. Tell him it's optional, but charlie said Optional, I'm here to give it to you if you would like it. You know nothing personal, he's a great guy. I had a lot of fun with him and, uh, very silly. And then there's also, uh, I just saw him recently. I went to ryan's memorial. It was a couple weeks ago at the dga, you know, for o'neill.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, but who do you? Oh, you said, you saw david du covney there.
Charlie Mattera:No, no, I saw I ran into david du covney, sort of like weirdo, strange kind of doppelganger who I call heart bachner. Remember heart bachner from. Remember, remember diehard.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh yeah, I'm not a big diehard fan. You remember the?
Charlie Mattera:movie breaking away, the famous movie with the bicycle race and denise. Oh yeah, I do, I do actually he plays the college smarmy kid with the had the handsome.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, okay, that's such a name dropper dude.
Charlie Mattera:His father was a very famous actor in the original point blank with lee marvin and angie dickinson and calo con his father's original father's name was loylde bachner. His father did the twilight zone episode. It's to serve man as a cookbook. Yeah, I know, remember when he's going on the flying saucer and he finds out that the aliens are going to eat them. It's a famous one, it's.
Carmen Lezeth:it's called so here's where you and I are a little bit different. I love it.
Charlie Mattera:I don't remember all this stuff. I've been lucky. I've been lucky. I got to meet a couple of greats, like I got to meet Don Rickles, I got to meet Angie Dickinson and army archer, and one of the guys I really admired was Ryan's old agent. What the hell is this? Why am I going blank? I'm having a senior.
Carmen Lezeth:No, no, you want me to look it up.
Charlie Mattera:His name was he. He produced a movie with Stallone in it Victory, the soccer movie.
Carmen Lezeth:I don't know.
Charlie Mattera:He's one of the Neil.
Carmen Lezeth:Hasseman.
Charlie Mattera:No, I don't know, manager. No, that's, that's ages ago. It was called Victor Victory with Stallone and Pele was in the movie. This was his, his agent, his name, Fred.
Carmen Lezeth:Victory was the name of the movie.
Charlie Mattera:Yeah, victory is the famous movie with Stallone and Michael Cain and everybody.
Carmen Lezeth:And what did he do in the movie?
Charlie Mattera:He was the producer of the film.
Carmen Lezeth:No, I'm not going to be able to find him, but he was a heavy agent Okay, wait.
Charlie Mattera:I really like this guy. I'm looking it up right now.
Carmen Lezeth:I'm trying to look it up too. I don't know.
Charlie Mattera:John Houston, that's directed by John Houston Victory, Victory oh.
Carmen Lezeth:Pele, see, I didn't see this.
Charlie Mattera:Stallone.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, I see this, but I don't know who the producer is. Michael Cain, Pele, Bobby Moore.
Charlie Mattera:Victory Stallone movie.
Carmen Lezeth:Let me see if I can find it. I have the movie here, but I can't see who. Produced by Freddie Fields.
Charlie Mattera:That's him.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay.
Charlie Mattera:I meet him to Ryan. The guy lives in Beverly Hills. We immediately hit it off this guy. Okay, I think when he looked at me he saw Ryan at a younger age, but like a New York kind of kid.
Carmen Lezeth:I was.
Charlie Mattera:I was. I looked like Jimmy Dean, but I talked like a good fellow.
Carmen Lezeth:Right, exactly, that is so true.
Charlie Mattera:And I had a good memory and a good mind for films.
Carmen Lezeth:And you know what you keep saying, ryan, and I keep forgetting that we're actually recording this and that it's going to be part of the podcast we should mention.
Charlie Mattera:it's Ryan O'Neill that you're talking about yeah, yeah, that was a great funny guy, absolutely insane hysterical person.
Carmen Lezeth:One of your favorite people.
Charlie Mattera:Godfather, was he kind of your best friend? That's my son. He's creeping down Is he going to say hi to me.
Carmen Lezeth:Hey, ryan, just leave him Hi how are? You. Oh my God, he's not a little kid.
Charlie Mattera:How old is he? He's going to be 16 April 2nd.
Carmen Lezeth:There's no way. I'm not old, I'm sorry.
Charlie Mattera:O'Neill was born on April. I think it's April.
Carmen Lezeth:What's the?
Charlie Mattera:same. Are you on a left? It's the same day as Hitler.
Carmen Lezeth:I don't think that's funny and I used to tell him all the time why would you do that I go?
