Latest / All About The Joy / A Screenwriter's Tale of Hollywood Dreams, Loss, and the Art of Storytelling: Charlie Mattera Part 2

Transcript

A Screenwriter's Tale of Hollywood Dreams, Loss, and the Art of Storytelling: Charlie Mattera Part 2 · All About The Joy

• 0:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Let me just say welcome to the private lounge, Charlie Matera.
• 0:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, again, thank you for doing this.
• 0:15
  Carmen Lezeth: I appreciate you.
• 0:16
  Carmen Lezeth: I'll make this the part two.
• 0:17
  Carmen Lezeth: So we ended the first part of our conversation where you had just moved to Los Angeles.
• 0:24
  Carmen Lezeth: You were here for three weeks.
• 0:25
  Carmen Lezeth: You sold your first script to.
• 0:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Roger Corman, three weeks.
• 0:30
  Charlie Mattera: What was it called Concord New Horizons?
• 0:32
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 0:42
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I tell you it doesn't work that way and I didn't realize this.
• 0:44
  Carmen Lezeth: But you had mentioned Richard Roundtree, richard.
• 0:47
  Charlie Mattera: Cool guy.
• 0:48
  Carmen Lezeth: But he died this past October.
• 0:50
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, john Shaft, he was in Blood Fist 3.
• 0:52
  Charlie Mattera: He played the old Wyzen Sage yeah.
• 0:57
  Carmen Lezeth: That was the first script you sold here.
• 0:59
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 1:00
  Carmen Lezeth: 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.
• 1:09
  Carmen Lezeth: We talked about your past, how you ended up getting in a little bit of trouble.
• 1:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, a little bit of trouble.
• 1:14
  Charlie Mattera: I hated when that happened.
• 1:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I hate when that happened, but it was like you were incarcerated for eight years.
• 1:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Very bad, you got out, Just to be clear you didn't murder anybody.
• 1:25
  Charlie Mattera: No, no, like I told you before, I just heard a lot of feelings.
• 1:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, you what.
• 1:30
  Charlie Mattera: I heard a lot of feelings.
• 1:31
  Carmen Lezeth: You heard a lot of feelings.
• 1:32
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, you stole a lot of money.
• 1:35
  Charlie Mattera: You know, that's stuff you can replace.
• 1:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 1:38
  Carmen Lezeth: So it was the feelings that would okay.
• 1:39
  Carmen Lezeth: So you were there for eight years.
• 1:40
  Carmen Lezeth: You got out and you ended up going back home.
• 1:45
  Carmen Lezeth: You become a bouncer.
• 1:47
  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.
• 1:56
  Charlie Mattera: We became fast friends.
• 1:58
  Charlie Mattera: He lived like five blocks from where I was Ended up working at this place called Heartbreak downtown.
• 2:04
  Charlie Mattera: Then I was working at the China Club for a while, peggy Seuss and under Indochine.
• 2:11
  Charlie Mattera: That was one of the groovy gravy places I was working at.
• 2:13
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, wow, I was a big artist.
• 2:17
  Carmen Lezeth: But then what was your friend's name?
• 2:18
  Carmen Lezeth: Who was like you should be an actor, you should write a script.
• 2:21
  Charlie Mattera: This was a guy I met years later.
• 2:23
  Charlie Mattera: His name was Al Burnett.
• 2:25
  Charlie Mattera: I met him through another friend who used to hang out on 83rd Street and he was an actor also.
• 2:33
  Charlie Mattera: This guy named Mark Petraca and he was like he worked in William Morris, you know he was doing yeah, yeah.
• 2:39
  Charlie Mattera: And you know, because when I was bouncing there was all these types around.
• 2:43
  Charlie Mattera: You know, guys were trying to be actors.
• 2:45
  Carmen Lezeth: And then Jason Bateman fit into this.
• 2:47
  Charlie Mattera: Jason Bateman in the city bopping around.
• 2:50
  Charlie Mattera: Somebody said, oh, that's my boss, this is.
• 2:53
  Charlie Mattera: I'm not answering that.
• 2:54
  Charlie Mattera: It's Saturday.
• 2:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, you can go ahead if you want.
• 2:56
  Charlie Mattera: I don't want to.
• 2:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh okay, why is it light?
• 2:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Why is the light?
• 3:00
  Charlie Mattera: Because that's my phone.
• 3:00
  Charlie Mattera: You know, when you're old you want it to light up so you can see.
• 3:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Charlie, you're not that old.
• 3:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Are you really that old?
• 3:06
  Charlie Mattera: I don't know I got a few years on me.
• 3:08
  Carmen Lezeth: You say that all the time.
• 3:10
  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.
• 3:20
  Carmen Lezeth: You're going off on a tangent here.
• 3:21
  Carmen Lezeth: I need you to go back to Jason Bateman, so I met.
• 3:24
  Charlie Mattera: Jason to my friend John.
• 3:26
  Charlie Mattera: What was John's brother's name?
• 3:27
  Charlie Mattera: Chris and John?
• 3:29
  Charlie Mattera: The two brothers both worked the clubs.
• 3:31
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 3:48
  Charlie Mattera: You need to find my cousin Charlie.
• 3:49
  Charlie Mattera: He goes.
• 3:50
  Charlie Mattera: Go find Charlie and Charlie will take you everywhere you know and you won't have to wait, you just walk right in.
• 3:56
  Charlie Mattera: So all of a sudden I think I forget where the hell was he?
• 3:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, because he was a big deal, even because he was a kid actor, yeah, he was like he wasn't nobody.
• 4:03
  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.
• 4:08
  Charlie Mattera: They Justin.
• 4:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh yeah, he was Justin Bateman and he used to flip out on that one.
• 4:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I was his podcast smart list with the other two there, Will Arnett and what's his name?
• 4:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Sean Hayes.
• 4:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Have you listened to their podcast?
• 4:22
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I'm not.
• 4:23
  Charlie Mattera: Mr Podcast guy, I really don't.
• 4:24
  Charlie Mattera: You know, this is more of my first experience doing this kind of stuff.
• 4:29
  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.
• 4:37
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 4:54
  Charlie Mattera: At four o'clock in the morning they were up, the kids sleep.
• 4:55
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 5:07
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 5:15
  Charlie Mattera: And then I came in and I brought Jason there.
• 5:17
  Charlie Mattera: So Jason was like you know he was this child, that kind of he's hanging around with these bikers and this.
• 5:22
  Carmen Lezeth: He was probably pretty young.
• 5:23
  Carmen Lezeth: He probably should not have been in this.
• 5:25
  Charlie Mattera: Chris Penn used to be, chris used to hang out there, and a lot of athletes so when you wait.
• 5:31
  Carmen Lezeth: So when you came to LA, you already had all these contacts.
• 5:34
  Charlie Mattera: No, I just knew Jason.
• 5:35
  Charlie Mattera: I mean, I knew that there was a bunch of New York guys out here, but I really didn't know anybody.
• 5:39
  Charlie Mattera: And you know, when you first come out here from New York, you're like a stranger in a strange land.
• 5:43
  Charlie Mattera: You know the whole pace is different.
• 5:45
  Charlie Mattera: Nothing gets done.
• 5:47
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 5:56
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 6:01
  Charlie Mattera: That's a legitimate excuse now, okay.
• 6:03
  Carmen Lezeth: I was thinking about this after our first conversation.
• 6:06
  Carmen Lezeth: 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.
• 6:11
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I love LA.
• 6:12
  Charlie Mattera: I'm a California guy.
• 6:13
  Carmen Lezeth: Now Okay, because you know you come across as.
• 6:15
  Charlie Mattera: No, no, no, you don't understand.
• 6:16
  Charlie Mattera: Okay, I am a bro Cephas now.
• 6:19
  Charlie Mattera: I would never move back to New York.
• 6:20
  Charlie Mattera: I can't do it.
• 6:21
  Charlie Mattera: There's nothing there.
• 6:22
  Charlie Mattera: It's not happening.
• 6:23
  Charlie Mattera: There's no clubs, there's no, it's changed.
• 6:25
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, well, you know, in the late 80s to the early 90s, man, New York was Dodge City.
• 6:32
  Charlie Mattera: You could do whatever you wanted.
• 6:33
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 6:39
  Charlie Mattera: Cops would come by and say, hey, what's up?
• 6:41
  Charlie Mattera: They all knew us because they don't have the cops.
• 6:43
  Charlie Mattera: The cops were the greatest back then.
• 6:45
  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.
• 6:50
  Charlie Mattera: They were doing the job.
• 6:50
  Charlie Mattera: You know, I never thought of it as good guys or bad guys.
• 6:52
  Charlie Mattera: I thought of it as my job to beat them and their job was to catch me.
• 6:56
  Charlie Mattera: You know, I hated cops.
• 6:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I still hate cops.
• 6:59
  Charlie Mattera: I don't get it.
• 6:59
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 7:08
  Charlie Mattera: You know, and I think a lot of these guys, the new ones, they hire them right out of.
• 7:12
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 7:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, I actually think I mean I'm going to disagree with you.
• 7:22
  Carmen Lezeth: I would actually prefer a cop who actually served in the military.
• 7:25
  Carmen Lezeth: 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.
• 7:34
  Charlie Mattera: I totally get it, but see, the point I'm making is, a lot of these guys are still PTSD.
• 7:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, fair, fair, Fair, let's make sure.
• 7:43
  Charlie Mattera: Hey look, there's nothing wrong with going to talk to somebody if you've got some issues.
• 7:46
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 7:52
  Charlie Mattera: I mean, you owe it to yourself and everybody else to go speak to someone.
