In Sean Baker's unfiltered original "Red Rocket", the torn and unemployed porn star Mikey Sable returns to his East Texas Stumbled on the road of his hometown, where he once again messed up everything around him.

Desperate, narcissistic, and given a particularly prominent attribute, Mickey made a despicable plan and found that he had sunk his manipulative hook into a teenage doughnut shop worker named Strawberry (newcomer Susanna Sun ).

Although Mickey’s suspicious plan is both grand and disgusting, the wholehearted performance of Simon Rex, a native of San Francisco, as Mickey is a glorious revelation, so documentary-like real and intense, since the movie July in 2021 Since its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, the festival has sparked discussions about awards.

"I think Mikey has the delusion of arrogance," Rex said when describing his character. He emphasized this point: "He is just crazy."

Following a screening at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October and limited releases in Los Angeles and New York last week, "Red Rocket" will be released more widely on December 17, including in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The juicy starring role (the scene is on Rex from the first frame to the last frame) pushes this handsome 47-year-old former model into a role he is not used to-the key darling. The era of Rex It has changed. He has been with Paris Hilton and Charlie Sheen and others. He is more gentle, prefers to stay away from the Hollywood crowd, and is happy to start again in the off-grid plot of Joshua Tree.

Rex's resume is of course eclectic. Including acting as MTV VJ, rapper Dirt Nasty, TV actor and starring in the three sequels of the "horror movie" series.

Oh yes, that was the short time he appeared in masturbation scenes in two pornographic movies in the 1990s. It was a difficult time in his fledgling career, when he worked as a waiter while living with his girlfriend and her children at the time, trying to pay the rent for his home in Los Angeles. But Rex has moved on, even though the media still invested a lot of ink during that time.

In two interviews, one was on stage at the Mill Valley Film Festival Awards Ceremony in October, and the other was at Fairmont in San Francisco the next day, Rex was refreshing to express his appreciation for his current situation. He will definitely talk about the debt he owes "Red Rocket" director Baker in every conversation. Baker is a distinctive filmmaker. His work also includes the 2017 "Florida Project" and the 2015 iPhone Shoot "oranges".

Rex likes the improvised fighting spirit in the Baker classic, which portrays the lives of Americans who are often overlooked by Hollywood; the unstable people living on the fringe. "Red Rocket" was filmed in Texas City and Port Arthur. It has authenticity from the image of the oil refinery to the depiction of the drug house.

Baker's au natural style operates in low-budget smoke and tends to avoid shooting permits and other legal requirements. He often uses local people to play major roles: for example, Brenda Deiss, the actress who played Lil, Mikey's knowledgeable mother-in-law, was discovered by Baker near Porta-Potty). This authenticity extends to movie scenes, such as pharmacies where actual users come to buy.

Rex enjoys working with non-star actors.

"I am used to working in scenes where everyone thinks they are hot (expletive), and you have to deal with a lot of arrogance, big shots, heroines and people who are late for this," he said. "For ('Red Rocket'), the situation is just the opposite. They came to the set from the oil refinery in oily clothes and we said,'Okay, let's go.'"

"To be honest, I prefer this," he added. "It makes my job easier because I am surrounded by these real characters again, rather than an actor who just moved here from St. Louis and became the next Tom Cruise's wardrobe."

Baker has actually been interested in Rex for a while, paying close attention to his career and checking out the actor's funny antics (simonrex415-a kind wink to hometown) on his Instagram account. One of the reasons Baker labelled him was his colorful transition as a rap promoter in the 2017 independent masterpiece East Bay comedy "Bodied."

When Rex boarded the role of Mikey, he had to drive to East Texas instead of flying, because the "rocket" started during COVID-19. For safety reasons, Baker’s ship is tighter than an ordinary ship, with 10 crew members on board. Some of the actors and staff had to learn to handle multiple tasks at the same time.

Until Mikey's role. Rex played most of the roles in the comedy. Mikey forced him to stretch, which was different from anything he had done before.

"For me, the most challenging part is doing solid theatrical performances," he said. "This is something I have never done. Comedy is really natural. This is how my brain works.... So in this movie, although it is a black comedy, its performance It's more dramatic, and there are serious moments."

In his mind, the most important thing is out of respect for Baker.

"When all these big actors want this role, I really don't want to let him down because he takes risks on me and throws dice on me. It's like'(expletive), I have to fix it."

He said that Rex, who grew up in San Francisco and the East Bay, did not fully grasp it academically.

He thanked his mother Zoe, an environmentalist, who was such a stable force for moving from San Francisco to the East Bay to keep Rex out of trouble. She attended the screening of Mill Valley with Rex's stepfather and friends, and said that she liked Rex's performance but hated the role.

"I am a real hooligan," Rex recalled when he was young. "Always get into trouble and get suspended. I think I am cool and can be mean. But for my mother, I am a minority, I It’s the only kid performing."

He found that suburban children have as many troubles as urban children, sometimes even more.

"It's almost like the suburbs have more crazy kids than the cities," he said.

Although his grades at Alameda High School were not the best, he did a good job of focusing and avoiding distractions. Once he wanted to prove that he was "not stupid" and thought, "Well, I want to prove to you that I can do well in school. So I'm going to study and do my homework. My GPA for that semester or quarter was 3.8 ."

The lessons he learned about pushing himself now apply to his career. Rex knows how to surprise others-he did exactly that in "Red Rocket."

Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.

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