Simon Rex Talks Living in His 'Getaway Pad' — a Very Glam Shipping Container

“It's kind of like Jesus goes to the desert for 40 days,” the former MTV VJ said of his Joshua Tree respite

When he’s not working on films like the upcoming Zo? Kravitz-directed Blink Twice or exploring California in his RV, Simon Rex splits his time between a rental in L.A. and … a shipping container?

The former MTV VJ and Independent Spirit Award-winning star of 2021’s acclaimed Red Rocket stopped by the Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers to chat with hosts Josh Meyers and Seth Meyers about his semi-nomadic lifestyle and unconventional housing situation.

“I live in a shipping container out in Joshua Tree. It’s a basically 450-square-foot room,” Rex explained. “You learn that you don't need much, and there's something sort of Zen about that and simplifying everything and not having a lot of clutter because you don't need all this stuff, you know?”

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Don’t worry, though. The ’90s heartthrob hasn’t exactly fallen on hard times. Rex, 50, explained that his “shipping container” is actually a “tiny house” built by an architect out of two shipping containers on five acres in a remote area just 30 minutes from the scenic California national park.

“It's off grid, you know, meaning that there is no infrastructure. I have a water well. I have solar power and a septic tank,” Rex explained. “It feels like you're on, like, 50 acres with no one around as far as you could see. I mean, you couldn't be more, as a city guy, out of your comfort zone and in nature. And so, yeah, it's a tiny box, all glass on one side.”

If that still doesn’t paint an appealing picture, Rex posted several photos of the charming micro-dwelling on Instagram in late 2022, showing its lush wood paneling and its stunning desert vista.

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“I was looking at places in Joshua Tree for a while, saw some shipping containers, and this guy did a really, really nice job,” Rex told the Meyers brothers. “I've been living in New York, L.A., San Francisco my whole life in an urban metropolis, in the human zoo, and I was like, ‘Let me just do the total opposite.’ And I can't even tell you. It's, like, life-changing. I just go there — It's almost just like my getaway pad to go decompress.”

Rex, who got his start in modeling before landing the MTV gig that shot him to fame in 1995, said that his tiny desert respite was “the best thing I coulda got for myself.”

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“It's kind of like Jesus goes to the desert for 40 days,” Rex joked. “Like, you have this experience that's very intense. And, so after a few days alone out there, a lot of stuff comes up. It's like therapy. It's like self-induced therapy.”

“I don't mean to sound like I'm sitting out there meditating on a rock by you know?” Rex added. “Let's just say you're not watching the TV half of the time. That's a lot of time just sitting out there in the silence. But, yeah, I don't want to sound like I'm some monk. Trust me. I'm watching movies and on my phone the whole time.”

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