-Who is Christalo Castro?
Christalo Castro: I am just a guy trying to make God proud.
-Who is Alex Kruz?
Alex Kruz: I read this and just shook my head, and said – how characteristically Talo. The lead actor often sets the tone of the film, it’s who you watch from beginning to end. It’s the reason why you grow close to a show and stop watching when they leave.
I knew I had to pick someone for it who was NOT an actor! This process for all of us was going to be a physical journey, a spiritual journey, and an artistic journey. I needed a fighter, someone who was physical enough to take the art to another level. Someone who was afraid of nothing, like me, and like his answer, it is simple like a ring, but infinite like the night.
In this time period of #METOO, I have to say my relationship with Talo was completely physical before we started this project. In one of my many down and out periods, when I left with nothing but the shirt on my back I ended up living in the same building as Talo and seeing him training for fights, I would train with him. I had the pleasure of training in many parts of the world, and getting my nose busted so many times even my twin flame Ewa had to get a nose operation to breathe clearly! (Lost track at #37) You could say our training was unorthodox, but that’s who I was as well. Get it done, think outside of the box, keep moving, keep fighting.
Also you can call this crazy, but once you get to a certain level in your own self-knowledge you begin to see past the layers in others. Talo I saw had actually studied acting before in his last life, lived in New York City and was a starving artist who didn’t do anything with it. I don’t believe in accidents. He was reluctant AF, but I fed him well, gave him the occasional mojito/margarita, let him go to his fight training while we were on travel, and we were in business. We had the perfect lead for the project.
-What inspired you to become an actor?
Christalo Castro: I guess I always wanted to be “a creative”. Growing up I would watch a lot of YouTube, so that made me think of different ways of telling a story in different mediums. I was also really into things that sparked my imagination, like Zelda, anime, and comics. So I’ve always enjoyed things that were kind of otherworldly. What inspired me to be an entrepreneur is the fact my brain just works differently than most people; not better, just differently. I’ve always thought I was competent enough to pave my own paths and I prefer to do my own thing.
-What inspired you to become a Filmmaker?
Alex Kruz: He totally did his own thing! In some scenes his own thing was brilliant! For which he doesn’t give himself credit for. With that boundless energy of wanting to do many things at once, he would get lost while we were traveling, at one point he didn’t want to be an actor any more, at another he didn’t want to learn his lines. I literally had to tell him I would send his ass back on a plane, and hire this other actor who looked like him but could barely string together sentences to play the rest of his scenes! If I told him to climb a mountain, or run back and forth that was easy, but Talo is very much his own person – like a James Dean or a Marlon Brando. Courageous, fearless, but not a dancing monkey. I respect that fire.
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in society?
Actor – Christalo Castro: Cinema in the long-form movie sense has changed society. It affected pop culture significantly throughout the 20th century. I love film because it is an art that builds on itself. There’s nothing quite like it in that sense. We look at something that was shocking in 1960 is now commonplace in today’s moviescape. I am starting to see the decline in people wanting to watch movies. I think it is starting to take something special to make someone want to go out and watch a movie since we now have all these streaming services and other methods of keeping ourselves entertained. Long-format movies have changed society a lot, but I think it is starting to dwindle in its effectiveness.
Director – Alex Kruz: I like this about Christalo, he always has one foot here and another in timelessness and pulse of change.
-What would you change in the world?
Actor – Christalo Castro: The school system. It’s made to brainwash and design worker ants. There’s no emphasis on critical thinking.
Director – Alex Kruz: I forgot to mention, Talo was in school while we were shooting. He had me write him a Dear Sally Teacher letter, I’m stealing your student for three weeks please don’t fail him letter. Anyway having 3 masters and a doctorate I have to agree with him.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
Actor – Christalo Castro: I think it is dying. I don’t see much innovation. In a lot of ways that’s why I respect what our director was trying to do with this film. He was trying to make something different, that wasn’t so standard. How many times can someone play the same song on repeat and we still clap with the same excitement? I think that short-form content is the future. However, there is a lot that can be done in terms of shows and the medium of telling a story. I think that that will be very promising for a while. But 100 years from now the content will be extremely short and attention-grabbing to get the most attention for the least effort.
Director – Alex Kruz: He might be onto something – attention span. It’s getting smaller and smaller in our fast food convenience society. Even in the military we use the 8 second and 18 minute rules for presentations.
