Last year, after he shelled out nearly $12 million for an architectural tour-de-force in Malibu’s swanky Colony enclave, Ed Norton made his two-unit beachfront property on Malibu’s Las Flores Beach available as rental at $15,000 per month and this week the unfussy but high-priced property popped up for sale on the open market at $5.25 million. The three-time Oscar-nominated “Fight Club” and “American History X” star, most recently nominated in 2015 for “Birdman: The Unexplained Virtue of Ignorance,” purchased the two-unit, 1920s cottage on what’s called “Dog Beach” in 2008, while dating his now wife, film producer Shauna Robertson, for $2.7 million.
The upper unit, with one ocean-facing bedroom and one bathroom, includes an oceanfront living/dining room with dumpy, seal grey wall-to-wall carpeting, a brick fireplace painted a crisp white and a compact kitchen that’s open to the living/dining room and fitted with pedestrian white Formica countertops and low-end, rental-grade appliances. A slender deck runs wraps around two sides of the upper unit with a multi-million dollar, head-on beach and ocean views through a row of palm tree trunks.
The lower unit, with two bedrooms and one Jack ‘n’ Jill style bathroom, strikes a more stylishly bohemian vibe with bamboo flooring, a mustard yellow, 1960-style wood stove, an exposed wood ceiling and walls clad in reclaimed barn wood. The kitchen is unquestionably on the itty-bitty side with rustic, custom cabinets made from reclaimed barn wood and average quality but up-to-date stainless steel appliances.
Just outside the lower unit and directly accessible through French doors in a beach-facing bedroom, a large deck steps down to a bulkhead protected private beach area with a quirky, party-friendly thatched roof Tiki hut and an ocean-view molded plastic spa.
As mentioned above, Norton, whose voice will be heard in the upcoming Wes Anderson animated feature “Isle of Dogs” and will portray the lead character in the upcoming crime-drama “Motherless Brooklyn,” which he’s also directing, upgraded his residential circumstances in Malibu last summer with the $11.8 million purchase of a striking John Lautner designed beachfront residence inside the hallowed and guarded gates of the Colony enclave. He also continues to own a modestly sized, double-turreted Spanish bungalow in West Hollywood hidden behind an impenetrable hedge and purchased in 2001 for $611,000 from Drew Barrymore and since at least 2007 he’s owned a generously terraced penthouse atop a dignified co-operative between Washington Square Park and Union Square in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
Listing photos: Coldwell Banker
