Luca Perito chatted about directing ‘Ciao, Mama’ and he remembered working with the late slain actor Johnny Wactor (“General Hospital”).
What inspired you to write and direct “Ciao, Mama”?
In 2016, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. I was living in Los Angeles and felt helpless. The uncertainty of her future was a bizarre thing to think about.
As a kid, if you’re lucky, you get to look up to your parents as these impenetrable beings. They’ll always be there for you.
They will help pick you up when you fall and give you advice when you need it most.
I remember when I got the phone call after her first chemo appointment. I was more confused after I hung up with her than I was before.
She kept telling me she was fine, it was fine, and everything would be fine. That night, I wrote a 10-page one-act play.
A few months later, Micah Joe Parker and I put the play up at our acting studio, “Stuart Rogers Studio” (which is where I met many of the actors in the film: Johnny Wactor, Alessia Franchin, Pete Gardner, Emily Alabi, Ty Laplaunt). I played Tony, and Micah played Marco.
The play had a good two to three-week run, but that was all it was. I never intended it to be a film.
A few months later, I wrote the full-length version of the play, but I was weighing the prospects of moving back home to New York or trying to find a theatre in LA to put the play up in.
Instead of doing the play in LA, I decided to move back to New York in March of 2020, which was historically one of the worst months in the history of the state of New York to move there. I ended up staying with my parents in Delaware for about a year and a half during COVID.
During that break from all this madness, I watched every movie I could. I read every book and script I could get my hands on. It was after I read Ryan Holiday’s “Ego is the Enemy” that this idea started to crystallize.
I was increasingly frustrated with myself for letting the last year pass without capturing anything on film.
I had this urge inside me that was telling me to make a film. Make something! Anything! I spent a few hours at my computer one day, trying to come up with a one-location story to film that would be affordable to shoot.
I went through a few pots of coffee before I realized I had already written it. I dusted off “American Sognare,” which was titled “New York Funeral” back then, and called Micah. He was in, I had one lead actor, and we went from there.
Why the name change from “American Sognare” to “Ciao, Mama”?
We had thought about a different title for a while. Many people, including my other producers and actors, couldn’t pronounce the title.
I bartend, and occasionally talk to a few of my favorite regulars about the movie, but they couldn’t pronounce it. But the issue of people not knowing how to say it really presented itself when Johnny passed.
We heard several news reporters mispronounce the film on TV (the pronunciation wasn’t even remotely close). I was always in favor of a new title, but I didn’t love any of the titles that were floated out there.
That is, until Micah texted me last November, “What about ‘Ciao, Mama?” I went to bed that night hating it and didn’t respond to his text…
As I drank my espresso the next morning, the title grew on me. We made the decision pretty quickly after that.
Why was this movie so important to you?
It was a very personal film, even before Johnny passed. I had moved in with my parents, and my mother is still alive today, but her quality of life has changed dramatically since all the treatments and surgeries.
Seeing her new way of life up close and personal was a peculiar experience. Not only did it reflect my own mother’s illness, but I wrote the main character loosely based on my struggles with acting/life.
The titular character, Tony, is way more successful than I ever was as an actor, but I experience a lot of those things he went through. So I wrote the character from that perspective; the setting just happened to be at his mother’s funeral.
After Johnny passed, everyone felt the gravity of the situation, and it became a sacred project. We were in control of his last performance, and we couldn’t let him down.
What was it like working with the late but great Johnny Wactor?
It was a marvel watching him go to work every day. He was so diligent about everything. He refused to eat a cookie until his shirtless scene was filmed, then he smashed an entire box the night after.
Johnny worked incredibly hard and showed genuine care for everyone on set. It was such a cool experience to see on my first film.
He had significantly more experience on sets than I did, and it was extraordinary to see how much care he put into not only the work but also the people he was working with.
I credit him with the vibe on our set the most (something I will take to future projects).
It was a microwave family. Most of us met for the first time on Sunday, July 31st, and started shooting on Monday, August 1st. We had no time to build chemistry between the cast and crew, so we had to do it on the fly.
Johnny was a main part of that chemistry, not only being built, but it propelled us to the finish line 3 years later.
Aside from that, seeing him switch effortlessly between being a producer and a lead actor was incredible. I had to schedule Micah and Johnny’s scenes at different parts of the day. I always needed one of them to be a producer while the other one was acting.
So, Johnny would shoot his scenes in the morning and Micah would cook breakfast for everyone, or vice versa. The two of them flipped back and forth between being artists and production managers of the set at the flick of a switch.
What was it like working with Micah and the rest of the cast?
This cast is a dream come true for a first-time director. Everyone came in with very little rehearsal time, if any, and knocked it out of the park in two or three takes each time.
If we had to do more than three takes, it was due to a technical issue, not the actor’s fault.
The only thing I was positive about going into this film was that I knew I would be able to get great performances out of these actors.
This film hinges on these actors elevating the words I wrote, and that’s exactly what they did. I have to give a lot of credit to Stuart Rogers Studios.
Not only did I study acting there, but I learned how to speak to actors through osmosis.
Learning how to speak to actors is such a valuable asset as a director. I’m very grateful for the amount of time I put into acting.
What did this movie teach you about yourself?
This film taught me that I’m made for this. There is this mysticism about how hard it is to make a film. It’s real. It’s the single hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do.
I’ve always been tough, but I don’t think anyone truly understands how tough/resilient you are until you try to make an independent film on no budget.
I have this canvas painting of Jon Snow in the Battle of the Bastards hanging in my office. It’s when he takes out his sword and is facing this charging army, and all hope is lost for him.
For much of the last three years, I’ve felt like Jon Snow in that photo. Just facing an oncoming horde that has no end in sight. The only reason I survived is the same reason that the character survives that episode.
The people who charged in behind me and had my back. Especially Johnny’s friends who came in at the end of the day, like Little Finger, and really saved the day.
Wow, that episode really ties into the making of this film. Haha.
How did it feel to have the screening of it in Charleston, South Carolina at the American Theater for the homecoming premiere?
It’s tough for me to watch this film anymore, so I hid in the projection booth, actually.
On the flip side, I’m thrilled that we were able to show it to not only Johnny’s family, but also the three prominent donors who helped us after Johnny passed.
Everyone seemed to enjoy it and have a great time despite the film’s challenging nature.
I’m thrilled that Johnny’s brothers and mother liked the movie. It would be hard to enjoy anything if they didn’t like it, but I looked into Lance’s eyes after our screening in LA, and it felt like I was talking to Johnny.
We both struggled to find the right words, but he summed it up best. Johnny would be so stoked for this. He would be really proud of all of us.
What would you like to tell our readers about “Ciao, Mama”? (What’s the one thing you want them to get out of it).
Goodbyes are B.S. Those people who leave a lasting impression on you will never truly leave you because you’ve learned so much from them. They’re a part of you now.
It’s now your job to take the things you learned from them and move on, but with their memory and spirit. It’s been bizarre to work on this film after Johnny’s passing because that theme has really presented itself in all our lives.
I hope that we make you think, cry, and laugh for 77 minutes.
To learn more about writer, director and filmmaker Luca Perito, follow him on Instagram.
Read More: “Ciao, Mama” review