• 7:57
  Charlie Mattera: But my point is they got to hire the right guys, they shouldn't just.
• 8:01
  Charlie Mattera: It's not a 12-week training course.
• 8:03
  Carmen Lezeth: That's right.
• 8:04
  Carmen Lezeth: And also there's something about the community, like even when I was growing up, we knew all the cops in the neighborhood.
• 8:09
  Carmen Lezeth: That's right.
• 8:11
  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.
• 8:27
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 8:34
  Carmen Lezeth: You get your big break.
• 8:35
  Charlie Mattera: Let me explain to you.
• 8:36
  Charlie Mattera: See, my buddies come from New York who don't come out here or who have never been out here.
• 8:40
  Charlie Mattera: It's funny because they always have the three questions after they've been here three weeks.
• 8:43
  Charlie Mattera: Charles, you know these people out here.
• 8:47
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, yeah, I know these people.
• 8:49
  Charlie Mattera: They're friends of yours.
• 8:50
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, some of them are, charles.
• 8:52
  Charlie Mattera: What the fuck kind of people he's?
• 8:53
  Charlie Mattera: And I'm like dude, you don't understand.
• 8:54
  Charlie Mattera: You ain't been here a year.
• 8:56
  Charlie Mattera: Man, you shot.
• 8:57
  Charlie Mattera: You need to go home.
• 9:00
  Charlie Mattera: This is going to take too long.
• 9:01
  Charlie Mattera: You don't have the time.
• 9:02
  Charlie Mattera: I'm telling you you should go home.
• 9:04
  Charlie Mattera: You tell people.
• 9:04
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 9:11
  Charlie Mattera: I go around Cahunga.
• 9:12
  Charlie Mattera: Right, I got to stop them right away and tell them dude, it's not for you, he's going to get done immediately.
• 9:19
  Charlie Mattera: Everybody's chilling out out here.
• 9:20
  Charlie Mattera: As you notice, people look healthier, look better, last longer.
• 9:23
  Charlie Mattera: We're in the beautiful weather.
• 9:25
  Charlie Mattera: How you people deal with the four seasons, which kicked the shit out of people.
• 9:29
  Charlie Mattera: Four seasons will ruin your trees and the tides.
• 9:31
  Charlie Mattera: It's awful.
• 9:35
  Carmen Lezeth: So what's your favorite part of Hollywood as the industry?
• 9:38
  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.
• 9:43
  Charlie Mattera: Hey, I worked for Stephen Summers.
• 9:46
  Charlie Mattera: Okay, I hit the floor in GI Joe.
• 9:49
  Charlie Mattera: I was supposed to be.
• 9:49
  Charlie Mattera: I played Snake Eyes, father.
• 9:51
  Charlie Mattera: Oh, I'm still there.
• 9:52
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I never made the cut, you know.
• 9:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, okay, I had a couple of those movies, so get this you want to laugh?
• 9:59
  Charlie Mattera: The guy is sitting on my couch hanging out.
• 10:00
  Charlie Mattera: The nicest guy in the world, stephen Summers, I had no idea.
• 10:02
  Charlie Mattera: I met him through the guy who used to play the mummy.
• 10:05
  Charlie Mattera: Okay, arnold, arnold Vosloo.
• 10:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, I don't know his name.
• 10:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, he's.
• 10:10
  Charlie Mattera: South African guy.
• 10:11
  Charlie Mattera: He played the new mummy in the mummy movies you know like with Brendan.
• 10:15
  Charlie Mattera: Frazier, he plays the mummy.
• 10:17
  Charlie Mattera: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah and in Blood Diamond he plays the evil Colonel.
• 10:19
  Charlie Mattera: You know he's got the Okay, so great guy, Swizz guy in the world.
• 10:23
  Charlie Mattera: So I met Stephen through him, you know, just hanging around, knock around buddies.
• 10:27
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 10:33
  Charlie Mattera: And Stephen calls me up and he says, hey, charlie, I got some work for you.
• 10:38
  Charlie Mattera: I was like dude, you know, just because I'm in shape, don't mean I move furniture and stuff.
• 10:42
  Charlie Mattera: He was like, no, no, he goes, I'm doing a movie.
• 10:44
  Charlie Mattera: I got something for you.
• 10:45
  Charlie Mattera: I'm doing a movie.
• 10:46
  Charlie Mattera: What?
• 10:46
  Charlie Mattera: Some indie thing?
• 10:47
  Charlie Mattera: And he goes no, charlie, it's a big movie.
• 10:50
  Charlie Mattera: I was like fuck, stephen, I didn't know.
• 10:51
  Charlie Mattera: I said what?
• 10:52
  Charlie Mattera: Are you an editor or something?
• 10:53
  Charlie Mattera: He goes, no, I'm directing the movie.
• 10:55
  Charlie Mattera: And I was like holy shit, steve.
• 10:58
  Charlie Mattera: I said I thought you were just some jagged ass who sat on my couch.
• 11:00
  Charlie Mattera: He goes, I'm not also, but I also happen to be a director.
• 11:04
  Charlie Mattera: I said you know, I wrote Catch Me If you Can.
• 11:07
  Charlie Mattera: He goes, you know he goes.
• 11:08
  Charlie Mattera: I'm directing GI Joe.
• 11:10
  Charlie Mattera: You know GI Joe.
• 11:11
  Charlie Mattera: I said, oh, you mean the Doss with the guy with the life I get.
• 11:14
  Charlie Mattera: I said cool.
• 11:14
  Charlie Mattera: I said what do you want me to be an extra something?
• 11:18
  Charlie Mattera: He says no, no, you're going to play Snake Eye's father.
• 11:21
  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.
• 11:31
  Charlie Mattera: He goes, so, you know, I says, can you do it?
• 11:33
  Charlie Mattera: I said I can't do it, you know.
• 11:35
  Charlie Mattera: And so now I don't even know what's going on.
• 11:40
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 11:46
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, like your own, this is a major, major trailer.
• 11:49
  Carmen Lezeth: You're all set.
• 11:50
  Charlie Mattera: I'm like you know, and I come popping in here oh, Mr Matero, it's just Charlie, I don't.
• 11:54
  Charlie Mattera: Okay, stay away, they're going at it.
• 11:57
  Charlie Mattera: There's like five of them.
• 11:58
  Charlie Mattera: I'm just like, oh shit.
• 11:59
  Charlie Mattera: So now I show up at the set when they're shooting little Tokyo downtown.
• 12:03
  Charlie Mattera: I drive into the crew put and I swear this is what happened they given me this wardrobe in this trailer.
• 12:10
  Charlie Mattera: 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?
• 12:18
  Charlie Mattera: I said, steve, look at this stuff.
• 12:20
  Charlie Mattera: I said I'm supposed to be a homeless guy.
• 12:22
  Charlie Mattera: This stuff was actually clean.
• 12:23
  Charlie Mattera: I said this looks like it went to the dry cleaners.
• 12:26
  Charlie Mattera: It's all dirty.
• 12:26
  Charlie Mattera: I said where's the clothes at?
• 12:28
  Charlie Mattera: So I had my own jeans and I had my own grubby boots.
• 12:31
  Charlie Mattera: I brought these old lace up ropers, you know, and they were brown and grubby and knocked around.
• 12:37
  Charlie Mattera: So we go into the trailer.
• 12:38
  Charlie Mattera: It was like right out of freaking chaplain, we walk in there.
• 12:40
  Charlie Mattera: And I said, give me that light blue shirt thing.
• 12:43
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 12:50
  Charlie Mattera: And then I said give me the uh, the Pico in the blue Pico.
• 12:54
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 12:59
  Charlie Mattera: And then I looked at Steve and I was like I'm starting to feel it.
• 13:02
  Charlie Mattera: I said the stuff is still clean.
• 13:03
  Charlie Mattera: I said we walked out of the trailer and I see him.
• 13:06
  Charlie Mattera: I said where's the prop dude?
• 13:07
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 13:15
  Charlie Mattera: So I'm just winging it out there.
• 13:17
  Charlie Mattera: And I said hey, the prop guy.
• 13:19
  Charlie Mattera: I said you got that stuff, the gk.
• 13:21
  Charlie Mattera: It's like mud, you know the gk.
• 13:23
  Charlie Mattera: He goes.
• 13:23
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah.
• 13:23
  Charlie Mattera: I said go get it.
• 13:24
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 13:30
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 13:36
  Charlie Mattera: I said relax, dude, it's Hollywood.
• 13:38
  Charlie Mattera: So he's laughing and the clothes are still like this.
• 13:41
  Charlie Mattera: I said this ain't cutting it and there was a giant mud puddle in the crew parking.
• 13:45
  Carmen Lezeth: I did not.
• 13:46
  Charlie Mattera: I did a friggin swan dive.
• 13:48
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 13:54
  Charlie Mattera: And then I got up and it was dripping and I looked like fucking hell.
• 13:58
  Charlie Mattera: And then I said to the guy he said get me a pair of those knit gloves, cut the fingers off.
• 14:01
  Charlie Mattera: I said get me a box of cheap shit cigars.
• 14:06
  Charlie Mattera: I said so, you put it in here.
• 14:08
  Charlie Mattera: I said.
• 14:08
  Charlie Mattera: And then get me a bottle, a glass bottle, put a Japanese label on it and throw some iced tea in it.
• 14:13
  Charlie Mattera: So he says great.
• 14:15
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 14:20
  Charlie Mattera: And I look at Steve and I go hey, he said to me holy shit.
• 14:26
  Charlie Mattera: He says perfect, perfect.
• 14:27
  Charlie Mattera: So we go to camera.
