Arturo Castro Courtesy of Romain Maurice Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Within a few minutes of meeting Arturo Castro, you can immediately tell why he's had such a prolific career in comedy. Oddly enough, my first impression of him was for his poignant dramatic work on the under-appreciated Apple TV series, Mr. Corman, but it was comedy that opened the door to Tron: Ares in particular. Tron: Ares' production was waylaid by the SAG-AFTRA strike in the middle of 2023, and by the time it was finally able to launch in early 2024, post-strike schedules had shifted to such a point where certain roles needed recasting, including that of Seth Flores. He's the playful right hand to Greta Lee's Eve Kim, who now leads ENCOM, the tech company that was once run by Jeff Bridges' franchise linchpin, Kevin Flynn. Fortunately for Castro, someone at the top of the Hollywood food chain was looking out for him. Related Stories Movies "No One Asked for This Reboot": 'Tron' May Mark End of Jared Leto's Franchise-Leading Days Movies Evil AI Is Boring Now -- Which Is Kind of Scary Hot off the press at the time, the trailer for the Jake Gyllenhaal-led Road House reboot happened to include Castro's candid biker gang character, Moe. His comic relief popped to such a degree that Gyllenhaal's WME agent, Brent Morley, recommended him to his other client, Jared Leto, who serves as Tron: Ares' title character and producer. From there, Leto threw Castro's name into the mix for Seth and advocated for him until director Joachim Rønning and the rest of the Tron threequel's brain trust officially cast him. But it all started with Morley's recommendation, and knowing that he's an agency power player who's day-to-day is concerned with the likes of Gyllenhaal, Keanu Reeves, Matthew McConaughey, Cailee Spaeny and Oscar Isaac, Castro is grateful for the unexpected recognition. "[Morley] went to Jared and said, 'Check out this trailer for Road House. I think you guys will want to see this guy.' And it meant the world to me for various reasons. He had nothing to gain from it, honestly. I was already at William Morris, and he's not my agent," Castro tells The Hollywood Reporter. "But he saw somebody that worked really hard to make an impression on Road House, and he thought it was worth giving me a shot." The Guatemalan actor's improvisational skills have served him well over the years, especially on his 25 episodes of Broad City. The funniest joke in Tron: Ares also originated from his off-the-cuff instincts. In an effort to give Ares (Leto's "program" character) a more permanent and benevolent place in the real world, Eve (Lee) and Seth (Castro) need to find a code on one of Flynn's archaic servers. So they access ENCOM's museum-like setup of Flynn's old-school office, and Ares quickly takes note of Flynn's first-generation computer, which Seth refers to as a "piece of garbage." But upon noticing that Ares doesn't appreciate the crack, he, through Catro's improv, adds, "That was super insensitive to your ancestors, and I'm so sorry." "I just couldn't believe that line made it into the movie. Greta Lee told me ahead of time. She saw it before I did, and I was so stoked," Castro says. Castro is bursting at the seams with excitement over his upcoming slate, as well as his fast-approaching nuptials. He proposed to filmmaker Lauren Hoover while shooting the latest Mattel toy-based film, Matchbox, from Extraction director, Sam Hargrave. He also has a role in A Place in Hell, Chloe Domont's next prestige thriller opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones and Michelle Williams. "I got to have scenes with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Michelle Williams at the same time. It was an out-of-body experience, and I was like, 'Oh, shit. I should say my line now.' I got caught up in watching these people," Castro admits. "These five [most recent] projects, starting with Tron, were all amazing experiences in a variety of genres, and I just can't believe that it's happening to me, man. I feel like my chest is going to explode from gratitude." Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Castro also looks back at his time on the sets of The Menu, Narcos and Mr. Corman, before previewing the rest of his upcoming work. *** Considering the two shutdowns in the last five years, you've still managed to do a ton of work in that time. I counted at least 35 credits since 2020. Whoa, that's crazy. I think people are confusing me with George Lopez and giving me his roles, so thank you, Mr. Lopez. (Laughs.) It's funny, because, for a long time, all I wanted to do was get back to 2019's rhythm of work. And in hoping for that, I failed to realize that, even though my life and career are different than they were in 2019, they're much better in some ways. I got really lucky that The Menu was the first thing I did aft