I. Hi! We’re happy to have you with us. First thing’s first, can you slate for us please?
“Hey, my full name is Alejandro Miguel Esteban Castillo , but most people know me as Andre Castillo. I’m forty-one, a director, I go by he/him pronouns and I get compared to Oscar Isaac a lot.”
II. It’s great to meet you. So you have to know that everyone’s been curious about you, why don’t we start with where you’re from? Tell us where you grew up and what your childhood and family were like.
“Ecuador. Or El Salvador, maybe. I’m not actually sure the exact location because my parents were never really too sure. I was adopted, I think I was one, maybe two, so I don’t have any memory from it, and whatever I knew I couldn’t really talk to tell. I could be Cuban for all I know, but culturally I’d call myself Mexican. And ignorantly I will brag that I’m a New Yorker. From what I do know, I was smuggled into the country, the working theory is that my mother was probably young, single,maybe even a drug mule or probably just trying to get into the country illegally. Whatever the story was, I’ll never really know, but I made my peace with that. I was in the system for a short while before my foster parents took me it. They were Mexican. Uh, I guess it was hard for me? They were strangers, everyone was strangers…I mean I was being shuffled around from the cops or whatever who found me to the foster care people and social workers, so it was probably really overwhelming for a toddler. Least that’s what my parents say. They say I cried and they used to have to stay with me all night till I fell asleep for the first couple of weeks. I think when I got comfortable with them is when they decided that they had to adopt me and couldn’t let me go back into the system to be shuffled around. They were good people.”
III. Well, they say our upbringing molds who we become. I’m sure that you got your reputation for being motivated, creative ,frugal; antagonistic,self-centered, distant from that.
“ My ‘reputation’ has seen a lot worse things. I think I’ve been called every name in the book in an effort to change me or bring me down to whatever level people want me on so they can control me. I am who I am, you know? Well all have our good habits and bad but I’m not hurting anybody being who I am.”
IV. And what about that lead you to your current career? How did that impact you enough to want to do what you do now?
“What lead me– Uh, I don’t really know where it started. I think maybe I’d watch a lot of movies as a kid, probably watch the same ones over a few times. That was back when tapes were still a thing and we didn’t have a ton of money to be buying new ones all the time, plus I was a really shy, anti-social kid so I didn’t really go outside a lot and play with other kids. I clung to my mom a lot, but she was working too, so I think for her putting movie was a way to get me to sit and stay still for a while. I just remember being amazed by it all; how people got into that box, how I could rewind and make them do whatever I wanted over and over again. Course back then I didn’t know there was a job that meant you could tell people what to do and say, but I think… I think it gave me a sense of control when I had none in my life, and I liked that a lot.”
V. That’s awesome. I’m sure our readers will love to hear that. So you knew you had a calling, what came next? How did you get yourself to Hollywood? What was your first job?
“What came next? Siblings. I never really questioned it before, but when my father got a promotion and they decided to adopt another kid, I realized where I came from. It kinda made me sad, realizing I wasn’t biologically theirs and that now I’d have to share the attention. I mean, they were doing a good thing, giving more kids like me a good home, but I mean I was a kid and I was selfish about it. I think it was when I started to love movies even more cause to help me cope with sharing, my parents kinda let me have whatever movie I wanted, and when I picked the gory, more uh, mature films it meant that my younger siblings couldn't’ watch, so I got time alone. It was watching more and more movies that made me want to be a director, I just had no idea how. After some research I realized there was no way I could afford film school, but I really wanted it, so I decided to work and make money to save up. So I mean, technically my first jobs was mowing lawns. It wasn’t in Hollywood, but it paid. I mean at that point I knew I had a lot of saving to do, so I did everything. I cleaned basements and attics, I moved shit around,I flipped burgers, and save for trying to give a little something to my folks to pitch in, I saved every penny until I got to film school. I was the oldest in my class cause I was set back a couple years but I graduated, so that’s all that mattered. But to answer your question properly, my first directing job was a local commercial. It was terrible, I still laugh thinking about it today, but it was my first gig and it paid and it was those little things that when paired with a shitty office job that funded my ticket to Hollywood.”
VI. Of course, but we all know there’s a sea of faces out here trying to get famous as well, right? It must have been hard, the first few rejections or being told something wasn’t good enough. What was the most difficult thing you faced on your journey?
"Luck and a lotta patience. Directing isn’t like acting,you know? There isn’t an audition where you go in and they like your face and your body or you read well so they take a chance on you. There’s a plethora, a cornucopia or directors out there with tons of hits and credits tot heir name that make studios wanna go for them when they are searching for a person to make a hit. I mean, studios don't care about good cinema, they care about money, and taking risks isn’t profitable.I had to build a steady portfolio of my work that wasn’t for everybody, but the shit I did to just make money, people loved while I hated it. I just put myself out there, you know? Making sure my name was in the hat and that if they pulled my name there was so family-friendly things to see so it wasn’t all my Rob Zombie-esque gore porn that people used to slam me for. That was what was hard– not doing what I really wanted to do so that I could get a gig directing one episode of a tv show.”
VII. So then what was the moment that you realized you made it? Or are you still waiting for that moment?
“Mmm, I gotta say it wasn’t too long ago. I mean made it makes you think of big picture deals and yachts and award shows and that was never what I wanted. I was a working class kid from a city that had tons of people who wanted to strike it rich – my mind couldn’t even fathom expensive suits and fancy cars and all that. I just wanted to make movies. To me I made it when a studio was finally willing to give me money to make something that would scare the pants off people. I mean I was well into my thirties and while I’d done my own self-financed indie flicks they weren’t the quality that I wanted and nobody was gonna see them without people promoting it, and I had already put half my bank account into making it. It felt nice to be able to make a movie on a big set with a whole crew and all that and when the movie did well? I dream near lost my mind. That was making it for me and I didn’t know at the time but I’d get to have that feeling over and over every time I got a call saying they wanted me and I got to read those reviews saying how good it was. It was the best feeling in the world and now I can put out a movie and people will go see it just cause my name’s on it? Come on,if that isn’t making it I don't know what is.”(5 - The A-List)
VIII. It’s amazing when you make it far enough in this town when so many people end up giving up and going home, isn’t it? So now that you’re here, what’s next for you?
“What’s next is a series of interconnecting films. That’s my new dream. An Andre-Castillo cinematic universe. I wanna make something dark and scary and deep and meaningful all at the same time. Something with as much hype as Annabelle and that whole thing but not with a cheap circle jerk of jumpscares. Something that well be thought provoking and Iconic as The Shining and as Iconic as Star Wars was to set the groundwork for Lucas Films. I just gotta find the right topic so there’s something to put all that studio money behind.”
IX. Now we know it’s personal but we have to ask, do you have any comment about the rumors going around about you?
“This is old news, isn’t it? If you’re talking about that actress who had a problem with the way I work, the whole thing was blown way outta proportion if you ask me.I direct in a way that gets the best out of an actor and she was somebody’s girlfriend or side piece that I was forced to let in there even though she had zero talent. When I pushed for more she couldn’t handle it like a real actress could and started talking about all that emotional distress and whatever just so she could get her name in the papers. I didn’t ‘have a thing’ for her and I never put my hands on her.If she’s got a problem with a director directing her then she shouldn’t be an actress.”
X. Thank you so much for talking to us today. Lastly, is there anything you want our readers to know about you?
“About me? I like putting potato chips in my ice cream. Vanilla ice cream, that is. But hell I put peanut butter in rocky road so I guess I just like adding shit to my ice cream in general. I don’t eat like normal people;I like making it my own. I also love camping. Roughing it really clears my head and gives me inspiration.”