• 14:28
  Charlie Mattera: Now it's getting nighttime.
• 14:29
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, oh my, I couldn't believe it.
• 14:31
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 14:40
  Charlie Mattera: You know carrying, you know I forget what they call them.
• 14:44
  Charlie Mattera: You know the rickshaws and it was people hanging out of the windows from those.
• 14:49
  Charlie Mattera: You know, in little tubules, little tights, people were hanging out the windows out of the top.
• 14:53
  Charlie Mattera: You know, it was just insane.
• 14:55
  Charlie Mattera: They had the rain machines there.
• 14:57
  Carmen Lezeth: So cool.
• 14:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I love Hollywood.
• 14:59
  Charlie Mattera: They're setting up the shot, I come over to the side of camera.
• 15:03
  Charlie Mattera: There's a bunch of suits, there's camera, there's the tent, the big tent.
• 15:06
  Charlie Mattera: There's three or two, 300 people running around doing all kinds of shit.
• 15:10
  Charlie Mattera: You know, and I don't realize the shot.
• 15:13
  Charlie Mattera: This whole shot is me and this kid.
• 15:16
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 15:24
  Charlie Mattera: So I'm standing in.
• 15:26
  Charlie Mattera: Right, we don't have the rain machine.
• 15:27
  Charlie Mattera: You know well, it's $3,000 an hour.
• 15:30
  Charlie Mattera: Fuck it.
• 15:30
  Charlie Mattera: You know independent film, we'd have guys throwing buckets of water.
• 15:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Right throwing water, yeah with sprinklers.
• 15:37
  Charlie Mattera: We'd come on the roof with sprinklers.
• 15:39
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 15:54
  Charlie Mattera: Well, he goes.
• 15:57
  Charlie Mattera: You know, you're not supposed to be hanging around here.
• 15:58
  Charlie Mattera: You know we're making a movie, you know?
• 16:00
  Charlie Mattera: No, he don't know.
• 16:01
  Carmen Lezeth: He doesn't know.
• 16:02
  Carmen Lezeth: It's you.
• 16:02
  Carmen Lezeth: No, no, no, no, no.
• 16:03
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, that's so great.
• 16:04
  Charlie Mattera: He comes over and he goes really it's not.
• 16:06
  Charlie Mattera: But I look at it and he goes you gotta get lost.
• 16:08
  Charlie Mattera: I go, hey, what's in for me?
• 16:09
  Charlie Mattera: You know, I said to my guy what's in for me.
• 16:12
  Charlie Mattera: But yeah, you know, pull out the bottle.
• 16:15
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 16:24
  Charlie Mattera: He hands it to me.
• 16:26
  Carmen Lezeth: This is a dumb ass person on set who has no idea.
• 16:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Is it a closed set?
• 16:32
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, but he was probably an executive producer.
• 16:34
  Charlie Mattera: So all of a sudden Steve goes.
• 16:36
  Charlie Mattera: I hear Steve, way back in the county.
• 16:37
  Charlie Mattera: He's in the tent, charlie, and I was like yo, steve.
• 16:40
  Charlie Mattera: I said yeah, I'm good he goes.
• 16:43
  Charlie Mattera: Hey, get up in there to show you your mark.
• 16:45
  Charlie Mattera: I said you got it bud.
• 16:46
  Charlie Mattera: So I start walking away and the guy goes.
• 16:48
  Charlie Mattera: Who the fuck is that?
• 16:49
  Charlie Mattera: That's the actor.
• 16:51
  Charlie Mattera: He says plain and safe.
• 16:52
  Charlie Mattera: I swear you know the homeless bungee.
• 16:53
  Charlie Mattera: He goes.
• 16:53
  Charlie Mattera: I just gave the guy a 20.
• 16:54
  Charlie Mattera: And Steve's like Charlie, he's like Charlie.
• 16:57
  Charlie Mattera: I took the guy to the other day and I was like fuck, no, I'm keeping it.
• 17:01
  Charlie Mattera: I said man, that's mine.
• 17:03
  Charlie Mattera: I said I may never work again after this day.
• 17:05
  Charlie Mattera: Who?
• 17:06
  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.
• 17:15
  Charlie Mattera: I was like this, is it baby?
• 17:17
  Charlie Mattera: Look how beautiful this is.
• 17:19
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 17:24
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 17:33
  Charlie Mattera: They had a rat, professional rat.
• 17:35
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 17:46
  Carmen Lezeth: Willard Indiana.
• 17:48
  Charlie Mattera: Jones, you know any rat movie.
• 17:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Right, this rat was in there.
• 17:52
  Charlie Mattera: They even had two guys off the frame when the kid tossed the rat.
• 17:56
  Charlie Mattera: There was a guy there with a big, giant, fluffy towel and caught the rat.
• 17:59
  Charlie Mattera: I wish somebody would be there when I hit the rat, it's Peter.
• 18:04
  Charlie Mattera: If I hit the garbage pails.
• 18:05
  Charlie Mattera: It fell on my back.
• 18:06
  Charlie Mattera: Hey, charlie, somebody help Charlie.
• 18:07
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 18:14
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 18:21
  Charlie Mattera: You got your whole life to eat.
• 18:23
  Charlie Mattera: Let your old man get a little something.
• 18:24
  Charlie Mattera: You know they were trying to prompt me to say something.
• 18:27
  Charlie Mattera: So I was improv in my own life and I still had the cigar and I still eat you with the cigar.
• 18:30
  Charlie Mattera: So now I've.
• 18:32
  Charlie Mattera: I worked that night.
• 18:33
  Charlie Mattera: I can't sleep for two days after that night.
• 18:35
  Charlie Mattera: You know there was a couple takes all different.
• 18:37
  Charlie Mattera: This way.
• 18:37
  Charlie Mattera: I had the camera right here on my freaking face.
• 18:40
  Charlie Mattera: The thing was this big on a crane, charlie, you don't mind if the crane goes over your head, fuck you.
• 18:44
  Charlie Mattera: Tell me All right.
• 18:47
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 18:54
  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.
• 19:00
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 19:09
  Charlie Mattera: I mean this is like 12 years into my career, right.
• 19:12
  Charlie Mattera: And you know you get hired and you can't get hired and nobody wants to know you.
• 19:15
  Charlie Mattera: 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?
• 19:22
  Charlie Mattera: That's what that means.
• 19:24
  Charlie Mattera: So you know, I get a call and it's like 10 o'clock and Steve's like.
• 19:27
  Charlie Mattera: I can hear people and one of the guys is this guy, lorenzo de Bonaventure, which is a huge, huge, gigantic producer.
• 19:34
  Charlie Mattera: I mean, the guy's untouchable.
• 19:36
  Charlie Mattera: I wish I could get him in a room for 20 minutes and pitch to him all the shit movies that are being made.
• 19:41
  Charlie Mattera: But I was in the room and he's there.
• 19:45
  Charlie Mattera: He had them talking and they're laughing.
• 19:47
  Charlie Mattera: They're staring at Charlie.
• 19:49
  Charlie Mattera: Wow, they're like it looks great, this looks amazing.
• 19:52
  Charlie Mattera: Holy shit, he did a great job and they're all laughing.
• 19:55
  Charlie Mattera: Good job, charlie.
• 19:56
  Charlie Mattera: I hear him in the background and they go.
• 19:57
  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.
• 20:06
  Charlie Mattera: We're going to shoot you in a one man submarine underwater.
• 20:09
  Charlie Mattera: And he's like you're not close to your phone because I said I get over it.
• 20:12
  Charlie Mattera: I said I'll get over it, don't worry about it.
• 20:16
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 20:22
  Charlie Mattera: And now he's grown up snake eyes and he's got the whole face on.
• 20:24
  Charlie Mattera: He knows it's you, but you're not sure it's him, right, or he the other way around.
• 20:30
  Charlie Mattera: He doesn't know that's your dad, but he knows it's something.
• 20:31
  Charlie Mattera: He goes.
• 20:32
  Charlie Mattera: And this is when you got your shit together, like you get your stuff together after that.
• 20:35
  Charlie Mattera: Later on I was like wow, steve.
• 20:37
  Charlie Mattera: I said, well, you're paying for this.
• 20:39
  Charlie Mattera: He goes, charlie, relax.
• 20:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Aren't you already sad at this point?
• 20:43
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, I was.
• 20:44
  Charlie Mattera: You figure you're getting what?
• 20:45
  Charlie Mattera: $600 a day, whatever it was back then, Whatever it was back then.
• 20:48
  Carmen Lezeth: But yeah, you're getting that minimum I gave it away.
• 20:50
  Charlie Mattera: You know, to keep the money.
• 20:52
  Charlie Mattera: Man, just keep filming me, get as much coverage as you can.
• 20:54
  Charlie Mattera: So I'm jazz.
• 20:56
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 21:05
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 21:17
  Charlie Mattera: And then about a week and a and I got paid for the fitting and then a week and a half after that, bingo.
• 21:22
  Charlie Mattera: He says Charlie, studio, there's just too many characters that they people are loose focus.
• 21:28
  Charlie Mattera: I said whatever man, we had a blast, I appreciate the opportunity.
• 21:32
  Charlie Mattera: Man.
• 21:32
  Charlie Mattera: I said hopefully, whatever I did, do somebody sees it and we get some more work.
• 21:38
  Charlie Mattera: I see.
• 21:40
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean we work on a film and then they cut us.
• 21:45
  Charlie Mattera: When I got off the phone with them I was like yeah.
• 21:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean so you did all that work.
• 21:50
  Charlie Mattera: You got paid for all that time.
