Minnie Driver bought a mobile home in Malibu after a chance encounter in a coffee shop.

The 54-year-old actress lived in Hollywood and wanted so badly to live in the Santa Monica beach city but just couldn't afford it until an employee in a coffee shop introduced her to her parents who had made a home in a trailer park.

Speaking on the 'Table Manners' podcast, she told hosts Jessie and Lennie Ware: "Well, that was all I could afford in Malibu. This is my 23rd year there. I couldn't afford one of the $60 million homes then, now they're $120 million in Malibu. I used to surf. I lived in Hollywood, I used to get up really early, drive to Malibu and surf. It's very different now, it used to be what they would call mom-and-pop stores and restaurants.

"It's properly for expensive shops for tourists. I went into this coffee shop and there was a girl working there.

"I asked her 'How does anyone afford to live out here?' And she said 'Oh my parents live in this park, it's amazing, do you want me to call my dad?' And her dad came down and we went back. I'll never forget driving in. It was like a community that I'd grown up with, kids on bikes, skateboards in the street. People chatting, doors were open.

The 'Circle of Friends' star - who has been together with Addison O'Dea since 2019 but has 14-year-old son Henry from a previous relationship - described the area as the "apotheosis" of Hollywood and knew she had to "do anything" she could to move there so she could have a home away from her family residence in London.

She said: "It was the complete apotheosis of Hollywood and I knew that I had to live here.

"I just knew I had to do anything I could to live there. I sold my house in Hollywood so we could move here, and now that place in Malibu is our home."