![]() I’ve always had this outsider thing going on, even after moving here. What kind of relationship do you have with Hollywood? Does being in the A24 family help you feel a certain way in Hollywood? So I was very much like that Lonnie character, just being assaulted to the point of exhaustion, I could only hang out with these guys at the most for a couple hours. You are just getting inundated with their crazy thoughts, and you know what I mean by crazy, I’m making light of it. They’re exhausting, they are motor-mouths. I was basically the Lonnie character listening to the stuff, when I was hanging out with these Mikey Saber types. That stuff was actually in my head for many years, because I’ve heard many of those monologues. I didn’t want to shy away from the harsher stuff, the Mikey rants, the Mikey monologues. It got worked out very quickly, and even the B plots with the Leondria family, that was figured out during “The Florida Project” too, because I had met a family in Tampa, Florida that I modeled the Leondria family around. “Red Rocket” was one like that, because it was based on research we had done on “ Starlet,” I already knew beginning, middle, and end. Because five years ago, when we were coming off “ The Florida Project,” everybody was asking as they always do, “What’s next?” And so you start entertaining a bunch of ideas. I think it was just that, believing it then and already having it blocked out. So I believed in it from then, and I just kept believing in it, no matter what was going on socially. Well, I broke the story five years ago, actually before this new wave, before #MeToo, before the internet outrage. What made you believe in this story, especially when you and Chris were writing it when you had the blinders on? Otherwise you would second-guess every move. But there’s no way to make one of these movies with that on your mind, while you’re in production. We live in a time where it’s hard not to be effected by the world’s sensitivity, and social media has given everybody a platform to be outraged. It’s definitely going to be affecting your decision-making. And you have to move forward, and then you can pull the blinders up after, but you can’t really be thinking about that stuff. But there’s also that moment-and I talked about this with “ Tangerine” actually-you just have to put the blinders down. You also have to, with everyone one of these films that I make, there’s always the chance that you are dealing with subject matter that can be handled the wrong way, and representation can go off the rails. Yes, you do have to keep that on your mind. ![]() When you were writing it and making it, were you thinking about it in that way-that this is kind of provocative, and if you did mess it up, it could have been especially disastrous? But there’s been a handful, but for the most part, no. I thought there may be a few … given the subject matter, automatic rejection. ![]() Right now it’s definitely leaning toward the positive. Not really, I actually thought it would be a little more polarizing. ![]() I’ve been reading Letterboxd reviews-I scan them-and it looks pretty positive, for the most part.Īre you surprised by anything you have been reading in the Letterboxd reviews? ![]() And it’s also been interesting to finally get confirmation about what people actually think, what general audiences start to think. So, I don’t have anything specific for you, but you have time to gather your thoughts and perhaps articulate your thoughts better than you could right in the beginning. I think for me, often I’m discovering my own film with the audience, as time passes. Has the film settled in your brain more since when it premiered at Cannes this past year? Have you learned more about the movie that you made? interviewed Baker about the making of “Red Rocket,” dashing his own dreams of directing a “ Fast & Furious” movie, his favorite movies of 2021, and more. Baker is also credited as the movie’s casting director and precision driver. The film was written by Chris Bergoch and Baker, based off an idea that Baker says existed five years ago, and inspired by research for an earlier film. ![]()
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