“Even those it’s a genre film, there’s a level of consciousness to it,” actress Nicki Micheaux tells EUR/Electronic Urban Report about her new film “Lowlife.”
The drama centers on a group of small-time criminals whose lives collide when an organ harvesting caper goes awry.
“There’s sex trafficking that goes on with illegal immigrants,” she noted of the film’s narrative, adding that it also explores “The black market of organ harvesting. These are real problems,” she says.
Ryan Prows makes his feature directorial debut with “Lowlife” after winning a Student Academy Award for the short ‘Narcocorrido,’ in which Micheaux also starred as his leading lady and won the Best Actor Award at the Tribeca Cinemas Visionfest.
Film Journal International calls the feature a “Tarantino-esque blend of violence, comedy, shifting timelines and characters who manage to be both reprehensible and sympathetic…”
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Micheaux plays Crystal, a recovering addict desperate enough to arrange a black-market kidney transplant to save her husband’s life. When asked if she has personally had to turn to extreme measures in order to save herself or a loved one from a potentially dangerous situation, Micheaux explained:
“When I got divorced, those were very-very dark times. I think divorce is the worse thing ever for the people going through it. For the kids, it can be a really difficult thing. And there were some tempting moments of like, “Well, what if I just did this for money?” But thankfully, I never got caught up in having to trade organs on the black market.”
“Lowlife” had its U.S. premiere at Chicago’s Cinepocalypse Film Festival where it won Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor.
Micheaux spent four seasons as Jen Sutton, a strong independent and supportive wife and mother on the ABC Family series, “Lincoln Heights,” which garnered her two NAACP Image Award Nominations for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series and she recently appeared in a high profile recurring role as a sharp, focused detective Sandra Yates on the TNT hit series “Animal Kingdom.”
While she may be best known for playing strong-willed female characters, Crystal was a welcomed challenge because she is quite the opposite.
“I tend to play really strong women, and Crystal is much more broken down than people see me,” said Micheaux. “I specifically worked on how do I find those parts of being a woman who has felt pain. When you’re a woman who has let life run you over and everyone’s needs and desires were more important than yours and you’re sort of operating in the shadows. I have felt those feelings and I have lived that life for certain parts of my time so I really focused on that and that kind of emotional aspect — that psychology, because that’s where she was psychologically,” she explains.
“Who is this woman that sells her child and then has no remorse about selling her child to the point where she’ll go get her kidney, all for the man she loves. This is a woman who is the classic abused woman. It’s all about the man. It’s all about these others and never about herself. I wanted to show that as a real woman and I wanted you to understand her and see her get strength through that. I totally identify with living a life feeling trapped.
How would you describe the nature and the motives of the central characters?
Nicki: What the writers did that was so cool is they thought about all these characters that most people ignore in mainstream movies, like the side character. For instance, I play this down-and-out motel owner. You have a black woman who runs this motel, that’d be like: The main character would come in and talk to her and then he would go on his way and the movie would be about him. This movie is about this woman and her life, and then you’ve got these ex-cons. People you’d normally see and then you walk to the other side of the street to avoid them.
What did you find most compelling about the script?
Nicki: When I read it I could not put it down. This woman starts off by, ‘I’m going to take my daughter’s kidneys. The daughter I gave up 20 years ago and haven’t seen. I’m gonna go get her kidney from her,’ and it’s just crazy. This interaction of characters, they’re all leading three different lives. The Mexican luchador story, he’s doing his thing and she’s doing her thing with her husband and then the ex-cons and their thing.
So you’ve got three separate storylines and each one of them, you’re just turning the pages and this moment they start to intersect you’re like, ‘Oh, she’s going to hook up with the luchador? What’s going to happen?’ So I got the gun and me and the luchador are going to go save my daughter and I’m like, ‘What! What happens next?’
The script was so engaging and really unique because it’s got so many genres in the movie. It’s really funny. It’s really dramatic. It’s really suspenseful, and I kept wondering how we’re going to pull this off but it came out great.
Would you agree that the overall theme is desperation?
Nicki: And, how far would you go for the people you love? They’re all desperate characters but at the end of the day, you have to rise above your desperation. When they start off the movie, each one is their own level of self-serving and it’s kinda how they end up where they are today. They’ve been making small-minded self-preserving choices.
Considering the various themes these characters explore, does the film play up any social fears we have?
Nicki: We shot the film before Trump was elected and ICE was the bad guy but this was not front page news when we were making this movie. We didn’t intend it to be quite so on the nose with what is happening right now in terms of the deporting and the ICE situation. Who knew Trump was going to get elected? It was meant to be entertainment only: The bad guys coming to round-up and deport everybody. We didn’t know that it would become the reality.
What was most challenging about taking Crystal from script-to-screen?
Nicki: The harder part of the character for me was she was a hoarder. It’s not really important in the film. It’s very subtle but it’s a big deal if you’re a hoarder. So the most challenging part was how do I finesse this, even though it’s not really about that. The other challenging part was that motel was so dirty. Just finding somewhere clean to sit.
Was it hard to shake Crystal at the end of the day?
Nicki: One of the things I learned over the years in how to get in and out of a character. When Ryan and I did the short, the short was really dark. It was about a border patrol agent whose life was really at the end, and she was a really desperate woman. One of the reasons I was afraid of that project was because it was so dark. Because I have kids and because I was going through a divorce, one of the things I work on is keeping my creative stuff in that space and completely letting it go so I can be 100% available for my kids and enjoy this really joyful part of my life, ‘cause my life has enough drama.
Speaking of which, what does a seasoned actor like yourself gain from collaborating with fresh, untapped talent like Ryan?
Nicki: Ryan knows what he wants and he’s able to articulate it to me. So it makes it easy to work with him. Some people who have this click, there’s a Kismet thing that goes on, so I’ve always felt like I can go, ‘Ryan, what about “A,” or “B,” or “C.”’ We have this really fun, creative time together and I think we have similar values in terms of our perspectives on the world. We share the same desire for the types of story that should be in the world. We also have a love for cool shit. We want to have it be meaningful but it can be cool at the same time. So when you connect on these levels, it’s an opportunity for really great creative experiences to happen.
What I’m learning from Ryan all the time, especially in “Lowlife,” is tone, because the film has so many different tones and how he kept all that straight was phenomenal. It was really all about the tone and that’s ultimately what makes the movie so successful, is being able to handle all the various colors in the film. You look at the poster and see all those characters, it’s wild. It’s all over the place, but it’s not because he’s a tone master.
“Lowlife” is currently playing in select theaters and On Demand.
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