“It’s the one thing that keeps me going: property, architecture and interior design,” the actor said.
Jason Statham may play the tough guy in most of his films, but when it comes to his home, he makes sure it’s a place where he can unwind.
“In the U.K., everything is just these tiny rooms with a fireplace. Every house looks the same—they’re all red brick—and they’re very different to California midcentury architecture,” the British actor, 52, told ArchDigest.com in a new profile of one of his Los Angeles homes.
“So, [here] when you get floor-to-ceiling glass and it connects the indoors with the outdoors, it’s almost like this free-flowing connection,” he said. “There’s just something very Zen-like, and it gives you a certain sense of relaxation.”
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And while many would expect stars such as Statham to shy away from more exposed homes — given their lives in the public eye — The Fast & Furious star says they are his favorite kind.
“Put me in a glass box and I’ll be very happy,” he told the magazine. “There’s just something really appealing about the symmetry and openness of things.”
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The Expendables actor showed off the newly renovated home with its cedar wood ceilings and expansive windows, boasting that he has a knack for finding homes that he can gut and make his own.
“I’m always looking for places to either renovate or to buy, to move up the ladder,” Statham told the outlet. “This one sort of came out of the blue and had a certain charm. It was quite downtrodden and had been neglected, as most of these of midcenturies have.”
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The four-bedroom, three-bathroom property exudes modern, minimalist luxury, with the actor admitting it was not a cheap renovation.
“I never really had a budget. So, all the finishes became really expensive—it became quite an indulgent year,” Statham said. “Somehow, to build a new house would have been easier. But in doing a renovation, we got to be instructed by some of its original appeal, like the butterfly ceiling and the drop-down that basically allows you to run the cedar ceiling up from inside the house all the way out to the overhangs. They’re things I don’t think we would have done if we’d have drawn it on paper.”
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The home also features a gym that the publication notes would “put Equinox to shame,” with a special ceiling that is able to support his heavy bags, gymnastic rings and additional gym equipment.
It also opens up into an outdoor area where Statham installed a sauna and a Hoshiazaki ice maker with a stainless-steel immersion tub for ice baths.
“People don’t like to think about getting into a tub of ice,” he explained. “But the benefits are so huge. It’s quite a popular form of training now.”
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The home isn’t Statham’s primary residence — which he shares with Rosie Huntington Whitely, 32, and their son, Jack, 2 — but does serve as a guest house for all of his U.K.-based friends and family, who tend to show up “en masse” to spend time with him.
He recently put the property on the market, hoping to move on to his next project.
“It’s the one thing that keeps me going: property, architecture and interior design,” the actor said. “I’m constantly looking and trying to find the next project to be a part of. I think it’s part of how we’re made up; we just love change. Change is always good.”
His last project, an airy Malibu beach house where he “connects with nature,” was also featured by the site.