Charlie Mattera:it makes sense, that's his Godfather.
Carmen Lezeth:That's his Godson right.
Charlie Mattera:He did the whole, Ryan did the whole ceremony. It's St Martin of Tours of Brentwood with Father Donnie Father.
Charlie Mattera:Donnie, he's the greatest guy in the world. I see he's got saints. He was a painter, father Donnie and his saints paintings all around the church. I see one in the back. There's some bars and barbed wire and there's a guy and he's got numbers. I go there and I say, oh, he's political prisoner being held against his will in Ireland. He's the saint he is. He was like a little leprechaun, he was like five, two, but Ryan stood up there and did the whole thing with the baby and the water and then the priest even said a prayer for Fowler at that time because she was sick at that time.
Carmen Lezeth:I was sick, right.
Charlie Mattera:And it's funny because I never met her.
Carmen Lezeth:I never met her at all.
Charlie Mattera:No, she's hysterical, so I call her up.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, wait, we should probably say we're talking about Fowler Fawcett.
Charlie Mattera:Fawcett, yes, he's the coolest chick, the coolest knock around girl ever. He had no idea. Tough but coolest chick.
Carmen Lezeth:You're beautiful, Beautiful yeah just you know what.
Charlie Mattera:Inside and out, she had her moments just like anybody. But she, her and I got along real well. We had a good understanding, you know what we had a bad incident and then we became pals. So Ryan sends me these calls. He used to call me up and say Charlie, ryan.
Carmen Lezeth:Ryan.
Charlie Mattera:Neil love story. Yeah, I go. Yeah, dude, I know the movies, I seen him. Yeah, he would say every time he called me up at Christmas at my mother's Charles. There's a guy on the phone. He says he's Ryan O'Neill. I go, my, that's Ryan O'Neill.
Carmen Lezeth:She goes get out.
Charlie Mattera:I go no, it's right on the. He doesn't know you. Why would he know you? I go my he's on the phone, man, he's called me. I go. You're holding the phone. She goes hi, ryan, you know it's me, it's Muriel, it's him and her for 20 minutes.
Carmen Lezeth:So wait, you were calling Farrah. For what?
Charlie Mattera:So I was calling Farrah. No, he called me and said Farrah was going to be at the gym. Could you go over there Help her out, cause you know the paparazzi maniacs. You know are you around and Todd, you know my writing partner. He goes, you know, just kind of float around, you know, just in case so she can get in the car. He goes, hang out with her gym. She needs some help, no problem, and I live like three blocks from the gym, you know, and I go over there and she's in the back, she's on the stairs, she's talking on the phone and I can't tell who she's talking to, but she's fucking hot on the phone. She's going nuts. So one time she looks up at me and she goes I said Ryan told me to come by. He says keep an eye on you if you need some help, whatever, I don't need that help from anybody. She gave me the whole thing.
Charlie Mattera:I don't need no help from you, I don't need no help from anybody. I was like and I went what I said? You know obviously you and I we haven't had much time to talk to each other. I said I'm not the usual person that Ryan hangs out with. I said I don't give a flying fuck you fire force. It used to be so. I said to used to be. I said fuck you. I said to fuck you. I came here to help you out, to do the right thing. You're going to hammer me. I didn't fuck you up today. I didn't make you all pissed off. I said whoever pissed you off and made you fucking yell at me, all that fucking asshole up and hammered him. I said fuck you.
Carmen Lezeth:This is at the gym, at pro gym, by the back. Oh my God, the little stairs there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my God.
Charlie Mattera:It was next door and Vicente's the restaurant, and I walked away. So now I crossed Uh, what's? She's that?
Carmen Lezeth:That's Montana, right thing Right there, goshen. No, it's Gorham, gorham, it's Gorham, so I put it in the back, yeah.
Charlie Mattera:I passed there. I'm walking down San Vicente and I'm thinking to myself and I'm talking to the world that people like Charlie's crazy, stay away the whole neighborhood. You know, charlie, smoke one. You know, fucking bitch, charlie Zane's fucked that show. Show was cheese anyhow. You know, I'm saying to myself, all sudden she pulls up, she's got the window down. Charlie, charlie, and she always used to sound like that, charlie.
