You may not be familiar with writer/director Sean Baker’s unique style of filmmaking. His movies are typically about the type of people you might see on Jerry Springer, filmed in a fictitious semi-documentary format.
So, when hipster movie studio A24 announced the completion of his new movie, filmed on location in Galveston and Texas City, those of us who were familiar with his style of filmmaking became extremely curious about how he would portray the area.
Galveston has a good track record with widely distributed feature films being shot here: Best picture contender “The Tree of Life” (2011), Golden Globe nominee “The Evening Star” (1996) — one scene in the Oscar-nominated Borat sequel (2020) was even shot in Galveston.
“Red Rocket” is Baker’s most accessible film to date. It stars former MTV VJ and adult film actor Simon Rex (“Scary Movie 3”) as Mikey Saber, a former porn star who returns to Texas City to get back on his feet.
Rex, who is already earning raves for his performance, isn’t the guy you expect to see campaigning for best actor awards alongside this year’s contenders like Benedict Cumberbatch, Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Baker’s previous film “The Florida Project” (2017) earned an Oscar nomination for supporting actor Willem Dafoe and won countless other awards throughout that award season, including being shortlisted for the American Film Institute’s movie of the year. Like all of Baker’s films, “The Florida Project” was highly divisive. He explores the outsiders, people and characters you don’t expect an entire film to be revolving around.
Baker also was one of the first filmmakers to shoot an entire movie on an iPhone. “Tangerine” was widely praised for its audacity in independent film circles.
I sat down with Baker, Bree Elrod, who plays Mikey’s estranged wife, Lexi, and Beaumont discovery Brittney Rodriguez for an exclusive interview.
Baker brought the film back to Texas for this year’s Houston Cinema Arts Festival following its world debut at the Cannes Film Festival this summer. During the production, Baker and his small crew lived in downtown Galveston, by Red Light Coffee Roasters, which they praised highly for caffeinating their workdays.
FILMING IN GALVESTON
“We found Texas City (first), and then started understanding the history of the surrounding area,” Baker said. “How important Galveston was to the area, (it’s) where everybody goes for their play-cation.”
Baker said he also was able to incorporate some of Galveston’s rich history into the story between Mikey and Lexi.
Mentioning the 1900 Storm, the killing fields and even the slave market at San Leon gave more depth to their surroundings.
“All those things together added up and said something, so we wanted to explore that,” he said.
Other film critics have suggested Baker deliberately set the story in “the ugliest city in Texas,” but the director said that wasn’t his intention.
“When you are going through the belly of the beast, (with) the refineries on either side, it’s just so visual,” Baker said. “We knew pointing the camera at the refineries would give everyone a different kind of reaction, and clearly some had that sort of take on it.”
Elrod, who grew up in Topeka, Kansas, joked that many people say Topeka is the ugliest city in Kansas, so that helped prepare her for the role.
“I tried to do research, but it wasn’t until I got to Texas City, meeting the locals that offered so much on what it was like living in the area,” Elrod said. “That was so helpful in creating Lexi and her world.”
DONUT HOLE
“We came across Texas City just by driving up the coast from one refinery town to another,” Baker said, walking me through how they scouted their locations. “So, the location came after, but then you have to take that time to incorporate it into the script, so it feels like it belongs.”
In the film, Mikey (Rex), in his mid-40s, falls for a 17-year-old named Strawberry (Suzanna Son), who works at the local donut shop. He takes her to Galveston Island for a date, which was nondescript in the script, but that locale allowed them to add more flavor to the story later.
On the poster, Rex is standing in the hole of a giant strawberry-glazed doughnut, which references what Baker called “a geographical treat.” Originally written in the script as a food truck, Baker said when he and crew drove past the Donut Hole in Groves, “We slammed on the brakes and said, ‘Oh my God! This is one of those gifts from the film gods that we have to accept.'”
Baker immediately contacted the owners, who allowed them to shoot there for four days. The distinct colors of this location, its proximity to a refinery, the sexual connotations for the story, all made a huge difference in the film, he said.
