mikeyank
Long time forumite
I first became aware of Simon Rex before we had cable TV in my Brooklyn neighborhood and while in my motel room in Fort Lauderdale I wanted to watch MTV and he was a VJ and a very hot one. I later found out that he did a series of nude porno solos for gay producer Brad Posey. He was a struggling straight guy who did the solos for a gay audience but they were strictly solos although the director did touch his dick some for positioning. lol I would have done the same thing.
Today I read that at age 47, he is in a new independent film called “Red Rocket” where he stars and is getting great reviews
https://www.indiewire.com/2021/11/simon-rex-hollywood-pariah-red-rocket-oscar-contender-1234681846/
Simon Rex Charts His Journey from Hollywood Pariah to ‘Red Rocket’ Oscar Contender
Three days after auditioning, Rex was in small-town Texas giving a career-best performance in writer-director Sean Baker's new How did a former New York model who gave what Gus Van Sant once called “one of the worst auditions I’ve ever seen” start winning breakout actor prizes at age 47? For Simon Rex, it entailed sinking his life savings into a property in the desert in Joshua Tree and contemplating flipping houses for a living. Now he’s nominated for a Gotham Award.
On October 23, 2020, the former MTV VJ heard from Sean Baker, a director he did not know, who wanted Rex to send in an iPhone audition for the lead role in his upcoming movie. Baker was ready to shoot “Red Rocket” (December 10, A24), his follow-up to “The Florida Project” (which landed a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Willem Dafoe), and wanted Rex to read for down-on-his-luck porn star Mikey Saber. “I knew before I even read the script, I was in no position to turn down the Sean Baker movie, no matter what the content of the film was,” Rex said in an interview. “I just knew I had to do something. Otherwise, I was going to keep disappearing. And I would never get this opportunity.”
Rex sent in his audition. Baker responded: “You got the job. I need you here immediately.” The movie started shooting in Texas three days later. With no time to prep or even think about what he was doing, Rex committed to the role and put his trust in Baker, who asked him not to involve his reps. (They heard about it after wrap.) “I could tell from his movies, he operates from the heart, and he’s an empath,” Rex said. “And he’s a sweet person. You just go with your gut.”
Less than a year later, “Red Rocket” was invited to the official competition in Cannes. It’s a two-hour-and-eight-minute movie, and Rex commands the screen for two hours and five minutes, carrying the film on his shoulders from the opening sequence, when Mikey arrives in town with only the shirt on his back and somehow cajoles his resistant ex, Lexi (Bree Elrod), to let him stay with her and her mom (Brenda Deiss) in rural Texas. We watch with fascinated horror as Mikey builds his life back by selling marijuana to the locals, and just as Lexi starts to believe in him again, he falls for an underage waitress (Suzanna Son) at a local donut shop. He sees porn potential in Strawberry. We see disaster. Somehow, Rex gets us to root for Mikey to turn toward the light, even as we know he just can’t. He’s that hustler, from whatever industry, who will do anything to get ahead.
Rex had never played a dramatic role. “Then I read the script, like, ‘Whoa, there’s some heavy shit in here.’ And I just didn’t give a fuck. I hit this point where I was living in the desert, nothing was going on, surrender. I don’t care anymore. Let’s just do it and have fun and throw caution into the wind. And it worked.”
Filmed during COVID, “we were running the whole time on a high-wire act,” said Rex. “I let my guard down and was vulnerable. Before, I might have been, ‘I’m bullshitting right now.’ I got thrown into a world of amazing actors in a real environment, the smells, the sights, and the sounds. It wasn’t a Burbank set with a bunch of extras and fake, with the perfect wardrobe. I was sweating, no makeup, just grimy. I liked shooting a low-budget indie, pushing the limits. It was not comfortable. There’s no trailer, I’d go sit in my little rental car between scenes with the AC on.
The worst sequence to shoot took place at night as Mikey runs naked and barefoot in a bad neighborhood. “That was scary because we’re doing it with no permits,” said Rex. “We’re running butt naked through a dangerous neighborhood at night, hiding from police. It was a lot, I don’t think a lot of people would have done it. I had a lot of moments like that where I just had to push through. But that one on the physical level was very challenging. They taped the bottom of my feet because the old Texas street was gravelly.”
Rex’s acting chops are on full display throughout, despite the lack of prep time. But as Rex points out, “I’ve been around enough sociopathic narcissists in Hollywood for the last 20-plus years that I knew exactly this type of person. It didn’t matter what his career was, he could have been a Wall Street exec, he could have been an actor, he could have been a lawyer, whatever. That type of person will cut anybody’s head off to get to the top and doesn’t have any awareness of what they’re doing. Those people often make it. That’s why I haven’t had more success: I’m not that type of person. But I know that type of person, and they just blindly walk through life hurting people and they don’t care. L.A. is a really toxic place. And I’m hypersensitive to a fault.”
This is Simon Rex today at age 47.
And this is how I remember him from his MTV days.
And this is him in his porn debut as a straight teenager jerking off for his gay male audience.
