Santana Dempsey
Photo: Wolfie Trausch
By Brad Munson
Lowlife is a new indie film–a strange, street-smart, and brutal thriller with a Tarantino quirkiness and a Soderbergh multi-story structure–that’s making its mark in U.S. and Canadian film festivals this fall…and SeFijaOnline had a chance to sit down and talk about the making and success of Lowlife with one of its stars.
Ricardo Adam Zarate as El Monstruo and Dempsey as Kaylee
Santana Dempsey, who plays Kaylee, a pregnant, desperate heroin addict who–along with Nicki Micheaux’ Crystal and Mark Burnhan’s Teddy Bear Haynes–set a story of kidnapping, organ theft, sex trafficking and murder into motion…along with a startling and memorable cast of characters that includes a likable ex-con with swastika tattoo that covers his face, a homicidal Luchador wrestler/enforcer who never takes off his mask, and a fake ICE agent who loses a hand and keeps on fighting.
Santana is a key player in Lowlife, who’s been seen in films like Megachurch Murder and French Dirty, as well as episodes of The Newsroom, Kingdom, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and many others. In this interview, she talks about the challenges of her role, how she became part of the project, and the slightly amazing response to it that’s already turning it into a bit of a modern cult classic.
Lowlife, directed by Ryan Prows and written by a five-man team of Tim Cairo, Jake Gibson, Shaye Ogobonna, Maxwell Michael Towson and director Prows, has just found a distributor. We’ll let you know when and where you can see it as soon as the news is released.
Character slider shot credit: Alex Lombardi