• 21:51
  Charlie Mattera: But you ended up not in the film.
• 21:54
  Charlie Mattera: Nobody ever see it.
• 21:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, and the same thing happened to me too.
• 21:58
  Charlie Mattera: I was in a big time movie, same kind of thing, I ended up getting cut and it sucks.
• 22:03
  Carmen Lezeth: I was not as gracious as you.
• 22:04
  Charlie Mattera: I was I had to believe me.
• 22:07
  Charlie Mattera: That's been a lot of my problem.
• 22:08
  Charlie Mattera: I, you know I say what I mean, I mean what I say, and always at the wrong fucking time.
• 22:13
  Carmen Lezeth: You know yeah, that's key.
• 22:15
  Charlie Mattera: Well, you know it's like sometimes.
• 22:17
  Charlie Mattera: You know and I've heard through my whole career you know I got hurt.
• 22:19
  Charlie Mattera: You know, after me and my wife got married, we went to the house.
• 22:23
  Charlie Mattera: I got electrocuted in the freaking house.
• 22:24
  Charlie Mattera: I was walking around like this.
• 22:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh no, what happened?
• 22:31
  Charlie Mattera: I couldn't walk my whole face.
• 22:32
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 22:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Wait, but what do you mean?
• 22:44
  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.
• 22:55
  Charlie Mattera: Oh, oh, my hand was wet and I was literally.
• 22:57
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 23:10
  Charlie Mattera: I can hear everything.
• 23:12
  Charlie Mattera: I couldn't speak and I couldn't move.
• 23:14
  Carmen Lezeth: But you know, my body was convulsing like how long were you in this, in this situation?
• 23:20
  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.
• 23:27
  Charlie Mattera: There was a helicopter over my house.
• 23:29
  Charlie Mattera: Okay, I'm like just finished doing that stupid reality show house.
• 23:32
  Charlie Mattera: Husbands of Hollywood.
• 23:34
  Carmen Lezeth: I can't believe you did that actually.
• 23:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, no, I was broke.
• 23:36
  Charlie Mattera: What was I supposed to do?
• 23:37
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I'm not making a judgment.
• 23:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I didn't even want to do the show.
• 23:40
  Charlie Mattera: I thought of it and the total flu.
• 23:41
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 23:46
  Charlie Mattera: It'll probably sell in five seconds.
• 23:49
  Carmen Lezeth: It went into Fox.
• 23:50
  Charlie Mattera: Five seconds.
• 23:51
  Charlie Mattera: They were like this is the show.
• 23:52
  Charlie Mattera: The guy was a game show producer and he had buttons on his desk.
• 23:56
  Charlie Mattera: One was the and he told me when I came to the office you don't want to hit this button.
• 24:03
  Charlie Mattera: And he hit it.
• 24:03
  Charlie Mattera: And with as soon as I pitched the show, inside of a minute, he went and hit the button.
• 24:08
  Charlie Mattera: I heard I said that means it's pay time, Don't it?
• 24:11
  Charlie Mattera: He goes?
• 24:11
  Charlie Mattera: Yes, it does.
• 24:12
  Carmen Lezeth: So you got paid.
• 24:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, there are people don't I mean okay, not a left field.
• 24:15
  Charlie Mattera: They came in and the guys that were on the show God bless them.
• 24:17
  Charlie Mattera: You know they weren't.
• 24:18
  Charlie Mattera: They weren't the most engaging.
• 24:21
  Charlie Mattera: And you know snippy snappy, you know me, you could watch me and you sleep.
• 24:24
  Charlie Mattera: You know what I mean.
• 24:25
  Charlie Mattera: At least I keep you laughing and if somebody does something stupid, you know I'm gonna call them out on it.
• 24:31
  Carmen Lezeth: So wait.
• 24:31
  Carmen Lezeth: So you turned around and you got hurt.
• 24:33
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, yeah, that was.
• 24:36
  Charlie Mattera: I did the show.
• 24:36
  Charlie Mattera: Everything was cool.
• 24:37
  Charlie Mattera: Yo, uh.
• 24:38
  Charlie Mattera: We left the Brentwood and moved to like over by Pico oh, pella Manning over there and we had a nice little house.
• 24:45
  Charlie Mattera: It's cool.
• 24:46
  Charlie Mattera: We backyard we had the squirrel, you know, he was only like a year and a half.
• 24:49
  Charlie Mattera: I didn't want him hanging out in Brentwood you know Brentwood, especially now.
• 24:52
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, a little scimulated.
• 24:54
  Charlie Mattera: You know, brentwood looks like westwood now man.
• 24:57
  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.
• 25:01
  Charlie Mattera: I'm ready to go.
• 25:02
  Charlie Mattera: I don't know what's going on.
• 25:04
  Carmen Lezeth: That's a whole other conversation, oh wait.
• 25:07
  Charlie Mattera: I hand everybody a bucket with some soap and some scrubbages.
• 25:09
  Charlie Mattera: Let's go, folks.
• 25:11
  Carmen Lezeth: The whole place.
• 25:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Wait, wait, let's go back.
• 25:13
  Carmen Lezeth: So you finished the show.
• 25:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I finished the show.
• 25:16
  Charlie Mattera: We're living in this house and this happens.
• 25:18
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 25:26
  Charlie Mattera: And then I got her.
• 25:27
  Charlie Mattera: My mother passed away, yeah, and I flew back to New York.
• 25:30
  Charlie Mattera: And that was a Slipped at nightmare people to go back home people taking pictures off the walls.
• 25:36
  Charlie Mattera: You know they pulling up floorboards looking for money freaks.
• 25:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh.
• 25:41
  Charlie Mattera: You people are not related to me, man.
• 25:44
  Carmen Lezeth: It goes back to you reading the Emily post manners and etiquette.
• 25:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Classy, you know you would never do that.
• 25:50
  Charlie Mattera: This is a rule book to life.
• 25:52
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 25:58
  Charlie Mattera: You let people leave the restaurant before you enter it.
• 26:01
  Charlie Mattera: Sometimes you even hold the door for them when they leave.
• 26:03
  Charlie Mattera: It's just please and thank you.
• 26:04
  Charlie Mattera: Uh, you know you need help with the bags.
• 26:07
  Charlie Mattera: You know, hey, these days I even sometimes I see a Um, a woman.
• 26:12
  Charlie Mattera: That's just wow, immaculately.
• 26:14
  Charlie Mattera: And I I even say to him is it?
• 26:16
  Charlie Mattera: Am I allowed to say you look nice today?
• 26:17
  Charlie Mattera: And they're like, yes, you certainly are.
• 26:20
  Charlie Mattera: Well, you look very nice today.
• 26:21
  Charlie Mattera: I I've done it a ton of times because I admire somebody who's got their shit together and they should hear it.
• 26:26
  Charlie Mattera: People should we, we should congratulate each other.
• 26:29
  Charlie Mattera: We, we spent a lot of time kicking each other in the butt and I think, I think we should all congratulate each other.
• 26:38
  Charlie Mattera: For no apparent reason, then, it's just the right thing to do.
• 26:42
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, I think that was one of the first things you said when you came on my show the first time.
• 26:46
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, you know, back when we had just started, you had said that you liked that I'm trying to spread joy.
• 26:53
  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.
• 27:06
  Charlie Mattera: That's not working.
• 27:07
  Charlie Mattera: I've done it before.
• 27:09
  Charlie Mattera: My wife's like right.
• 27:10
  Charlie Mattera: My wife's like what's wrong with you?
• 27:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Who is your wife?
• 27:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Do I know your wife?
• 27:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't think I know your wife.
• 27:15
  Charlie Mattera: She's the best.
• 27:15
  Charlie Mattera: She's the best I'm gonna have to.
• 27:17
  Charlie Mattera: She took on this.
• 27:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, she took on you so.
• 27:20
  Charlie Mattera: I love her already congressional medal of honor.
• 27:23
  Carmen Lezeth: But do I know her?
• 27:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know her.
• 27:25
  Carmen Lezeth: You if?
• 27:25
  Charlie Mattera: you saw you probably I've seen her around because she was in san maca, brentwood.
• 27:29
  Carmen Lezeth: She doesn't rub it all the time too.
• 27:31
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, I used to see me sitting with her, sometimes at the bean or at the rosti.
• 27:34
  Charlie Mattera: Wow, very pretty.
• 27:37
  Carmen Lezeth: You know that pc go, though is gone right.
• 27:40
  Charlie Mattera: Well, yeah, now it's your tinos, right?
• 27:42
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know what it is, but I was just driving there the other day.
• 27:44
  Charlie Mattera: It's the same people, it's just a different name and the prices are more expensive.
• 27:47
  Charlie Mattera: Oh is it good, the son the son-in-law of the guy ago who owned it originally and his family.
• 27:54
  Charlie Mattera: They owned toscana, they owned the rossies and then he sold the rossies and the toscana to joya pizza.
• 28:01
  Charlie Mattera: I don't know if they still own it anymore, but rossies are gone.
• 28:04
  Charlie Mattera: There was like six of them.
• 28:05
  Charlie Mattera: I think there's only two.
• 28:06
  Charlie Mattera: I went to one in on the tenth of montana recently.
• 28:09
  Charlie Mattera: It was awful.
• 28:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Here in san maca.
• 28:11
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, it was wait.
• 28:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Let's go back to hollywood, so you do love hollywood.
• 28:15
  Carmen Lezeth: What is?
• 28:15
  Carmen Lezeth: That I love california, I love california, I didn't say california, I'm talking about the industry.
• 28:19
  Carmen Lezeth: What is it that you love about hollywood?