Charlie Mattera:We get in the car and I was like fuck you out of here, man, leave me alone. I got you such a dick. And she says to me she goes. She goes, charlie, please, please. I'm sorry, I'm sorry she goes. I've talked to these idiots and Redmond is just thriving me. Absolutely bad shit, crazy. And I'm yelling at the whole world she goes, not you, you came down to me, you're not. She goes like that. She goes. You're not a real person, you're like a different. You know you're not asking about everyone else, you're a different person. I go. Yeah, that's saying I'm on my own planet, farrah. She goes. Look, please, please, don't tell Ryan she goes. Ryan loves you like your brother. She finds out he'll fucking kill me. She goes, grab me and he'll kill me and I go. I go. No, farrah, I don't snitch.
Charlie Mattera:I said you and me. We got off on the wrong foot. You're apologizing now it's fucking over, let's let it go. And now we start off. No, it's different now. So she says come on, let's get in the car, let's go get some lunch. I said okay, where do you want to go? I said I don't know what about over here. I don't want to go there. So we did that for like 20 minutes. You know they're not nice to me and they always give me a shit table. I said, all right, come with me. I brought it up it's a collar.
Carmen Lezeth:So now everybody's inside, everybody's freaking out. It wasn't a piece of coat. It wasn't a piece of cat.
Charlie Mattera:I used to call it busy cats Pitsies. We used to call it Pitsy.
Carmen Lezeth:When did she die? No, the girl Farrah, died the same day, as I was in nine, she died. Michael Jackson, and her same day. That's right. She died in 2009.
Charlie Mattera:I was at the house today. She died with me, my boy Todd and Ryan, and we were sitting out on the balcony and she was in the other room. Ryan was with her and he came out and he said that's it. And I was like oh shit, buddy. And we were sitting on the balcony and also we saw all the news vans that downstairs we saw like half of them through take off and then my friend, oh, and you guys weren't sure why, but it was, yeah, yeah, same day call from my buddy, richie Crudo, who's the director photography of outside of Providence, american pie Flow.
Charlie Mattera:Good, buddy, he calls me up because they Charles. I said what's up? He goes. Guess who just dropped that? I said who? He said fucking Michael Jackson. I was like holy shit. And Ryan, immediately he didn't hear it comes. He said who died? I said Michael Jackson. He goes. Fucking great, he goes. Now the whole thing's gonna go there and nobody's good. I said no, no, no. I said the freak show is going there. I said Hollywood is here, right. I said okay. I said what Matt is in this business? The only bit of class.
Carmen Lezeth:I was heart wrenching when she passed away.
Charlie Mattera:I said to him the only bit of class left in this business is gonna stay here with us and her. I said the nut house is going there. And sure enough, you saw that night what was going on.
Carmen Lezeth:Get mad at me if I don't say we don't hate Michael Jackson. No, I don't hate the guy at all.
Charlie Mattera:I just knew the kind of freak show that that all the, all the paparazzi is crazy. And the process, and the people from Missouri. People from Missouri. You can't say shit anymore. You know it's not my choice. You went to live in the middle of nowhere.
Carmen Lezeth:It was the same day but I knew it was like it was the same day.
Charlie Mattera:It was really freaky because I remember rich, he was the first person to call me up and I was like what happened? He goes yeah, what's? His face croaked? He says that people are running in now like crazy. He says I've been hearing it. You know that was that was insane too. That was a travesty, because that who let him have access to all of that shit.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, that's a whole other conversation, but here's my thing. So I love that. You still love Hollywood and I love it.
Charlie Mattera:It's the work I love. It's the business of the people.
Carmen Lezeth:I think you don't like fake people anywhere, and here we find not the mister.
Charlie Mattera:Hey, I've been plenty full of shit in my day, but when it comes down to creativity and money and time, let's not fuck around. When the end result is making the best movie or TV show we can to appeal to people, so to dig it, and I want to see it. I don't think anybody was messing with Vince Gilligan when he was creating break in bed Holy shit.
Charlie Mattera:I love that show why they offend everyone. They don't give a shit who you are. And say it like it is, I'm all for that. 20 years ago I was telling people watch they're gonna do Mexico drugs soap opera watch and I was right. I was right, I knew.
Carmen Lezeth:So are you working on the next big hit?
Charlie Mattera:No, what I read. I wrote something. I. I was plagued by a fairy tale in my head. Um, I Wanted to write something that me and Todd, me and my buddy Todd Newman. Um, I Told Todd.