I definitely want to see this film. Simon has come full circle from teenage kid who makes gay porn video, to MTV to YTV sitcoms to being washed up to now starring in a potential Academy Award nominated performance. Great story!
Today I read that at age 47, he is in a new independent film called “Red Rocket” where he stars and is getting great reviews
https://www.indiewire.com/2021/11/simon-rex-hollywood-pariah-red-rocket-oscar-contender-1234681846/
Simon Rex Charts His Journey from Hollywood Pariah to ‘Red Rocket’ Oscar Contender
Three days after auditioning, Rex was in small-town Texas giving a career-best performance in writer-director Sean Baker's new How did a former New York model who gave what Gus Van Sant once called “one of the worst auditions I’ve ever seen” start winning breakout actor prizes at age 47? For Simon Rex, it entailed sinking his life savings into a property in the desert in Joshua Tree and contemplating flipping houses for a living. Now he’s nominated for a Gotham Award.
On October 23, 2020, the former MTV VJ heard from Sean Baker, a director he did not know, who wanted Rex to send in an iPhone audition for the lead role in his upcoming movie. Baker was ready to shoot “Red Rocket” (December 10, A24), his follow-up to “The Florida Project” (which landed a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Willem Dafoe), and wanted Rex to read for down-on-his-luck porn star Mikey Saber. “I knew before I even read the script, I was in no position to turn down the Sean Baker movie, no matter what the content of the film was,” Rex said in an interview. “I just knew I had to do something. Otherwise, I was going to keep disappearing. And I would never get this opportunity.”
Rex sent in his audition. Baker responded: “You got the job. I need you here immediately.” The movie started shooting in Texas three days later. With no time to prep or even think about what he was doing, Rex committed to the role and put his trust in Baker, who asked him not to involve his reps. (They heard about it after wrap.) “I could tell from his movies, he operates from the heart, and he’s an empath,” Rex said. “And he’s a sweet person. You just go with your gut.”
Less than a year later, “Red Rocket” was invited to the official competition in Cannes. It’s a two-hour-and-eight-minute movie, and Rex commands the screen for two hours and five minutes, carrying the film on his shoulders from the opening sequence, when Mikey arrives in town with only the shirt on his back and somehow cajoles his resistant ex, Lexi (Bree Elrod), to let him stay with her and her mom (Brenda Deiss) in rural Texas. We watch with fascinated horror as Mikey builds his life back by selling marijuana to the locals, and just as Lexi starts to believe in him again, he falls for an underage waitress (Suzanna Son) at a local donut shop. He sees porn potential in Strawberry. We see disaster. Somehow, Rex gets us to root for Mikey to turn toward the light, even as we know he just can’t. He’s that hustler, from whatever industry, who will do anything to get ahead.
Rex had never played a dramatic role. “Then I read the script, like, ‘Whoa, there’s some heavy shit in here.’ And I just didn’t give a fuck. I hit this point where I was living in the desert, nothing was going on, surrender. I don’t care anymore. Let’s just do it and have fun and throw caution into the wind. And it worked.”
Filmed during COVID, “we were running the whole time on a high-wire act,” said Rex. “I let my guard down and was vulnerable. Before, I might have been, ‘I’m bullshitting right now.’ I got thrown into a world of amazing actors in a real environment, the smells, the sights, and the sounds. It wasn’t a Burbank set with a bunch of extras and fake, with the perfect wardrobe. I was sweating, no makeup, just grimy. I liked shooting a low-budget indie, pushing the limits. It was not comfortable. There’s no trailer, I’d go sit in my little rental car between scenes with the AC on.
The worst sequence to shoot took place at night as Mikey runs naked and barefoot in a bad neighborhood. “That was scary because we’re doing it with no permits,” said Rex. “We’re running butt naked through a dangerous neighborhood at night, hiding from police. It was a lot, I don’t think a lot of people would have done it. I had a lot of moments like that where I just had to push through. But that one on the physical level was very challenging. They taped the bottom of my feet because the old Texas street was gravelly.”
Rex’s acting chops are on full display throughout, despite the lack of prep time. But as Rex points out, “I’ve been around enough sociopathic narcissists in Hollywood for the last 20-plus years that I knew exactly this type of person. It didn’t matter what his career was, he could have been a Wall Street exec, he could have been an actor, he could have been a lawyer, whatever. That type of person will cut anybody’s head off to get to the top and doesn’t have any awareness of what they’re doing. Those people often make it. That’s why I haven’t had more success: I’m not that type of person. But I know that type of person, and they just blindly walk through life hurting people and they don’t care. L.A. is a really toxic place. And I’m hypersensitive to a fault.”
This is Simon Rex today at age 47.
And this is how I remember him from his MTV days.
And this is him in his porn debut as a straight teenager jerking off for his gay male audience.
I definitely want to see this film. Simon has come full circle from teenage kid who makes gay porn video, to MTV to YTV sitcoms to being washed up to now starring in a potential Academy Award nominated performance. Great story!
