Paul Castro - My Original Screenplay “August Rush” Was The Foundation For What Most Feel To Be A Lovely Movie, And Soon To Be A Broadway Show (CEO & Influencer, USA)

 

I believe that there is no honor in suffering, but there is honor in sacrifice. Discipline frees you up to soar to the highest of vistas. 

1. What is your background and journey?

She birthed six healthy kids from the same man. For her audacious undertaking, she was awarded with 24 hour a day chaos for decades, daily insanity inducing exhaustion, and the deep fulfillment of what she found to be a meaningful existence. 

Five boys and one girl (the youngest) was not your typical artist’s path, but for my mom, it was one that she embraced with every fiber of her fiercely creative soul. A fiery Sicilian redhead who called New York City home, Mom was no stranger to speaking her mind, weaponizing her disciplinary voice, and backing it all up with compassion and immediate action. 

Somewhere along the way, she taught me the value of creative expression both visually and metaphysically. This began one summer morning on the sandy beaches of Long Island. My mom was settled in on the beach with her white canvas and paints. 

Whilst, in the process of bringing to life the Atlantic Ocean waves through the delicate strokes of her paintbrush, my siblings and I ran wild and inadvertently kicked festivly, thus showering her paints, the canvas, and Mom with a descending fan of sand. 

We all ran for cover anticipating Mom’s wrath for our carelessness. Rather than screaming, chasing, or inflicting capital punishment, Mom simply and curiously viewed her canvas through what I now realize was a new lens. This fresh point of view cast a hint of pleasure over her, not unlike the day’s first light. 

She then grabbed a generous handful of sand. All of us kids dove for cover as if an incoming grenade was about to be catapulted our way. But instead of ambushing us, Mom simply decided to casually toss that handful of sand across her canvas, then another handful sprinkled over her rainbow dabs of paints. 

She delightfully dipped her brush into this odd concoction and naturally resumed painting as if it were all in divine order. From that point on, for the rest of the summer, Mom painted with sandy paints and canvas. 

The white wash ocean waves now celebrated texture and vitality. That day, my Mom gifted me the ultimate lesson in creativity. One must never fight the cosmic choreography that the universal world of creativity may unexpectedly give you. 

You must gratefully hop on the magic carpet ride of creativity in order to unleash your genius of contribution as an artist. Be it a painter, a surgeon, sculptor, director, poet, novelist, entrepreneur, screenwriter, dancer, orator, architect or what have you, we all have access to this source energy when we calibrate our frequency and allign ourselves to its vibration. 

God works through us, not separate from us. Thanks, mom! We as a family eventually said farewell to New York City. I went to an all male military high school in Washington D.C., kicked a soccer ball to pay for college, built and sold a company in my early twenties, played soccer in Brazil, and attended UCLA film school. 

Marvel Entertainment icon, Stan Lee gave me my first two pay checks in Hollywood, and my original screenplay “August Rush” served as my ticket of admission into the often elusive Hollywood community. I was, and still am very grateful for how it all unfolded. 

After working for 7 years as an expert crisis counselor in Suicide Prevention, while still professionally trading daydreams for dollars as a professional visual storyteller in L.A., 9-11 happened. This prompted me to compete for a coveted spot in Officer Candidate School to become a Navy Officer and serve. 

Fortunately, I was admitted, attended, graduated, was stationed at Naval Special Warfare Command, and served the Navy SEAL community as a Public Affairs Officer. Beside being a daddy, out of all my life experiences, this was certainly one of the most rewarding and fulfilling. 

After serving, I returned to Hollywood to resume my career, and after having some movies made, I was asked to return to UCLA as a professor in School of Theater, Film, and Television. 

Along with serving on the Boards of multiple companies, mentoring young talented creatives, raising my amazing daughter, and continuing to write and direct, I was asked to consider doing a documentary about superhuman health & longevity. I wrote, directed, and co-produced it, and am now doing the final tweaks. 

I’ve began preliminary talks with Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Youtube, HULU, and other streamers able reach the widest audience. This is a documentary that will save lives. Beside the obvious, this is important to me, because my mother suffered from Ovarian cancer and Luekemia. 

My hope is that others may avoid the same hardships my family experienced with Mom’s ill-fated health challenges.

2. What is the documentary called and when can we expect to see it?

The documentary is called “Lynked” Superhuman Health & Longevity.” The on-camera interviews with the leading edge scientists, medical experts, and futurists from around the world are jolting and enlightening. 

From Hungary to Harvard and all in between, the lifesaving information is nothing shy of miraculous quite frankly. For the health, wellness, and the pleasant path of longevity for you and your loved ones, this documentary holds the rare gems found in the future of hard science accessible today. 