Charlie Mattera:I said I had a dream about a little boy. Most of my best stuff comes to me when I'm sleeping or I'm walking, yeah, yeah, yeah, when I'm walking around or I see a shit movie. But it gives me a thought for something else. You know, and I was.
Charlie Mattera:I had this thing in my head about a little orphan boy and his horse, like the black stallion, who belonged to a Sicilian town and during World War two, towards the end of the war, and they live right by the water and their town comes under siege by a bunch of criminals masquerading as Nazis to rip people off as they're getting out of Italy and they stop in this town and use the town to stash their stuff in the town bank while they wait for transport.
Charlie Mattera:This little boy knows, and this little boy is downtrod, the whole town treats him like shit. He picks up the garbage for everybody, but that's how they feed him and that's how him and his horse eat, and they're lovely. And the kid reads American, american comic books left over by G eyes and people and he, fascist himself for fucking superhero like he's Superman and he climbs all over the village and underneath the village in the catacombs and he swoops down and he has his horse pull strings and this is something that you're thinking about no, I already wrote it oh my god, are you saying you you were dreaming and I was like we wrote it?
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, sorry is so.
Charlie Mattera:This is a story I had my head almost 15 years ago. Wow, banging around in my head, no matter what else we're writing a crime drama thinking the fucking kid, the horse pulls the string, he goes, and the kid never speaks in this movie. He never talks really you never says where it's all in his face. He's like a cinema paradiso kid. You know, bicycle thief kid, like a true foe movie. You know, I wanted, I was, I love your accent when you say yeah.
Charlie Mattera:You know what he could see? He put a camera on his shoulder and he just shot what he saw yeah, are you selling this script or it's already been sold? I'm trying to Out there, you know, but people don't read. So give me the one liner once. You just fucking read it. Yeah, kid.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, that's right. Everybody wants kind of this.
Charlie Mattera:They're gonna make million dollar decisions based on some guy who gets thirty five dollars forty bucks a script to read scripts to write three pages of Synopsis and what his recommendations are. Some frustrated. Some frustrated writer who's reading your shit. And don't fuck, I didn't write this, right you know.
Carmen Lezeth:But why is it so hard to read a script? The script isn't even read.
Charlie Mattera:scripts you can't even get a script for three months.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah.
Charlie Mattera:I want to know you. If you are not an instant sale, they don't want to know you now. If I walk down the street in Malibu one day, I'm gonna get a cup of coffee, and I dropped my coffee all over Mel Gibson and I happen to have a script in my hand. Which nobody reads paper scripts anymore.
Carmen Lezeth:So if I happen to have a script my hand and it slams on we hit the ground and he's like shit.
Charlie Mattera:He's looking at a page and they're all sudden he's sitting there and I'm still drinking my coffee and he's looking at another page. He goes yeah, okay, yeah, keep going, right? You know, this is the only way shit happens anymore. You know? Or if I had five million dollars to make this movie, everybody's mama would come to me that they'd say Charles will match it. We got five, you got to make the first move in this business. You got to write it, you got to direct it, you got to, you got to see it all the way through. Or you got a hope.
Carmen Lezeth:That start somehow Is somebody who has that kind of power will see it.
Charlie Mattera:Well you're hoping that he's sitting in the house on the holidays. He's gotten bored being around his fucking family for Christmas or Thanksgiving and he's just looking. He's saying I've already got the Oscars, I've already got the accolades, I've already made some great films, I've made some successful films, I've made some movies that made a ton of money and I've made two that were got me the house and everything else From the shit movies that I got paid crazy money for. And you're hoping, he's saying I just said just, I just want one. I just want one thing and I want to see it through because I got the juice. Now I want to see it through from the beginning to the end. And if I fuck up, I fuck up on my own merits and I have nobody else to blame it was the screenwriter, it was the director, it was this one.
Charlie Mattera:No, it's you, man, all you. So I like Bradley Cooper. I gotta give it to him. Did you see my show? I haven't seen. I'm gonna look. Yeah, I'm gonna look. I'm gonna see. I'm waiting to like it, like the one day I can watch that.
Carmen Lezeth:I don't.
Charlie Mattera:I don't even have to. I saw a few clips and I saw what he was doing. He's not acting anymore. He's the guy. That's it.
Carmen Lezeth:He's the guy, you know, let me tell you I'm so glad you just said that, because I was gonna ask you what you thought of the latest movies. But let me tell you, maestro, I went and saw it here in the Palisades.
Charlie Mattera:You know, there was nobody that was like.
