Simon Rex says he ‘wasn’t allowed’ to keep prosthetic penis from Red Rocket

Simon Rex has admitted that he “wasn’t allowed” to keep his prosthetic penis from Red Rocket.

The actor stars in Sean Baker’s latest film as Mikey Sabre, a washed-up porn star who moves back to his Texas hometown and starts up a relationship with a 17-year-old girl.

Earlier this month, Rex was named Best Male Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards and revealed during his acceptance speech that he had used a prosthetic throughout the film, saying: “Thank you Film Independent for recognising my fake penis.”

Speaking to People, the 47-year-old actor said that he “wasn’t allowed” to keep the appendage after filming wrapped.

“I don’t think that was an option, but it will be in a museum one day,” he said.

Rex – who has previously worked in the adult entertainment industry himself – also said that he and The Florida Project director Baker had initially wanted to keep secret whether the penis was real or not.

“​​I just had fun with it, and me and Sean Baker… we agreed that we were going to keep it mysterious, and not say whether or not that was really me naked,” he said.

“And at that point, after we won the Spirit Award, I said, ‘It’s time to tell people.’ We did this for eight months. We somehow got away with it for eight months. It was just time to let people know.”

You can read The Independent’s four-star review of Red Rocket here.

Red Rocket is in cinemas now.