The vampire action flick Night Teeth is now streaming on Netflix. Its cast is led by Jorge Lendeborg Jr. and also features cameos from Megan Fox and Sydney Sweeney.
“To earn some extra cash, quirky college student Benny (Jorge Lendeborg, Jr.) moonlights as a chauffeur for one night. His task: drive two mysterious young women (Debby Ryan and Lucy Fry) around Los Angeles for a night of party hopping,” says the official synopsis. “Taken captive by his clients’ charm, he soon learns that his passengers have their own plans for him – and an insatiable thirst for blood. As his night spins out of control, Benny is thrust into the middle of a clandestine war that pits rival tribes of vampires against the protectors of the human world, led by his brother (Raúl Castillo), who will stop at nothing to send them back into the shadows. With sunrise fast approaching, Benny is forced to choose between fear and temptation if he wants to stay alive and save the City of Angels.”
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Night Teeth stars Jorge Lendeborg, Jr. and Raúl Castillo about playing brothers, their chemistry, and the film’s blend of genre with human drama.
Jorge Lendeborg Jr.: Bro, thank you, man. It’s just, it’s the combination of a lot of hard work meets preparation and, and that’s how you get Benny. He’s just a hard-working guy. So, it was just a natural fit.
Raúl, your character brings a lot of seriousness to the film. What did you find most interesting about Jay as a character?
Raúl Castillo: I found the story of a big brother watching his little brother become a man. To me, it is a genre film. It’s a fun thrill of a ride, but the film has a lot of heart to it. To me, that kind of grounded it and certainly made it really interesting just as an artist. Just to tackle that story. I mean, we don’t, we don’t see a lot of stories like that about, certainly in the Latinx world, of brothers, a coming of age story. These beautiful scenes that we have even in the midst of this like fun genre ride that we get this really heartfelt brother story.
Jorge, your character has a great musician element to him, and I saw some of your own music got used in the film. How cool was that just coming together and getting to show your art like that?
Jorge: The process was exciting. I’ve never stepped into the you before. Um, it, it is great. You know, you could feel the song at the beginning when, when Benny’s at his, at his desk in his room and he’s kind of working with the beat and then later on when he is tinkering, when, when he brings, uh, the Blair character back home. Uh, so yeah, you, you feel my, my music throughout the whole movie in part, so that was a new experience for me. I hope to do more of it. Um, yeah.
Raúl, you touched upon this a little bit of just the, so much heart in this film and you really do feel like family. Can you talk about how you created that bond and ma made it sure that you really felt like brothers in the film?
Raúl: I mean that’s all in casting. I met George in New Orleans just a couple days before we started shooting. Really it just comes down to you either have innate chemistry or you don’t. Luckily, Jorge and I didn’t have to fake that chemistry. It was already there. That kind of dynamic felt very natural for us to play, which is nice. You don’t have to do any acting because it sort of takes care of itself. If you have a great script, if you have a great scene partner, as I did with Jorge, it sort of makes your job easier. It was a lot of fun to play out that sort of brother storyline.
But as far as preparation, we hit New Orleans last March or February of 2020. Just before COVID hit. So we had a little bit of time to hang out in New Orleans before we hit the ground running with this fun thrill ride of a film.
Jorge, this is such a crazy film. There’s so much energy throughout. I love that you’re able to capture this everyman into these absurd scenarios. Can you talk about making sure that you still portrayed that you were in over your head rather than some badass that was so sure of himself?
Jorge: I wouldn’t say so much that Benny is an everyman more so that he’s every young adult. He’s not necessarily a teenager, but he’s slightly under that, that man category, I would think, but he still makes it work because I feel like everybody could see a piece of themselves in him. He’s not this overly macho character. He has a great moral compass and his natural ability lets him survive. He keeps it pushing.