It was in the Port Arthur and Beaumont area where the casting director found co-stars Brittney Rodriguez, who plays tough gal June in the film, and Ethan Darbone, who plays Mikey’s friend Lonnie. Having Texas actors like Rodriguez also made a huge difference because they were able to correct some of the lines in the script to make them more authentic.
“One of the scenes we were filming at the donut shop, the fight scene, people actually thought Simon was getting jumped,” Rodriguez said.
Baker admitted that became quite a hairy chain of events.
“We were shooting with telephoto lenses across the street, so nobody saw a film crew,” he said.
Elrod added it was incredible to her that people stopped to intervene in what they thought was an actual fight.
OCEANS CABARET
It would be hard to tell a story about a porn star with Galveston roots and not use the infamous Oceans Cabaret off Interstate 45 headed onto the island.
“Obviously a place Mikey would go. It’s such a gaudy throwback to like 1980s Scarface era,” Baker said.
The strip club, which proudly advertises full nudity, is a cesspit to some, a cave of wonders for others and a filmmaking goldmine for this director.
“I am still kicking myself for not doing it justice,” Baker said laughing.
Originally, they had an entire sequence planned out for the dressing rooms upstairs, which are all red: walls, ceiling, carpet, everything red.
“I had never been to a strip club before,” Elrod said. “And I am not in any of those scenes, but I told them I have to go into this place.”
Baker said the owner allows “everything in there” with an emphasis on everything. As “Red Rocket” unfolds, Mikey visits Oceans Cabaret more than once, so for those who are curious about what it looks like on the inside, this film is your chance.
KEMAH BOARDWALK & GALVESTON ISLAND HISTORIC PLEASURE PIER
Unless you’re familiar with the area, you might not notice in the film where Mikey takes Strawberry on a date to a Galveston beach where the couple rides a wooden rollercoaster. That wooden rollercoaster is actually at Kemah Boardwalk, not Galveston. But, Baker wanted to shoot that scene with views of the Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier in the background, so that sequence is a combination of the two.
“Being a dramatist, making a hybrid documentary fiction, it’s ultimately a fiction, and you have to take advantage of what is the most dramatic and impactful” Baker said. “That wooden coaster at Kemah Boardwalk is such a visual treat.”
The cast and crew found Galveston and surrounding areas welcoming. Nearly every spot they asked to film at, including The Pleasure Pier, Farb’s Liquor on Broadway and others, granted access. Baker and Elrod confessed a few people did recognize Rex by his alter ego, rapper Dirt Nasty, and they came up to meet him.
“David Pope, who allowed us to shoot in his home in Texas City, unfortunately just passed away in September,” Baker said. “He was such an incredible man who welcomed our tiny crew of 10, which is still a lot of people you are allowing in your home for over a week.”
There’s quite a revealing scene near the end of the film where Mikey, who constantly brags about his natural attributes, is forced to flee without his clothes.
“I have to say, we didn’t exactly have permits for the naked run,” Baker said.
In a scene where Simon Rex’s character is running, the refinery is right beside him, and anyone knows you can’t step foot near those properties without their onsite security being alerted.
“We tried to reach out to them for permission, but they were just like, ‘Oh, you guys are that independent film crew? No way, forget it,'” Baker said.
Fortunately, Baker was able to shoot what he needed for the film before they were asked to leave.
REX’S PAST INFLUENCES THE SCRIPT
Baker has been following Rex’s career since the beginning, and while the actor’s brief porn past was brought up in conversation and could be seen as a meta thing, that was about the extent of the script being born out of that connection, he said.
“I told him about this character, he read the script, he saw some video I had shot of these ‘suitcase pimps,’ and he more than got the character,” Baker said. “He was also basing it from his time in Hollywood.”
Rex based his performance on people he had encountered in the celebrity world, he said. Although the biggest similarity between Rex and Mikey is they are survivors, Baker said.
“Even though over the years the industry has never given Simon the dramatic roles I think he deserves, he stayed in the industry and kept going,” he said. “Hopefully now, they will.”
“Red Rocket” blasts into theaters Dec. 24.
Dustin Chase is a film critic and associate editor with Texas Art & Film, which is based in Galveston. Visit texasartfilm.com.