Carmen Lezeth:I, I was crying. It was so good. First of all, it was so beautifully done. He did such a great job.
Charlie Mattera:So to get back to Luca, so Luca Sees, he realizes they're probably gonna kill everybody in the town before they leave.
Carmen Lezeth:He's the name of the little kid. Yeah you just said that for the first time.
Charlie Mattera:Okay, so the name of the script is called Luca the Magnificent and he is Luca Okay. That's Luca Okay. And the backstory why he's been treated this bad is he was in a steeple chase and he represented the town him and the horse and they fucking lost at the last moment because he pulled his reins up. A little girl ran in front of horse and they were winning, so the whole town was their fortune based on this kid.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay.
Charlie Mattera:And now this is his situation and he lives out by the beach, you know, and he lives in the catacombs. It's the only place he you find some shelter and he sees what's gonna happen here and he decides. As he goes through the catacombs he notices he's looking through the Suez. He sees the church and the bank On direct line with the catacombs. He thinks, maybe if I could dig a hole From down here under the church Into the bank, I could steal their stuff out of the vault and before they get to leave, I could tell him you want these two sticks of gold. Give me two people. Let them leave the town. You know he's gonna barter with lives and their treasure. You want your painting? Give me those three women. Let them go.
Charlie Mattera:You know this is what he's thinking in his brain, but what ends up happening is, slowly but surely, the whole fucking town is in on this. They're in the wall. They play in music Every time they play in music in the streets. Everybody's digging Every time the Nazis come in they stop, they stop and everybody stops digging.
Charlie Mattera:They got people now, but what happens is, as they start digging under the church, the statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus start to shake People. I can't walk, I can't see, I can't look at my hair.
Carmen Lezeth:This is good. Look at my hair is growing.
Charlie Mattera:Look, you know, and people are coming from all over other villages. They're hearing about it. This is not good for the Nazis. They're freaking out. Meanwhile they're getting under there. The American army is 30 miles away. Luca's trying to stall them. They're trying to wait for the right. They got the townspeople building a boat for them to get the hell out of town. They have the women doing it, because there's mostly women, because all the men are up in the hills. Luca goes to find the men up in the hills and they're up there and they're talking about Luca's plan of, you know, to help them. It's just, it's like madcap hysterical and chilling and terrible.
Carmen Lezeth:How does it end? Do I need to when it ends?
Charlie Mattera:the Nazis come rolling into town. Luca is on his horse, racing for the Americans, While they don't know who he is and start shelling him. Him and the horse hit the dirt a few times. They get up At some point in the beginning of the movie. He helps an American soldier. When the American soldier leaves, he leaves him a Yankee cat, Luca. When he falls down at the horse, he throws the cap on. You see a guy. Look, he sees the Yankee cat. He's like well, stop, you know, the Nazis throw down on everybody in the church for their stuff. Right, they're getting ready to shoot everybody for their stuff. All of a sudden the statues start to shake, but everybody's looking at everybody because they know there's no one in the tunnel. There's no one there.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, wow.
Charlie Mattera:And then, all of a sudden, you see the soldiers. They saw a lot of them are young. They don't want to do this. They see the statues. They drop their weapons. The guys are screaming. They're walking out, so I'm going to come out to the street. The people come out of the street and there he is with his horse. All right and all of a sudden you see the tanks coming over the hills.
Carmen Lezeth:He's got the whole.
Charlie Mattera:US Army.
Carmen Lezeth:This is done. You're trying to sell this now. It took you 15 years to develop yourself. I was out of the money.
Charlie Mattera:I brought it to Todd, todd and I started writing. We got about 60 pages in and then, all of a sudden, todd got married and had a kid, and his kid's name is Luca. And then he had another kid and his daughter's name is Lola. And then I got married, and then I had a kid and his name is you know, hey, ryan, what do you think we should name the kid? His name is Ryan, that's it. Whether it's a boy or a girl, it's Ryan. Fuck, what are you even asking for? I was like, oh, here Ryan, here Ryan.
Carmen Lezeth:OK, I love your wife. I'm not going to say about it, I was in Farrow you want to be my son's scarred mother, and she was like Charlie.
Charlie Mattera:I've never been anybody's scarred mom before. I said well, you are now.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, I didn't know, farrow was his scarred mother.
Charlie Mattera:Yeah, yeah, and she was sick, so she calls me back five minutes late. She's sick as all out there. She calls me back five minutes late. She goes, charlie Farrow for us. I go, yeah, I know.