• 28:21
  Charlie Mattera: Because, you know when you're, when you're working.
• 28:22
  Charlie Mattera: There's nothing like it in you're always trying to do.
• 28:25
  Carmen Lezeth: You're still writing right now and you're acting.
• 28:27
  Charlie Mattera: No, I just finished the screenplay with the guy I was telling you about, todd newman, director, morning son, david navarro.
• 28:32
  Charlie Mattera: Everybody see it, you'll love it.
• 28:34
  Charlie Mattera: It's depressing as shit.
• 28:35
  Charlie Mattera: If you feel like being depressed.
• 28:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Wait, you already sold it.
• 28:38
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, yeah, it's out, it's.
• 28:40
  Charlie Mattera: You can look at what movie.
• 28:41
  Carmen Lezeth: It's called morning son, you are and I god, that's all I didn't know about the avarro.
• 28:48
  Charlie Mattera: Believe me, it's like something out of like Uh, this is date line.
• 28:51
  Charlie Mattera: I mean it's crazy.
• 28:52
  Charlie Mattera: They did interviews with the fbi profiles who was looking for this guy.
• 28:56
  Charlie Mattera: For like 11 years he was on the run.
• 28:58
  Charlie Mattera: He escaped when they finally caught and then they gave him the death penalty.
• 29:01
  Charlie Mattera: He's still I don't know if he's still alive or dead in.
• 29:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Don't hate me if I don't watch it, because that does sound depressing.
• 29:07
  Charlie Mattera: No, it's creepy, but it's more about him, it's more it's.
• 29:10
  Charlie Mattera: It's more about mental health and you know.
• 29:12
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 29:22
  Charlie Mattera: That's why I respected him.
• 29:24
  Charlie Mattera: I said to him once I said you know, I feel a lot like you.
• 29:26
  Charlie Mattera: I said because we've both been put into unbelievable circumstances and somehow we've come out.
• 29:31
  Carmen Lezeth: The other side we can still function.
• 29:33
  Charlie Mattera: You know we have our demons, but we can still function.
• 29:35
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 29:46
  Charlie Mattera: He's very funny he's.
• 29:48
  Charlie Mattera: He has that kind of smarmy, sarcastic wit.
• 29:50
  Charlie Mattera: But it's all bullshit because deep down he is a really nice person.
• 29:54
  Charlie Mattera: He is a sweetheart.
• 29:55
  Charlie Mattera: He is a sweetheart of a guy?
• 29:56
  Charlie Mattera: Yes, he is.
• 29:57
  Charlie Mattera: He's very uh he's very handsome.
• 29:59
  Charlie Mattera: If you see david du covney in the street, go up to him and give him a hug.
• 30:04
  Carmen Lezeth: You tell Charlie that people will do it, don't see that.
• 30:07
  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.
• 30:14
  Charlie Mattera: Tell him it's optional, but charlie said Optional, I'm here to give it to you if you would like it.
• 30:19
  Charlie Mattera: You know nothing personal, he's a great guy.
• 30:22
  Charlie Mattera: I had a lot of fun with him and, uh, very silly.
• 30:25
  Charlie Mattera: And then there's also, uh, I just saw him recently.
• 30:29
  Charlie Mattera: I went to ryan's memorial.
• 30:30
  Charlie Mattera: It was a couple weeks ago at the dga, you know, for o'neill.
• 30:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, but who do you?
• 30:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, you said, you saw david du covney there.
• 30:37
  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.
• 30:44
  Charlie Mattera: Remember heart bachner from.
• 30:46
  Charlie Mattera: Remember, remember diehard.
• 30:49
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh yeah, I'm not a big diehard fan.
• 30:50
  Carmen Lezeth: You remember the?
• 30:51
  Charlie Mattera: movie breaking away, the famous movie with the bicycle race and denise.
• 30:54
  Charlie Mattera: Oh yeah, I do, I do actually he plays the college smarmy kid with the had the handsome.
• 30:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, okay, that's such a name dropper dude.
• 31:02
  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.
• 31:12
  Charlie Mattera: His father did the twilight zone episode.
• 31:14
  Charlie Mattera: It's to serve man as a cookbook.
• 31:17
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, I know, remember when he's going on the flying saucer and he finds out that the aliens are going to eat them.
• 31:22
  Charlie Mattera: It's a famous one, it's.
• 31:25
  Carmen Lezeth: it's called so here's where you and I are a little bit different.
• 31:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I love it.
• 31:31
  Charlie Mattera: I don't remember all this stuff.
• 31:33
  Charlie Mattera: I've been lucky.
• 31:34
  Charlie Mattera: I've been lucky.
• 31:34
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 31:49
  Charlie Mattera: What the hell is this?
• 31:52
  Charlie Mattera: Why am I going blank?
• 31:52
  Charlie Mattera: I'm having a senior.
• 31:53
  Carmen Lezeth: No, no, you want me to look it up.
• 31:55
  Charlie Mattera: His name was he.
• 31:56
  Charlie Mattera: He produced a movie with Stallone in it Victory, the soccer movie.
• 32:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know.
• 32:03
  Charlie Mattera: He's one of the Neil.
• 32:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Hasseman.
• 32:06
  Charlie Mattera: No, I don't know, manager.
• 32:07
  Charlie Mattera: No, that's, that's ages ago.
• 32:09
  Charlie Mattera: It was called Victor Victory with Stallone and Pele was in the movie.
• 32:14
  Charlie Mattera: This was his, his agent, his name, Fred.
• 32:18
  Carmen Lezeth: Victory was the name of the movie.
• 32:19
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, victory is the famous movie with Stallone and Michael Cain and everybody.
• 32:24
  Carmen Lezeth: And what did he do in the movie?
• 32:26
  Charlie Mattera: He was the producer of the film.
• 32:28
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I'm not going to be able to find him, but he was a heavy agent Okay, wait.
• 32:33
  Charlie Mattera: I really like this guy.
• 32:35
  Charlie Mattera: I'm looking it up right now.
• 32:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm trying to look it up too.
• 32:37
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know.
• 32:38
  Charlie Mattera: John Houston, that's directed by John Houston Victory, Victory oh.
• 32:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Pele, see, I didn't see this.
• 32:43
  Charlie Mattera: Stallone.
• 32:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I see this, but I don't know who the producer is.
• 32:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Michael Cain, Pele, Bobby Moore.
• 32:52
  Charlie Mattera: Victory Stallone movie.
• 32:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Let me see if I can find it.
• 32:56
  Carmen Lezeth: I have the movie here, but I can't see who.
• 32:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Produced by Freddie Fields.
• 33:00
  Charlie Mattera: That's him.
• 33:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 33:01
  Charlie Mattera: I meet him to Ryan.
• 33:02
  Charlie Mattera: The guy lives in Beverly Hills.
• 33:04
  Charlie Mattera: We immediately hit it off this guy.
• 33:08
  Charlie Mattera: Okay, I think when he looked at me he saw Ryan at a younger age, but like a New York kind of kid.
• 33:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I was.
• 33:16
  Charlie Mattera: I was.
• 33:17
  Charlie Mattera: I looked like Jimmy Dean, but I talked like a good fellow.
• 33:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Right, exactly, that is so true.
• 33:22
  Charlie Mattera: And I had a good memory and a good mind for films.
• 33:26
  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.
• 33:32
  Charlie Mattera: it's Ryan O'Neill that you're talking about yeah, yeah, that was a great funny guy, absolutely insane hysterical person.
• 33:40
  Carmen Lezeth: One of your favorite people.
• 33:41
  Charlie Mattera: Godfather, was he kind of your best friend?
• 33:42
  Charlie Mattera: That's my son.
• 33:44
  Charlie Mattera: He's creeping down Is he going to say hi to me.
• 33:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Hey, ryan, just leave him Hi how are?
• 33:53
  Carmen Lezeth: You.
• 33:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh my God, he's not a little kid.
• 33:57
  Charlie Mattera: How old is he?
• 33:58
  Charlie Mattera: He's going to be 16 April 2nd.
• 34:00
  Carmen Lezeth: There's no way.
• 34:01
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm not old, I'm sorry.
• 34:05
  Charlie Mattera: O'Neill was born on April.
• 34:07
  Charlie Mattera: I think it's April.
• 34:09
  Carmen Lezeth: What's the?
• 34:09
  Charlie Mattera: same.
• 34:09
  Charlie Mattera: Are you on a left?
• 34:10
  Charlie Mattera: It's the same day as Hitler.
• 34:12
  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?
• 34:15
  Charlie Mattera: it makes sense, that's his Godfather.
• 34:21
  Carmen Lezeth: That's his Godson right.
• 34:23
  Charlie Mattera: He did the whole, Ryan did the whole ceremony.
• 34:25
  Charlie Mattera: It's St Martin of Tours of Brentwood with Father Donnie Father.
• 34:29
  Charlie Mattera: Donnie, he's the greatest guy in the world.
• 34:31
  Charlie Mattera: I see he's got saints.
• 34:32
  Charlie Mattera: He was a painter, father Donnie and his saints paintings all around the church.
• 34:36
  Charlie Mattera: I see one in the back.
• 34:37
  Charlie Mattera: There's some bars and barbed wire and there's a guy and he's got numbers.
• 34:49
  Charlie Mattera: I go there and I say, oh, he's political prisoner being held against his will in Ireland.
• 34:53
  Charlie Mattera: He's the saint he is.
• 34:55
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 35:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I was sick, right.
• 35:14
  Charlie Mattera: And it's funny because I never met her.
• 35:17
  Carmen Lezeth: I never met her at all.