I’m honored and privileged to have been trusted to deliver such valuable and vital discoveries. I believe it will be the most talked about film for decades, because it is actionable and will save lives. The world will have access to viewing it once I decide where it will live in the world of the big streamers. 

3. How do you work under stress and time constraints?

It's a simple question to answer. I don’t! Lol. Stress is counter creative, and time constraints don’t exist when you are on the path to telling the stories you were meant to tell. Do things get intense? Certainly. 

Do I have deadlines? Yes. Do I deliver on time and on budget? Yes. But when you are on the right journey, that all gets done in an efficient, elegant, collaborative fashion. 

Visionaries like Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Mark Twain, Charles Darwin, Lewis and Clark, Thomas Edison, Frida Kahlo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, and Helen Keller seemed to have known this and lived by it. Then of course our modern day visionaries have or are accomplishing meaningful works of epic contribution. 

The likes of Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, Michael Eisner, Tim Cook, Maya Angelou, Kelly Perdew, Bob Chapek, Michael Dent, Tony Robbins, Ellen DeGeneres, Joe Rogan, Tim Ferriss, Vadim Zeland, Reed Hastings, and Jordan B. Peterson are some that come to mind.

Studying to better understand and appreciate visionaries like the above mentioned leaves an echo of great value. Success does indeed leave clues. Also, we all must be careful to not fall into the martyr trap. Don’t be a victim, be a volunteer in your life. That’s a valuable lesson I learned from working in the SEAL community. 

I believe that there is no honor in suffering, but there is honor in sacrifice. Discipline frees you up to soar to the highest of vistas. 

4. How do you deal with criticism?

To be on purpose before paycheck, action before accolades, and contribution before ego, frees up any wasted energy spent on the good opinion of others. That being said, I love collaborating, and learning other’s opinions and suggestions. 

As a rain drop falls into the sea to become one body of fluid energy, I am merely a vehicle to communicate in order to add value to the greater good.

5. How long have you been a director and how did you get started?

Directing is leadership and fulfilling a vision. I started directing as a child on the playground of imagination, as a leader in military high school, and in the the real military, the Navy as an officer, also directing films, music videos, documentaries, and training FBI agents, LAPD, and SWAT Team members on suicide and crisis prevention. 

Directing something you do not believe in is not directing, it’s sheep herding. Don’t be a want-to-be, be a got-to-be! It begins with realizing your vision. 

6. How rigorously do you stick to the script while filming/shooting/ directing?

The way I would answer that is with a question: How rigorously does an airplane builder follow the design blueprints and technical specifications created by the Aeronautical engineers? The screenplay is the the foundation, the property if you will, on which all else is built. 

To not respect that foundation is unconscionable. There is a reason most directors and novelists don’t write screenplays. The same reason why a carpenter doesn’t perform neurosurgery. Yes, I say that with a smile on my face, but it is indeed the truth. 

My course on udemy.com, “Inspirational Screenwriting,” teaches just how intricate and beautiful that process of creating your very own screenplay is. My original screenplay “August Rush” was the foundation for what most feel to be a lovely movie, and soon to be a Broadway show. 

I wrote that first draft in under 6 weeks. Was it just words on a page, or more? Words carry energy and a vibration of possibility. It is no accident that a certain best selling book states, “In the beginning there was the Word.” That is where creation begins. 

7. What piece of advice would you like to give to future aspiring directors, screenwriters, and/or creatives?

I prefer listening and learning to giving advice. If you truly believe that you can contribute to the world with your directing talent, then… direct. If you are a better baker, and you truly enjoy waking up at 4am to handcraft exquisite warm chocolate croissants, then do that. 

Do you want to be a screenwriter? Write. Do you want to be a creative? Create. Listen to you. Not your parents version of you, or a spouse’s version of you, or your religious upbringing’s ideal you. 

All may have the best of intentions by the way. But… listen to the true you. That will serve as your authentic guide. 

8. Which is your favorite book and why?

That’s like asking, “What is your favorite part of your heart and why?” (Laughing) Let’s see… beside the most profound works in history such as the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Written Torah, the Quran, Tao Te Ching, The Vedas, and any works of Plato, if I were to gift one and only one book it would be, “Reality Transsurfing,” by Vadim Zeland. I believe that it celebrates quantum physics on the most practical, yet profound level. 

It serves as a wonderful guide for life and beyond. We all have books within us, our own stories, and unique journeys. The key is to bravely give it to the world free of expectations. 

Your life, your point of view of the world, is your special gift. Share it. Creative confetti begins with you, with me, with us. We are that rain drop. We are the entire ocean. We are… one. 

- Paul Castro

- Interviewed By Anamika Ajith