Kristen MacCulloch is an award-winning actor based in Toronto, Canada– seen in movies like Corporate Prey (Amazon Prime) and Steven Kostanski’s Psycho Goreman. Her new film premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, Scarbourough, which she talks about in our interview below!

Hi Kristen! Can you tell us about your film, Scarborough, and the book it’s based on by author, Catherine Hernandez? Tell us a little bit about the character you’re playing, Jessica.

Hi, sure! The story is anchored around three kids from a low income neighborhood who are drowning in poverty, addiction and housing instability. They come together through a morning school program run by a particularly caring and inspiring teacher and together with their families they navigate the ups and downs of life and community in a system that is failing them. I play the role of Jessica, a devastatingly neglectful mother who is unable and unwilling to care for her daughter Laura, brought to life masterfully by Anna Claire Beitel. The two of them are living a hard life and in the film we watch Jessica struggle to keep going, drowning in the disease of addiction as the bills and late rent notices pile up. Although she isn’t particularly sympathetic, I tried to play her as a whole person rather than a caricature of someone who’s easy to hate. She’s a lost and lonely victim of society’s failures as much as any of the characters we meet in the film.