• 35:19
  Charlie Mattera: No, she's hysterical, so I call her up.
• 35:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, wait, we should probably say we're talking about Fowler Fawcett.
• 35:25
  Charlie Mattera: Fawcett, yes, he's the coolest chick, the coolest knock around girl ever.
• 35:29
  Charlie Mattera: He had no idea.
• 35:29
  Charlie Mattera: Tough but coolest chick.
• 35:31
  Carmen Lezeth: You're beautiful, Beautiful yeah just you know what.
• 35:34
  Charlie Mattera: Inside and out, she had her moments just like anybody.
• 35:36
  Charlie Mattera: But she, her and I got along real well.
• 35:38
  Charlie Mattera: We had a good understanding, you know what we had a bad incident and then we became pals.
• 35:44
  Charlie Mattera: So Ryan sends me these calls.
• 35:49
  Charlie Mattera: He used to call me up and say Charlie, ryan.
• 35:51
  Carmen Lezeth: Ryan.
• 35:52
  Charlie Mattera: Neil love story.
• 35:53
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, I go.
• 35:54
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, dude, I know the movies, I seen him.
• 35:58
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, he would say every time he called me up at Christmas at my mother's Charles.
• 36:01
  Charlie Mattera: There's a guy on the phone.
• 36:02
  Charlie Mattera: He says he's Ryan O'Neill.
• 36:03
  Charlie Mattera: I go, my, that's Ryan O'Neill.
• 36:05
  Carmen Lezeth: She goes get out.
• 36:06
  Charlie Mattera: I go no, it's right on the.
• 36:07
  Charlie Mattera: He doesn't know you.
• 36:09
  Charlie Mattera: Why would he know you?
• 36:10
  Charlie Mattera: I go my he's on the phone, man, he's called me.
• 36:13
  Charlie Mattera: I go.
• 36:13
  Charlie Mattera: You're holding the phone.
• 36:14
  Charlie Mattera: She goes hi, ryan, you know it's me, it's Muriel, it's him and her for 20 minutes.
• 36:21
  Carmen Lezeth: So wait, you were calling Farrah.
• 36:23
  Carmen Lezeth: For what?
• 36:24
  Charlie Mattera: So I was calling Farrah.
• 36:25
  Charlie Mattera: No, he called me and said Farrah was going to be at the gym.
• 36:28
  Charlie Mattera: Could you go over there Help her out, cause you know the paparazzi maniacs.
• 36:32
  Charlie Mattera: You know are you around and Todd, you know my writing partner.
• 36:36
  Charlie Mattera: He goes, you know, just kind of float around, you know, just in case so she can get in the car.
• 36:39
  Charlie Mattera: He goes, hang out with her gym.
• 36:41
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 36:54
  Charlie Mattera: She's going nuts.
• 36:55
  Charlie Mattera: So one time she looks up at me and she goes I said Ryan told me to come by.
• 36:59
  Charlie Mattera: He says keep an eye on you if you need some help, whatever, I don't need that help from anybody.
• 37:03
  Charlie Mattera: She gave me the whole thing.
• 37:05
  Charlie Mattera: I don't need no help from you, I don't need no help from anybody.
• 37:07
  Charlie Mattera: I was like and I went what I said?
• 37:10
  Charlie Mattera: You know obviously you and I we haven't had much time to talk to each other.
• 37:13
  Charlie Mattera: I said I'm not the usual person that Ryan hangs out with.
• 37:17
  Charlie Mattera: I said I don't give a flying fuck you fire force.
• 37:19
  Charlie Mattera: It used to be so.
• 37:20
  Charlie Mattera: I said to used to be.
• 37:22
  Charlie Mattera: I said fuck you.
• 37:24
  Charlie Mattera: I said to fuck you.
• 37:26
  Charlie Mattera: I came here to help you out, to do the right thing.
• 37:27
  Charlie Mattera: You're going to hammer me.
• 37:28
  Charlie Mattera: I didn't fuck you up today.
• 37:29
  Charlie Mattera: I didn't make you all pissed off.
• 37:31
  Charlie Mattera: I said whoever pissed you off and made you fucking yell at me, all that fucking asshole up and hammered him.
• 37:35
  Charlie Mattera: I said fuck you.
• 37:37
  Carmen Lezeth: This is at the gym, at pro gym, by the back.
• 37:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh my God, the little stairs there.
• 37:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my God.
• 37:43
  Charlie Mattera: It was next door and Vicente's the restaurant, and I walked away.
• 37:47
  Charlie Mattera: So now I crossed Uh, what's?
• 37:50
  Charlie Mattera: She's that?
• 37:50
  Carmen Lezeth: That's Montana, right thing Right there, goshen.
• 37:53
  Carmen Lezeth: No, it's Gorham, gorham, it's Gorham, so I put it in the back, yeah.
• 37:57
  Charlie Mattera: I passed there.
• 37:58
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 38:06
  Charlie Mattera: You know, charlie, smoke one.
• 38:08
  Charlie Mattera: You know, fucking bitch, charlie Zane's fucked that show.
• 38:12
  Charlie Mattera: Show was cheese anyhow.
• 38:13
  Charlie Mattera: You know, I'm saying to myself, all sudden she pulls up, she's got the window down.
• 38:17
  Charlie Mattera: Charlie, charlie, and she always used to sound like that, charlie.
• 38:21
  Charlie Mattera: We get in the car and I was like fuck you out of here, man, leave me alone.
• 38:25
  Charlie Mattera: I got you such a dick.
• 38:26
  Charlie Mattera: And she says to me she goes.
• 38:28
  Charlie Mattera: She goes, charlie, please, please.
• 38:30
  Charlie Mattera: I'm sorry, I'm sorry she goes.
• 38:32
  Charlie Mattera: I've talked to these idiots and Redmond is just thriving me.
• 38:35
  Charlie Mattera: Absolutely bad shit, crazy.
• 38:37
  Charlie Mattera: And I'm yelling at the whole world she goes, not you, you came down to me, you're not.
• 38:41
  Charlie Mattera: She goes like that.
• 38:41
  Charlie Mattera: She goes.
• 38:42
  Charlie Mattera: You're not a real person, you're like a different.
• 38:44
  Charlie Mattera: You know you're not asking about everyone else, you're a different person.
• 38:47
  Charlie Mattera: I go.
• 38:48
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, that's saying I'm on my own planet, farrah.
• 38:50
  Charlie Mattera: She goes.
• 38:50
  Charlie Mattera: Look, please, please, don't tell Ryan she goes.
• 38:52
  Charlie Mattera: Ryan loves you like your brother.
• 38:53
  Charlie Mattera: She finds out he'll fucking kill me.
• 38:55
  Charlie Mattera: She goes, grab me and he'll kill me and I go.
• 38:58
  Charlie Mattera: I go.
• 38:58
  Charlie Mattera: No, farrah, I don't snitch.
• 39:00
  Charlie Mattera: I said you and me.
• 39:01
  Charlie Mattera: We got off on the wrong foot.
• 39:02
  Charlie Mattera: You're apologizing now it's fucking over, let's let it go.
• 39:06
  Charlie Mattera: And now we start off.
• 39:07
  Charlie Mattera: No, it's different now.
• 39:09
  Charlie Mattera: So she says come on, let's get in the car, let's go get some lunch.
• 39:12
  Charlie Mattera: I said okay, where do you want to go?
• 39:14
  Charlie Mattera: I said I don't know what about over here.
• 39:15
  Charlie Mattera: I don't want to go there.
• 39:16
  Charlie Mattera: So we did that for like 20 minutes.
• 39:18
  Charlie Mattera: You know they're not nice to me and they always give me a shit table.
• 39:21
  Charlie Mattera: I said, all right, come with me.
• 39:23
  Charlie Mattera: I brought it up it's a collar.
• 39:25
  Carmen Lezeth: So now everybody's inside, everybody's freaking out.
• 39:29
  Carmen Lezeth: It wasn't a piece of coat.
• 39:30
  Carmen Lezeth: It wasn't a piece of cat.
• 39:32
  Charlie Mattera: I used to call it busy cats Pitsies.
• 39:33
  Charlie Mattera: We used to call it Pitsy.
• 39:34
  Carmen Lezeth: When did she die?
• 39:35
  Carmen Lezeth: No, the girl Farrah, died the same day, as I was in nine, she died.
• 39:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Michael Jackson, and her same day.
• 39:43
  Carmen Lezeth: That's right.
• 39:44
  Carmen Lezeth: She died in 2009.
• 39:45
  Charlie Mattera: I was at the house today.
• 39:47
  Charlie Mattera: She died with me, my boy Todd and Ryan, and we were sitting out on the balcony and she was in the other room.
• 39:53
  Charlie Mattera: Ryan was with her and he came out and he said that's it.
• 39:56
  Charlie Mattera: And I was like oh shit, buddy.
• 39:58
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 40:17
  Charlie Mattera: Good, buddy, he calls me up because they Charles.
• 40:19
  Charlie Mattera: I said what's up?
• 40:20
  Charlie Mattera: He goes.
• 40:20
  Charlie Mattera: Guess who just dropped that?
• 40:21
  Charlie Mattera: I said who?
• 40:22
  Charlie Mattera: He said fucking Michael Jackson.
• 40:24
  Charlie Mattera: I was like holy shit.
• 40:26
  Charlie Mattera: And Ryan, immediately he didn't hear it comes.
• 40:28
  Charlie Mattera: He said who died?
• 40:29
  Charlie Mattera: I said Michael Jackson.
• 40:30
  Charlie Mattera: He goes.
• 40:30
  Charlie Mattera: Fucking great, he goes.
