Matt Jade

Actor, producer, director and screenwriter Matt Jade is presently filming the movie “Good Friday,” a TV sitcom, and is involved in producing several reality shows. Immersed up to his neck with productions, acting roles on TV and in movies and with his own production company, I met Jade when he when he was merely a young child. Matt is an example of the American success story. I finally pinned him down to have a short conversation. As always, he remains brilliant, animated and a lot of fun.

Tell me about this new movie.
Well yeah, we’re doing this “Good Friday” movie, and it’s a comedy about a priest and the mob. The priest gets involved in all of the shenanigans, and it’s really, really funny. It’s got a really good comical vibe to it. We have Federico Castelluccio from “The Sopranos,” and that will be a lot of fun. So I’m really excited about it. I also have a TV series shooting right now, and it’s called “High Hopes.”

And what’s that about?
It’s kind of a comedic “Married With Children” kind of series. It’s kind of a mix of the “Honeymooners” meets “Married With Children” kind of vibe.

So when is the show scheduled to be shot?
We are shooting Sunday and Monday for “High Hopes,” and we’re also shooting Monday for the movie. And then I’m also acting in something that is shooting in August. I play Jimmy, the owner of the bar.

As an actor, what have you been in?
I did a lot of Comedy Central stuff back in the day. I did skits with Shannen Doherty and Joan Rivers, a lot of that kind of stuff. More recently I’ve been casted a lot as a doctor. I was on “The Knick” on Cinemax. I was on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” and I was arrested on the show. I also did the “Geek to Guido” reality show. I’m also in a pilot, but I can’t really talk about it, because the network won’t let me yet.

We will revisit that when the time is right.
I am also directing a film called “Will You Marry Me?” that I wrote.

You are all over the place, in a good way.
It’s an Italian-American romantic comedy.

What made you start all this?
Well, I was in Europe for a couple of years studying acting, going to school. I was in Holland, Italy and England. I decided to do all this when I came back.

What’s the most fun experience you have had so far acting?
I did this reality show once where I have to fly a plane. And I’m afraid of heights. I had to go to flight school and everything. I flew the plane, believe it or not, and I didn’t know how to fly. What was even more scary is that my friend also was flying in the same show, and he is totally nuts. He’s like one of those daredevils, and there was a training pilot with me, and I told him, “Whatever you do, stay at least 2,000 feet away from him.” And that was on the Travel Channel. We were flying through a mountain range in Henderson, Nevada. I was out in Vegas at the time, and I was out partying till seven in the morning. They don’t give you a schedule, so one morning at 8 o’clock they called me and said, “OK, it’s time to go to flight school.” So here I was all hung over and too drunk to even drive a car.

And what else are you up to?
Recently I have just started directing as well. I am doing a show along the lines of “Stranger Than Fiction.”

What’s the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you on set?
I got pulverized on the set by an NFL football player.

Wow.
I think I was knocked out cold for a few minutes.

You’ve been doing this a while, correct?
Yes, I have. I lived in Florida for a few years, and I was thinking about going to law school, but that didn’t work out. I went into the entertainment business.

And you’re basically in New York.
Yes. In the last year I have gotten very busy.

Anything else you’d like to promote for yourself?
We’ve got another series called “Beat Café” that takes place in Greenwich Village. I have a movie that I was the associate producer with Kenneth Del Vecchio. And the sitcom series “High Hopes” is going to be great. It has already won several awards. We are already doing episodes two and three right now.

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