Inside the grid with Arturo Castro: Working with Greta Lee, Jared Leto, and making 'Tron' a little more Latino

Crazy. I mean, I got to take my fiancée, my mom flew in from Guatemala for it. I was there with all my friends, and I've never been to a premiere that big, let alone one where I'm in the film. So yeah, watching Nine Inch Nails perform while closing down Hollywood Boulevard was, holy moly, it was a seminal moment for me that I didn't even know I could hope for.

She's here too. She's down here doing press. She's doing my makeup. It's mostly her going like this *like you got a smudge, you got a smudge.* You gotta try to see your family as much as you can when you live in the States, you know.

She started a mosh pit immediately as soon as Nine Inch Nails started playing. She got really violent, actually, but in a positive way. We had to hold her back. Too much vodka, but man, she had a great time, and the lawsuit is pending, but... Someone left with a broken heart. No, she was really stoked.

I don't know if you've seen the film, but it's such a sensorial experience, you know, the soundtrack, the sounds, the look, the emotions in it are so strong.  You have to be there, and you have to be in a movie theater to experience it, I feel. And so it was surreal for all of us.

Oh my God. So we create this tree out of nothing, right? Like, we find the permanence code, spoiler alert. And we had so many takes where they just wanted me to, like, just scream how happy I was about this, but it's a, like, dead quiet set. And so if you ever want to have a humbling moment, like try going, “whoa, we saved the world.” And there's just a bunch of people really quietly looking at you. It was funny in hindsight, but in the moment, it was really, really embarrassing. And well, at least it made Greta laugh a lot.

She was so welcoming. I came in like a month later, once they were already shooting. So she already knew what the set was about and how they worked, and she was such a great guide into it. She has an incredible talent for making the biggest things seem very intimate. And so, as opposed to focusing on the overwhelming weight of this massive epic story that we have to tell, she was just like, “Hey man, we're just here talking and doing the thing.” And that was so kind of her to do.

Oh my God. When my friends would get in trouble at school, when we were like in high school or whatever, and they wanted to talk to their parents, I would pretend to be my friend's father over the phone. I could feel when the headmistress was getting even a little flirty with the guys. She's like, “Oh, uh, well, to speak to such a gentleman like you,” I'm like, “Yes, I'm completely ashamed of my son's behavior.” I got my friends out of a lot of trouble, but then they would run into their real father at some school event, and they’d be completely confused about who was standing in front of them. I really put it all on the line for my friends. Before I found acting, I had to have other outlets, so yes—getting my friends out of trouble, I even changed my voice.

Great. I mean, he set the tone. He is so committed to his role, and he's so committed to the process that it sort of sets the tone for everybody else to bring their A game. And he had a hand in my becoming Seth because he saw me in a trailer for Roadhouse. So he threw my name in the ring. So how do you thank somebody for that?  All you can do is do the best you can to bring truth to your character.

I mean, literally every day, I was like vocally being like, 'Por la Cultura!' And everybody's like, 'can we just, can we,' 'No, no, no. I have to say, Por la Cultura!' They're like, 'Please, we have to shoot.' I was like, 'No, but I have to say it again.' No, but you know, jokes aside, it was such, such a rare thing. It's becoming less and less rare thanks to a lot of cool pioneers in our culture.

You know, 10 years ago or 15 years ago, you didn't get to be a character who just happened to be Latin. There had to be a shtick about it. So to be a three-dimensional person in a film this big is a dream come true and also a big responsibility, which I took very seriously. And so I hope it's the first of many. I mean, we've seen wonderful work - like Pedro Pascal is great at doing that, of just being a person who happens to be Latin in a movie. And I  hope that that just becomes the norm and not the exception.

I think technology is something that you have to build ethically, but also you can't ignore it, right? You can't just stick your head in the sand and be like, well, this is going to go away. But one thing I've noticed is that nobody is watching the gates. We keep thinking well, they're not going to allow for AI to suddenly take over. But I'm like, well, who are they?

Because, like people, particularly people in power, barely understand this technology, even much less know how to regulate it. So it's up to us, sort of the public and the users, to see what we're comfortable with and what we're not comfortable with.

But that being said, I think there's such a benefit to having these supercomputers and super-intelligent digital minds helping with medical stuff and with everyday life activities. But yeah, it's something to keep an eye on, but it's important. It's up to us.

You know, I’m pretty recent to the ChatGPT thing. And honestly, my internet history is not that bad either. I just want them to pick a good fricking photo. Because they always pick the weirdest photo for something like a missing person in a Netflix documentary. And I’m like - I'm leaving instructions. The lighting has to be good. Like, there has to be like an outfit where I just look sexy and like somebody you want to rescue, you know? Cause otherwise - I’ve seen the lighting of some of the pictures that my friends have even used, like in yearbooks. And I’m like, well, do you hate me? Like, no, I’m leaving strict instructions. If I ever go missing, it’s going to be like a glamor shot, a headshot.

Oh, 'Screamer McGee.' I think I would just be like in a total panic, uh, yelling it through. What would my user be? Oh, take one from Seth's and be like, 'Breakfast Burrito Lover 2025.'

 Okay. Sausage, egg, and Swiss avocado, pico de gallo, beans, pinto beans, and jalapeño. Sorry. I didn't even have to think about that. I'm like, I guess I've been dreaming about that.

El Patrón. El Troniverso. I'd say El Patrón would be fun.

I would say it would be 'Hook.' That movie, that Robin Williams movie from the nineties. I think that should live in infamy for eternity.