• 40:32
  Charlie Mattera: Now the whole thing's gonna go there and nobody's good.
• 40:34
  Charlie Mattera: I said no, no, no.
• 40:34
  Charlie Mattera: I said the freak show is going there.
• 40:37
  Charlie Mattera: I said Hollywood is here, right.
• 40:40
  Charlie Mattera: I said okay.
• 40:41
  Charlie Mattera: I said what Matt is in this business?
• 40:44
  Charlie Mattera: The only bit of class.
• 40:46
  Carmen Lezeth: I was heart wrenching when she passed away.
• 40:47
  Charlie Mattera: I said to him the only bit of class left in this business is gonna stay here with us and her.
• 40:51
  Charlie Mattera: I said the nut house is going there.
• 40:53
  Charlie Mattera: And sure enough, you saw that night what was going on.
• 40:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Get mad at me if I don't say we don't hate Michael Jackson.
• 41:00
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I don't hate the guy at all.
• 41:01
  Charlie Mattera: I just knew the kind of freak show that that all the, all the paparazzi is crazy.
• 41:05
  Charlie Mattera: And the process, and the people from Missouri.
• 41:08
  Charlie Mattera: People from Missouri.
• 41:11
  Charlie Mattera: You can't say shit anymore.
• 41:14
  Charlie Mattera: You know it's not my choice.
• 41:15
  Charlie Mattera: You went to live in the middle of nowhere.
• 41:21
  Carmen Lezeth: It was the same day but I knew it was like it was the same day.
• 41:24
  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?
• 41:28
  Charlie Mattera: He goes yeah, what's?
• 41:29
  Charlie Mattera: His face croaked?
• 41:30
  Charlie Mattera: He says that people are running in now like crazy.
• 41:32
  Charlie Mattera: He says I've been hearing it.
• 41:33
  Charlie Mattera: You know that was that was insane too.
• 41:37
  Charlie Mattera: That was a travesty, because that who let him have access to all of that shit.
• 41:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, that's a whole other conversation, but here's my thing.
• 41:45
  Carmen Lezeth: So I love that.
• 41:46
  Carmen Lezeth: You still love Hollywood and I love it.
• 41:48
  Charlie Mattera: It's the work I love.
• 41:49
  Charlie Mattera: It's the business of the people.
• 41:52
  Carmen Lezeth: I think you don't like fake people anywhere, and here we find not the mister.
• 41:57
  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.
• 42:04
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 42:11
  Charlie Mattera: I don't think anybody was messing with Vince Gilligan when he was creating break in bed Holy shit.
• 42:16
  Charlie Mattera: I love that show why they offend everyone.
• 42:19
  Charlie Mattera: They don't give a shit who you are.
• 42:21
  Charlie Mattera: And say it like it is, I'm all for that.
• 42:23
  Charlie Mattera: 20 years ago I was telling people watch they're gonna do Mexico drugs soap opera watch and I was right.
• 42:31
  Charlie Mattera: I was right, I knew.
• 42:33
  Carmen Lezeth: So are you working on the next big hit?
• 42:36
  Charlie Mattera: No, what I read.
• 42:37
  Charlie Mattera: I wrote something.
• 42:38
  Charlie Mattera: I.
• 42:38
  Charlie Mattera: I was plagued by a fairy tale in my head.
• 42:41
  Charlie Mattera: Um, I Wanted to write something that me and Todd, me and my buddy Todd Newman.
• 42:48
  Charlie Mattera: Um, I Told Todd.
• 42:50
  Charlie Mattera: I said I had a dream about a little boy.
• 42:52
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 42:59
  Charlie Mattera: But it gives me a thought for something else.
• 43:01
  Charlie Mattera: You know, and I was.
• 43:03
  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.
• 43:36
  Charlie Mattera: This little boy knows, and this little boy is downtrod, the whole town treats him like shit.
• 43:40
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 43:45
  Charlie Mattera: 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?
• 44:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, sorry is so.
• 44:10
  Charlie Mattera: This is a story I had my head almost 15 years ago.
• 44:12
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 44:22
  Charlie Mattera: He never talks really you never says where it's all in his face.
• 44:26
  Charlie Mattera: He's like a cinema paradiso kid.
• 44:27
  Charlie Mattera: You know, bicycle thief kid, like a true foe movie.
• 44:31
  Charlie Mattera: You know, I wanted, I was, I love your accent when you say yeah.
• 44:40
  Charlie Mattera: You know what he could see?
• 44:41
  Charlie Mattera: 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?
• 44:48
  Charlie Mattera: I'm trying to Out there, you know, but people don't read.
• 44:51
  Charlie Mattera: So give me the one liner once.
• 44:53
  Charlie Mattera: You just fucking read it.
• 44:54
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, kid.
• 44:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, that's right.
• 44:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Everybody wants kind of this.
• 45:00
  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.
• 45:08
  Charlie Mattera: Some frustrated.
• 45:09
  Charlie Mattera: Some frustrated writer who's reading your shit.
• 45:14
  Charlie Mattera: And don't fuck, I didn't write this, right you know.
• 45:17
  Carmen Lezeth: But why is it so hard to read a script?
• 45:19
  Carmen Lezeth: The script isn't even read.
• 45:21
  Charlie Mattera: scripts you can't even get a script for three months.
• 45:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 45:24
  Charlie Mattera: I want to know you.
• 45:25
  Charlie Mattera: If you are not an instant sale, they don't want to know you now.
• 45:28
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 45:36
  Charlie Mattera: Which nobody reads paper scripts anymore.
• 45:39
  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.
• 45:43
  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.
• 45:48
  Charlie Mattera: He goes yeah, okay, yeah, keep going, right?
• 45:51
  Charlie Mattera: You know, this is the only way shit happens anymore.
• 45:53
  Charlie Mattera: You know?
• 45:54
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 46:00
  Charlie Mattera: We got five, you got to make the first move in this business.
• 46:04
  Charlie Mattera: You got to write it, you got to direct it, you got to, you got to see it all the way through.
• 46:07
  Charlie Mattera: Or you got a hope.
• 46:08
  Carmen Lezeth: That start somehow Is somebody who has that kind of power will see it.
• 46:13
  Charlie Mattera: Well you're hoping that he's sitting in the house on the holidays.
• 46:15
  Charlie Mattera: He's gotten bored being around his fucking family for Christmas or Thanksgiving and he's just looking.
• 46:21
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 46:38
  Charlie Mattera: And you're hoping, he's saying I just said just, I just want one.
• 46:41
  Charlie Mattera: I just want one thing and I want to see it through because I got the juice.
• 46:45
  Charlie Mattera: Now I want to see it through from the beginning to the end.
• 46:47
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 46:54
  Charlie Mattera: No, it's you, man, all you.
• 46:56
  Charlie Mattera: So I like Bradley Cooper.
• 46:58
  Charlie Mattera: I gotta give it to him.
• 46:58
  Charlie Mattera: Did you see my show?
• 47:00
  Charlie Mattera: I haven't seen.
• 47:01
  Charlie Mattera: I'm gonna look.
• 47:01
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, I'm gonna look.
• 47:02
  Charlie Mattera: I'm gonna see.
• 47:02
  Charlie Mattera: I'm waiting to like it, like the one day I can watch that.
• 47:08
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't.
• 47:08
  Charlie Mattera: I don't even have to.
• 47:09
  Charlie Mattera: I saw a few clips and I saw what he was doing.
• 47:12
  Charlie Mattera: He's not acting anymore.
• 47:13
  Charlie Mattera: He's the guy.
• 47:14
  Charlie Mattera: That's it.
• 47:15
  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.
• 47:20
  Carmen Lezeth: But let me tell you, maestro, I went and saw it here in the Palisades.
• 47:24
  Charlie Mattera: You know, there was nobody that was like.
• 47:26
  Carmen Lezeth: I, I was crying.
• 47:27
  Carmen Lezeth: It was so good.
• 47:27
  Carmen Lezeth: First of all, it was so beautifully done.
• 47:32
  Carmen Lezeth: He did such a great job.
• 47:34
  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.
• 47:43
  Carmen Lezeth: He's the name of the little kid.
• 47:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah you just said that for the first time.
• 47:46
  Charlie Mattera: Okay, so the name of the script is called Luca the Magnificent and he is Luca Okay.
• 47:50
  Charlie Mattera: That's Luca Okay.
• 47:51
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 48:01
  Charlie Mattera: A little girl ran in front of horse and they were winning, so the whole town was their fortune based on this kid.
• 48:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 48:06
  Charlie Mattera: And now this is his situation and he lives out by the beach, you know, and he lives in the catacombs.
• 48:11
  Charlie Mattera: It's the only place he you find some shelter and he sees what's gonna happen here and he decides.
• 48:17
  Charlie Mattera: As he goes through the catacombs he notices he's looking through the Suez.
• 48:20
  Charlie Mattera: He sees the church and the bank On direct line with the catacombs.
• 48:26
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 48:41
  Charlie Mattera: Give me two people.
• 48:42
  Charlie Mattera: Let them leave the town.
• 48:43
  Charlie Mattera: You know he's gonna barter with lives and their treasure.
• 48:47
  Charlie Mattera: You want your painting?
• 48:48
  Charlie Mattera: Give me those three women.
• 48:50
  Charlie Mattera: Let them go.
• 48:51
  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.
• 48:57
  Charlie Mattera: They're in the wall.
• 48:58
  Charlie Mattera: They play in music Every time they play in music in the streets.
• 49:01
  Charlie Mattera: Everybody's digging Every time the Nazis come in they stop, they stop and everybody stops digging.
• 49:07
  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.
