Love them or hate them – or love to hate them – but celebrities remain a constant source of fascination for the regular mortal. The work they do, the fashion they like, the homes they live in, and the cars they drive are all topics that, above all, serve as glorious escapism.
Glorious escapism and living vicariously is what this is all about. Jamie Foxx is an incredibly talented and appreciated actor, comedian, singer, producer, and talk show personality. He’s also a passionate car collector, a smart-dresser and, speaking in more general terms, a lover of exquisite things. His partnership with Grey Goose Vodka and Anderson Mobile Estates is a combination of all these things, resulting in one of the biggest and most impressive custom motorhomes out there.
Anderson Mobile Estates is a U.S.-based company that started out as the Star Trax Celebrity Coaches in 1987. The Anderson family sold the business in 1999 and took some time off for traveling and reconsidering their next step. Traveling included sailing, and this is how the idea came to them: they would deliver the most extravagant, incredible landyachts in the country.
They’re still doing it to this day.
Photo: Anderson Mobile Estates
Being an American RV company and for their partnership with Jamie Foxx, Anderson Mobile Estates is the perfect fit for autoevolution’s American Month, our month-long coverage of the most impressive automotive-related American projects. One of the company’s mottoes is “it begins with a dream…,” and what is there more American than the pursuit of a dream until it becomes reality?
Off Script is one such dream. We’ve covered two more Anderson projects separately, Will Smith’s The Heat and Mariah Carey’s The Lounge, aka the “skyscraper on wheels.” This one was done for Jamie Foxx, for his online talk show Off Script, and now goes by the same name.
In 2018, then-Grey Goose partner Jamie Foxx announced that he would be getting his own celebrity talk show. However, unlike Ellen or Fallon, he wouldn’t be based at a studio and have the guests come over for the chat. Instead, he would travel the country to seek out his guests, land on the location where they were shooting, and then invite them over for a chat in between takes. This meant that he would be using a trailer.
Obviously, a simple trailer wouldn’t do. Off Script consisted of short episodes, no longer than 9 minutes, featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jeremy Renner, Denzel Washington, Chadwick Boseman, Sarah Silverman, Melissa McCarthy, Vince Vaughn, Gabrielle Union, and Benecio Del Toro. It had to be luxurious and inviting, and it had to have Grey Goose branding, along with the ability to move around from set to set to track down the guests.
Photo: Anderson Mobile Estates
This is where Anderson Mobile Estates came into the picture. They delivered one of their usual two-story motorhomes, with a simple layout plan, the proprietary hydraulic pop-up roof, and two generous slide-outs. The bottom level consisted of the actual recording studio and a smaller makeup area for Foxx, which would often be included in the shots.
The interviews always took place on a custom, C-shaped couch of royal blue velvet, with the custom Grey Goose bar in the background. The Andersons also built that one: it was a 4-week project, and it proved to be a key element in the way the interviews progressed since guests and hosts would often use it to replenish their drinks.
One of the slide-outs on the bottom floor included the couch, while the other housed a table with a record player. The décor was elegant and minimalist: wooden floors and concrete-looking walls, with the occasional splash of color and plenty of light, both natural and artificial. Of all the Anderson projects, this one is perhaps the most elegant.
With the slide-outs deployed, you wouldn’t have been able to tell that the interview was shot inside a trailer: the studio felt spacious but cozy at the same time. Even Renner, who is an experienced carpenter and house-flipper, was amazed at the kind of job the company did with the custom trailer.
Photo: Anderson Mobile Estates
Further details about the Off Script trailer were never made public. We reached out to the company for more information and will update this piece when or if we hear back. However, based on their other builds, it’s safe to assume a bathroom and some sort of hidden kitchenette are also located on the bottom floor. As for the second story, which is usually a lounge with multiple functionalities, maybe it served as an entertainment room, office or bedroom for Foxx, or maybe it served as a base for the rest of the production crew.
Costs were never detailed either, but Anderson custom projects are priced upwards of $1.8 million. Foxx only used it during the production of Off Script, so the gigantic motorhome went back to Anderson and is now available for rent. The Grey Goose bar is probably still there, if you’re looking to bring the party on the road.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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