I can’t say who the person is for legal reasons, but I watched a few minutes of an interview and I was like, “I got it. Sean showed me some interviews he had done with people of the archetype of this character from this world that he had researched over the years and he showed me an interview of a guy that he said this is loosely based on. REX: We just had to jump straight in and wing it, and use my imagination and pretend, and not overthink it and over rehearse it, which I think sometimes is better, especially maybe in this case. How did you figure this character out? Do you even feel like you had time to figure this character out, or did you just have to jump straight in? You got this job and it sounds like you immediately had to be there for the shoot within a matter of days with what sounds like no time to prep. In a weird way, it makes no sense, but then it also makes perfect sense because nothing makes sense anymore. I didn’t expect us to get through the movie really, much less have the attention that it’s gotten. The whole thing felt like a longshot to me. We’d have to shoot with COVID protocols and just try to make the movie. I was just like, “Okay, what else is gonna be weird now? This fits the narrative of the strange world that we’re in.” And I remember thinking, “This is a great opportunity.” He made it pretty clear that it was gonna be an ambitious shoot, that it would be low-budget, and that I wasn’t gonna make any money, no one was. Everything was like a weird dream already, so when that happened, it was just a part of the weirdness that was happening. Everything was upside down and just really weird. This was the end of July 2020, so not only was the pandemic new for everybody, but there was all this civil unrest. To me, it does sound like a story in itself, but it’s pretty rare to have the director reach out to you, not through an agent, and book you. This is the first time this has ever happened to me like this. SIMON REX: It was an unorthodox way to get a job because it wasn’t through an agent and there were no managers. What was your reaction when Sean Baker contacted you? Were you hesitant at all? Once back in a town that’s not so welcoming or happy to see him, his hustle brings him back to the doorstep of his estranged wife ( Bree Elrod) and into the path of a teenager known as Strawberry ( Suzanna Son), who he sees as his ticket straight back into the adult industry.ĭuring this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Rex, whose performance in the film is part of the conversation during the current awards season, talked about the unorthodox way that he got the role, why he felt Red Rocket was a great opportunity, the advantage of performing with non-professional actors, whether he thought Mikey was a bad guy, the experience of shooting the scene where he runs naked down the street, and how he feels the film’s ambiguous ending leaves things open to audience interpretation.Ĭollider: It sounds like a Hollywood story that one day you just hear, out of the blue, from a director you don’t know, who says that he wants you to audition for the lead role of a movie. From writer/director Sean Baker ( The Florida Project, Tangerine), the indie dramedy Red Rocket tells the story of man-child Mikey Saber ( Simon Rex), a washed-up porn star who returns to his tiny hometown in Texas, after leaving Hollywood behind.
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