Red Rocket

Red Rocket (2021)

Everything's bigger in Texas.

After hitting rock bottom in Los Angeles, former porn star Mikey Saber returns to his hometown in Texas to stay with his estranged wife and mother-in-law. Just as tensions begin to ease, he becomes infatuated with a young doughnut shop worker named Strawberry.

Date of release
2021-12-10
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (675)
Runtime
2h 10m
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Director
Sean Baker

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Texas City
  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 0

Red Rocket is a 2021 American black comedy drama film directed by Sean Baker, and written by Baker and Chris Bergoch. It stars Simon Rex, Bree Elrod, and Suzanna Son in her feature film debut. The film stars Rex as a middle-aged, newly retired porn star who leaves Los Angeles for his small Texas hometown, plotting his way back to the life he once had. Along the way, he begins dating a 17-year-old girl.

Production

The $1.1 million budget the film was able to secure forced Baker to abandon a larger project and devote himself to Red Rocket. He and Bergoch conceived the idea for the Saber character while researching the adult film industry for their 2012 film Starlet, when they met several men who fit the archetype of a "suitcase pimp", which Baker defines as "male talent who lives off a female talent in the adult film world."

Baker had Simon Rex in mind five years before shooting, but had never introduced himself. On October 23, 2020, Baker called Rex and convinced him to send an audition tape via iPhone, giving him just five minutes to prepare. Rex drove to Texas to avoid postflight quarantine rules relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, as filming was to begin in three days.

Principal photography ran in Texas from October 26 to November 19, 2020, with rigorous safety protocols implemented due to the pandemic. Red Rocket was shot on 16 mm film by an Arriflex 16SR3 camera with Panavision 1.44x Auto Panatars, Zeiss Super Speed, Iscorama 54 and Canon Lenses. It had a crew of 10 people, no rehearsal time, and mostly non-actors.

Filming locations included restaurants in Texas City and Nederland, a donut shop in Groves, the Kemah Boardwalk, and the Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier. The Donut Hole was open for business in the morning while filming took place in the evening.

Securing the rights to the song "Bye Bye Bye" was not part of the initial budget. All five members of NSYNC had to approve its use. Son recorded a cover version of the song for the soundtrack.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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