• 49:16
  Charlie Mattera: I can't walk, I can't see, I can't look at my hair.
• 49:21
  Carmen Lezeth: This is good.
• 49:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Look at my hair is growing.
• 49:23
  Charlie Mattera: Look, you know, and people are coming from all over other villages.
• 49:26
  Charlie Mattera: They're hearing about it.
• 49:27
  Charlie Mattera: This is not good for the Nazis.
• 49:28
  Charlie Mattera: They're freaking out.
• 49:29
  Charlie Mattera: Meanwhile they're getting under there.
• 49:31
  Charlie Mattera: The American army is 30 miles away.
• 49:34
  Charlie Mattera: Luca's trying to stall them.
• 49:36
  Charlie Mattera: They're trying to wait for the right.
• 49:38
  Charlie Mattera: They got the townspeople building a boat for them to get the hell out of town.
• 49:41
  Charlie Mattera: They have the women doing it, because there's mostly women, because all the men are up in the hills.
• 49:45
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 49:50
  Charlie Mattera: It's just, it's like madcap hysterical and chilling and terrible.
• 49:55
  Carmen Lezeth: How does it end?
• 49:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Do I need to when it ends?
• 49:58
  Charlie Mattera: the Nazis come rolling into town.
• 50:00
  Charlie Mattera: Luca is on his horse, racing for the Americans, While they don't know who he is and start shelling him.
• 50:06
  Charlie Mattera: Him and the horse hit the dirt a few times.
• 50:08
  Charlie Mattera: They get up At some point in the beginning of the movie.
• 50:11
  Charlie Mattera: He helps an American soldier.
• 50:12
  Charlie Mattera: When the American soldier leaves, he leaves him a Yankee cat, Luca.
• 50:15
  Charlie Mattera: When he falls down at the horse, he throws the cap on.
• 50:18
  Charlie Mattera: You see a guy.
• 50:19
  Charlie Mattera: Look, he sees the Yankee cat.
• 50:20
  Charlie Mattera: He's like well, stop, you know, the Nazis throw down on everybody in the church for their stuff.
• 50:26
  Charlie Mattera: Right, they're getting ready to shoot everybody for their stuff.
• 50:29
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 50:35
  Charlie Mattera: There's no one there.
• 50:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, wow.
• 50:40
  Charlie Mattera: And then, all of a sudden, you see the soldiers.
• 50:41
  Charlie Mattera: They saw a lot of them are young.
• 50:43
  Charlie Mattera: They don't want to do this.
• 50:44
  Charlie Mattera: They see the statues.
• 50:46
  Charlie Mattera: They drop their weapons.
• 50:47
  Charlie Mattera: The guys are screaming.
• 50:48
  Charlie Mattera: They're walking out, so I'm going to come out to the street.
• 50:51
  Charlie Mattera: The people come out of the street and there he is with his horse.
• 50:54
  Charlie Mattera: All right and all of a sudden you see the tanks coming over the hills.
• 50:59
  Carmen Lezeth: He's got the whole.
• 51:00
  Charlie Mattera: US Army.
• 51:01
  Carmen Lezeth: This is done.
• 51:02
  Carmen Lezeth: You're trying to sell this now.
• 51:03
  Carmen Lezeth: It took you 15 years to develop yourself.
• 51:06
  Carmen Lezeth: I was out of the money.
• 51:08
  Charlie Mattera: I brought it to Todd, todd and I started writing.
• 51:10
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 51:17
  Charlie Mattera: And then he had another kid and his daughter's name is Lola.
• 51:20
  Charlie Mattera: 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?
• 51:26
  Charlie Mattera: His name is Ryan, that's it.
• 51:27
  Charlie Mattera: Whether it's a boy or a girl, it's Ryan.
• 51:29
  Charlie Mattera: Fuck, what are you even asking for?
• 51:31
  Charlie Mattera: I was like, oh, here Ryan, here Ryan.
• 51:35
  Carmen Lezeth: OK, I love your wife.
• 51:36
  Carmen Lezeth: 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.
• 51:41
  Charlie Mattera: I've never been anybody's scarred mom before.
• 51:43
  Charlie Mattera: I said well, you are now.
• 51:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, I didn't know, farrow was his scarred mother.
• 51:46
  Charlie Mattera: Yeah, yeah, and she was sick, so she calls me back five minutes late.
• 51:49
  Charlie Mattera: She's sick as all out there.
• 51:50
  Charlie Mattera: She calls me back five minutes late.
• 51:51
  Charlie Mattera: She goes, charlie Farrow for us.
• 51:53
  Charlie Mattera: I go, yeah, I know.
• 51:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Is this how the two of them talked?
• 51:56
  Charlie Mattera: all the time.
• 51:57
  Charlie Mattera: They loved to tease me all the time.
• 51:59
  Charlie Mattera: So I was like, yeah, she goes, charlie, can we change the baby's name to Brian Brooks Farrimeter?
• 52:05
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 52:16
  Charlie Mattera: There's a baby's picture on the table.
• 52:18
  Charlie Mattera: That's him upstairs.
• 52:20
  Carmen Lezeth: That's hilarious, yeah, so.
• 52:22
  Charlie Mattera: Luca, luca the Magnificent is written.
• 52:24
  Charlie Mattera: It's a full written.
• 52:25
  Carmen Lezeth: You're just trying to sell it now.
• 52:27
  Charlie Mattera: After that happens, let me set it up.
• 52:29
  Charlie Mattera: In the beginning of this movie.
• 52:30
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 52:42
  Charlie Mattera: She was a little girl when Luca was alive.
• 52:44
  Charlie Mattera: She's bringing his coffin back to the village where he comes from to be buried the original Luca.
• 52:52
  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.
• 53:01
  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?
• 53:12
  Charlie Mattera: She goes that's not you, that's your great grandpa.
• 53:15
  Charlie Mattera: That's Luca.
• 53:15
  Charlie Mattera: He looks just like me.
• 53:17
  Charlie Mattera: She goes yes, he does.
• 53:18
  Charlie Mattera: The people see the kid.
• 53:19
  Charlie Mattera: They see the kid.
• 53:20
  Charlie Mattera: They pick him up in the air, they carry him over the ground.
• 53:23
  Charlie Mattera: They actually put him on a horse.
• 53:24
  Charlie Mattera: The whole place is going nuts.
• 53:26
  Charlie Mattera: And later that night the kid asks her.
• 53:29
  Charlie Mattera: He says why?
• 53:31
  Charlie Mattera: What happened here?
• 53:33
  Charlie Mattera: And she says get some sleep, I'll tell you.
• 53:36
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's a story.
• 53:37
  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.
• 53:44
  Charlie Mattera: They stole all the gold from them.
• 53:46
  Charlie Mattera: But in this church was a black cross and when the light hits it at a certain time you could see their bricks.
• 53:56
  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?
• 54:02
  Charlie Mattera: She said look around the church.
• 54:04
  Charlie Mattera: She said you see these paintings.
• 54:05
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 54:16
  Charlie Mattera: We would give it back to them and they would take it back to where it belonged.
• 54:19
  Charlie Mattera: She goes over the years.
• 54:20
  Charlie Mattera: People have come, she goes and they've celebrated with us the life that some of these people did live.
• 54:28
  Charlie Mattera: And she goes and he goes and she's Jewish girl.
• 54:30
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 54:38
  Charlie Mattera: This is even before the Nazis show up.
• 54:40
  Charlie Mattera: So when the Nazis show up he's fed up.
• 54:41
  Carmen Lezeth: You know this is going to be on a podcast, right, and live streamed right.
• 54:45
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I don't want your whole story out there.
• 54:48
  Charlie Mattera: Well, I know he can still copy written and you couldn't fucking hold this off the way we did.
• 54:52
  Carmen Lezeth: No, no, I'm too sad.
• 54:53
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just letting you know.
• 54:54
  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.
• 55:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Wait in the crosses, where all the gold is right.
• 55:11
  Charlie Mattera: It's all the gold.
• 55:11
  Charlie Mattera: It's still there.
• 55:12
  Charlie Mattera: See, I'm all invested now and when they leave the church and the credits are rolling and all you see is the church.
• 55:18
  Charlie Mattera: You see the statue go.
• 55:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, that's so cool.
• 55:22
  Charlie Mattera: A little bit.
• 55:23
  Charlie Mattera: You wonder, did it just shake?
• 55:24
  Charlie Mattera: So we don't know, was it a miracle or wasn't it?
• 55:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that's awesome.
• 55:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I so that's a little.
• 55:30
  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.
• 55:35
  Charlie Mattera: Let me tell you something.
• 55:36
  Charlie Mattera: 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.
• 55:42
  Charlie Mattera: We didn't miss anything.
• 55:43
  Charlie Mattera: We kept it going and moving and you just hope it gets in the hands of the right person.
• 55:49
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, maybe it will.
• 55:50
  Carmen Lezeth: I'd like to see this thing.
• 55:51
  Carmen Lezeth: I think it will.
• 55:52
  Charlie Mattera: I'd like to see this thing get made.
• 55:53
  Carmen Lezeth: OK, wait.
• 55:54
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm going to end this.
• 55:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Don't hang up, though, because you and I can keep talking, but I'm just really glad that we did this.
• 56:00
  Carmen Lezeth: I am cracking up because I could talk to you for like four more hours.
• 56:04
  Charlie Mattera: Yes, you could.
• 56:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Listen to the stories that be so easy to do.
• 56:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I know.
• 56:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Thanks for stopping by.
• 56:08
  Carmen Lezeth: All about the joy Be better and stay beautiful folks, have a sweet day.