Sean Baker
After winning over America with his portrait of a spirited young girl and her mother in The Florida Project, Sean Baker returns with a new exploration of small-town tensions. At its heart is Simon Rex, sometime rapper and Scary Movie actor, who delivers a career-best performance as motormouth ex-porn star Mikey Saber.
Baker: We’re about the same age, so I remember when he debuted on MTV in the franchise, and I realised this guy’s a survivor. He keeps going. Then he resurfaced a few years later with Dirt Nasty [Rex’s rap alter ego]. I think it was when he started doing Vines that I realised, ‘This guy’s been entertaining me for 20 years. Why hasn’t the industry given him a meaty role? What the hell?’ And then I saw him in Joseph Kahn’s – that’s what really sealed it for me.