Carmen Lezeth:Is this how the two of them talked?
Charlie Mattera:all the time. They loved to tease me all the time. So I was like, yeah, she goes, charlie, can we change the baby's name to Brian Brooks Farrimeter? I said, whatever you want, man, I got to picture right next to the bed, right here and there it was right next to the bed, like if you ever see that special where her and Redmond comes in the room, it's awful you could see it. There's a baby's picture on the table. That's him upstairs.
Carmen Lezeth:That's hilarious, yeah, so.
Charlie Mattera:Luca, luca the Magnificent is written. It's a full written.
Carmen Lezeth:You're just trying to sell it now.
Charlie Mattera:After that happens, let me set it up. In the beginning of this movie. A little boy is on the train and his name is Luca and he's the great grandson, and they're going back to Italy with this woman he married, who was from this village. She was a little girl when Luca was alive. She's bringing his coffin back to the village where he comes from to be buried the original Luca.
Charlie Mattera:Oh, ok, when they come into town on the station, the whole fuck in town, so you see all these old people, but you get to see them as young people when we go back and tell them story.
Charlie Mattera:When we go back and watch right, when they get off the train, when they see people are holding pictures of Luca in the air, of him, and the little boy goes grandma, why do they have pictures of me? She goes that's not you, that's your great grandpa. That's Luca. He looks just like me. She goes yes, he does. The people see the kid. They see the kid. They pick him up in the air, they carry him over the ground. They actually put him on a horse. The whole place is going nuts. And later that night the kid asks her. He says why? What happened here? And she says get some sleep, I'll tell you.
Carmen Lezeth:And that's a story.
Charlie Mattera:She wakes him up in the morning and she starts to tell him the story, but at the end of the story these Nazis had gold. They stole all the gold from them. But in this church was a black cross and when the light hits it at a certain time you could see their bricks.
Charlie Mattera:So, at the end of this movie she brings him into the church and he says what happened to the treasure, all the treasure that they took from the Nazis? She said look around the church. She said you see these paintings. We always hoped that over the years people would come here and they would look and see if something belonged to their family, and if it did, we would give it to them. We would give it back to them and they would take it back to where it belonged. She goes over the years. People have come, she goes and they've celebrated with us the life that some of these people did live.
Charlie Mattera:And she goes and he goes and she's Jewish girl. Because there's also a thing when he goes in the catacombs, he finds 40 Jewish people in the catacombs with crosses on, and he's feeding them every day. This is even before the Nazis show up. So when the Nazis show up he's fed up.
Carmen Lezeth:You know this is going to be on a podcast, right, and live streamed right. Yeah, I don't want your whole story out there.
Charlie Mattera:Well, I know he can still copy written and you couldn't fucking hold this off the way we did.
Carmen Lezeth:No, no, I'm too sad. I'm just letting you know.
Charlie Mattera:So at the end of this she basically brings him into the church and there's all the stained glass and she shows him the black cross and she takes a chair and she goes over there and she dusts off the center of the cross and she takes off her necklace as a Jewish star and it fits right in the cross.
Carmen Lezeth:Wait in the crosses, where all the gold is right.
Charlie Mattera:It's all the gold. It's still there. See, I'm all invested now and when they leave the church and the credits are rolling and all you see is the church. You see the statue go.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, that's so cool.
Charlie Mattera:A little bit. You wonder, did it just shake? So we don't know, was it a miracle or wasn't it?
Carmen Lezeth:I think that's awesome. I so that's a little.
Charlie Mattera:That's the thing we finished it like about a year and a half ago, and we've been rocking our brains and now you're just chopping it around. Let me tell you something. When we finished this, him and I, we were crying like babies when we wrote this, when we re-read it, because it was fucking nails. We didn't miss anything. We kept it going and moving and you just hope it gets in the hands of the right person.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, maybe it will. I'd like to see this thing. I think it will.
Charlie Mattera:I'd like to see this thing get made.
Carmen Lezeth:OK, wait. So I'm going to end this. Don't hang up, though, because you and I can keep talking, but I'm just really glad that we did this. I am cracking up because I could talk to you for like four more hours.
Charlie Mattera:Yes, you could.
Carmen Lezeth:Listen to the stories that be so easy to do. Yeah, I know. Thanks for stopping by. All about the joy Be better and stay beautiful folks, have a sweet day.