The two shipping containers that make up his studio, sitting on five acres in Joshua Tree, was a peaceful place to be as the offers and auditions dried up. “I live off-grid in this shipping container in the middle of nowhere.
“I moved to the desert a couple years ago, and it’s very remote,” he says.
Simon rex house movie#
Rex estimates the last time he was this busy was about 10 years ago, while filming and then promoting his final turn in the Scary Movie franchise. Now, in an unexpected turn, he might be an Oscar nominee, too. Rex has been many things over the last 25 years. Now he’s playing a washed-up porn star and toxic male manipulator, fully nude in a small indie that has taken him all over the world-from Cannes to New York-and has earned him the best reviews of his career. In the past, I might have worried about how I looked, or what people thought. I’ve got nothing to lose.’ I could just go for it and not worry. “I don’t mean to say ‘I don’t care,’ but I truly was just like, ‘Fuck it. “I was at a point where I just had nothing to lose, like at my age and with my career,” he says. It’s that Red Rocket allowed Rex to finally be himself as an actor. It’s not that he’s playing a version of himself or his own personality-though a ticker-tape manner of speed-speaking is a common trait. “There’s obviously a lot of parallels you can draw, but if you really think about it, this character could be a Wall Street maniac with this personality, a sociopathic narcissist, and it would be the same kind of guy,” Rex tells The Daily Beast in a recent Zoom interview. (More on that later.)Īudiences that have seen Red Rocket during its acclaimed film festival run might be forgiven for confusing Rex’s natural delivery for playing a version of himself. Except that it’s a surprise to everyone-audiences, the industry, even him-that he was cast at all.įor anyone who was familiar with the star, a Y2K-era mainstay known for being a MTV VJ, clubbing with Paris Hilton, starring in shows like Felicity, Jack & Jill and What I Like About You, and playing a lead in the Scary Movie franchise, it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the role… especially when you think about those nude photos and masturbation videos that leaked at the height of his career. That 47-year-old actor Simon Rex plays Mikey is perfect casting. And, when it comes to his past, he is unapologetic, unashamed, and ravenous for another chance. The devastation that he couldn’t film sequels to the porn parody of The Fast and the Furious he starred in because Paul Walker had died. The 800-900 subscribers he accrued on Pornhub. He uses him to drive him around to errands and, mostly, as a receptacle for rambling, ego-stroking stories about his glory days: The AVN Awards, the “ Oscars for porn,” he won-and the categories in which he was robbed. When his neighbor recognizes him while washing his car, Mikey sees opportunity. He talks his way into an inappropriate affair with a young, impressionable teen who works at the local donut shop (Suzanna Son’s Kaylee, who goes by “Strawberry”). He talks his way into a gig dealing drugs for a neighbor, of course breaking all of her ground rules. He talks his way back into the house he shared with his estranged wife (and former adult film scene partner), Bree Elrod’s Lexi. He had belly-flopped to rock bottom when his porn career fizzled-not that he would ever admit it. It takes the entirety of Sean Baker’s new film Red Rocket, released by A24 this Friday, to determine if Mikey’s on a charm offensive or obnoxious disaster course when he returns to Texas from Los Angeles, bruised after a fight and with only $22 and his gray tank top to his name. He then, proudly, has them Google his work. I’m a porn star.” He goes by the name Mikey Saber, he continues.
“I’m going to be straight with you,” he says. Mikey doesn’t skip a beat, delivering his bombshell revelation like a wrecking ball, with no qualms or unease. There’s one hiccup to all this babbling, hustler-like magnetism: that 17-year gap in his résumé. His fast-talking charm, like a turbo jet fueled by a petrol cocktail of desperation and hubris, is working on the hiring manager, just as it works on just about everyone he meets. Mikey is at a job interview at a greasy spoon in rural Texas City, Texas.
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