Sean Baker, the director of the highly-acclaimed The Florida Project, is currently taking part in Perlak with Red Rocket, a film about a washedup porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown. Although he acknowledges that he is sometimes inspired by certain locations that give shape to the story, in this case his film stemmed from wanting to explore a clearly defined archetype – a low-level narcissistic pimp unaware of the harm he has on other people, while always feeling he’s a victim. The challenge was to find someone like this who could also win over the audience, and that’s why he chose Simon Rex because he thought he could bring both comedy and pathos to the role. Rex agrees that it would have been easy to play the main character as an asshole and a loser but that he wanted to make him likeable and charming. The director also stressed that he is always very conscious when writing and directing not to look down on his characters. “I always approach films when I focus on a community or microcosm that I’m not part of by asking myself: how would I want to be treated or represented by another filmmaker? I would hope that they would approach me with dignity and respect.”