Bob Odenkirk Wanted to Make a ‘Sad Movie’ About Chris Farley’s Matt Foley Character
Thanks to the success of Wayne’s World, the ‘90s was chock-full of Saturday Night Live movies of questionable quality. There was It’s Pat, Stuart Saves His Family and A Night at the Roxbury, which turned a dialogue-free sketch about head-bobbing coke fiends into an 82-minute monstrosity.Despite the glut of SNL movies, some of the show’s best recurring characters from that decade never made it to the big screen, one of very funniest being Matt Foley — the motivational speaker who lives in a van down by the river — who was, of course, played by the late Chris Farley.Foley was created by Farley and Bob Odenkirk, back when he was merely a Second City performer, and not a legit movie star. Odenkirk recently guested on the podcast Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out, where he explained the character’s origins, while also lamenting the lack of a Foley-based motion picture. “No one could beat Chris. I mean, there’s no one who could do it better than Chris,” Odenkirk noted, recalling that Foley originated with a “coach character” of Farley’s. “We had done an improvisation where we were doing an anti-drug speech to a high school group,” the Better Call Saul star explained. ”He did his coach. And Matt Foley — I don’t know if he used the name or not, but that is a name he came up with.”So Odenkirk went home and wrote up a sketch based around Farley’s coach persona. “Then I took it and — it really was based on, kind of, Tony Robbins,” Odenkirk admitted. “Which was very popular at the time. And I think Tony’s story too is that he was like a fat kid when he was young or something. And I’m like, what about a guy who’s like, ‘I’m still this. You don’t wanna be me. You don’t wanna be me right now.’”He also saw that Matt Foley had cinematic potential, although due to the character’s van-centric living situation, it might have been more dramatic than Farley’s other films. “I always thought there was a movie in that,” Odenkirk revealed. “But of course, a sad movie, you know? About a guy who really lives in a van down by the river, and he’s thrice divorced…”This isn’t the first time that Odenkirk talked about his desire to see a Matt Foley movie. Back in 2015, he told The Chicago Tribune that he never meant to ridicule the character, and believed that Foley could have made for an interesting character study. “There’s a story there, definitely a warm feeling for a loser who lives in a van down by the river and uses himself as a bad example of what not to be, and makes money off of that job,” Odenkirk argued. “And, of course, there was no one more sympathetic than Chris. That would have been a great little movie. But only with Farley.”So Hollywood shouldn’t count on Odenkirk’s blessing if they try to make Van Down By The River: The Matt Foley Story starring Chris Pratt.
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings