Exclusive Interview: Jan Luis Castellanos Talks Breakwater, Climate Change, and Working with Snapchat

Jan Luis Castellanos is leading the next generation of young actors ready to make their mark on the industry. Since his breakout performance in Marvel’s Runaways, Jan Luis has landed coveted roles in projects including 13 Reasons Why, Bridge and Tunnel, and The Tall Girl 2. Currently, he can be seen in Snapchat’s dystopian drama Breakwater.

In the dangerous coastal slums, people dream of winning the visa lottery to the safe zone while Mai, a savvy 20-year-old fixer who grew up in the Breakwater, must race against an impending hurricane to complete a mission for survival.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Jan Luis about Breakwater, how the series shines a light on climate change, and what it was like working with Snapchat!

PC: Tell us about Breakwater and your character in this series.
Jan Luis: I play Jax. He is the son of a billionaire. He’s going through hell and high water to find his sister and keep her safe. There is a big storm coming. Breakwater is a futuristic young-adult drama. It deals with the climate crisis that’s in the foreseeable future. It’s very cool that Snapchat is doing this because they have a large Gen Z audience. I feel like those between twelve through twenty will have to deal with this climate crisis in the future. It taps into all of that.

PC: You’ve played a wide range of characters throughout your career. What was it about Jax and this script that attracted you to this project?
Jan Luis: It was the challenge of it. It was a physical challenge. I had a fear of being in the cold water. I got to overcome that. Zach [Craley] wrote a great script. It was very different. It’s fast-paced. That was something that I wanted to do. I’m attracted to those kinds of projects—the action and the chance to learn something new. The team was very cool about getting me marine training in case I drowned or anything. [laughs] It was a great experience. I knew it was going to be that way going into it.

PC: You could tell it was a very physically-demanding role. How did you prepare to tackle all of the elements in this project?
Jan Luis: The physicality came into play with the hunt to find his sister. I just had to get in the mental state of being desperate in seeking a family member and trying to get them to a safe spot. The physically demanding part came from that passion. We were in water, we were cold, we had to go through hell, the rain, everything, but I feel like it all helped the performance. I feel like if we hadn’t had all that physical pressure, it would have been hard to bring those situations to life, especially when you’re dealing with a futuristic YA drama like this one. You have an immersive set and everything. You’re trying to be creative. Everything comes together and it makes it all physically demanding.

PC: That’s the perfect segue to this next question. Both the costumes and sets are so immersive. How helpful was that for you as you stepped into and built this universe?
Jan Luis: It didn’t help. [laughs] The costumes were great. We had these suits in the water. They helped tremendously to keep us afloat. My character Jax had this sweater that was weighing him down every time underwater. But it was cool because it adds more to that pressure to deliver. You’re not acting when you’re swimming underwater. You’re not worried about the camera. It’s so intense. But Jax looked pretty good to me.

PC: In addition to the physicality of this role, your character is put through the wringer as he tries to save his sister. For you as an actor, what’s more challenging, the more physical scenes or the more emotional ones?
Jan Luis: I want to do more physical roles because I grew up as an athlete. I want that challenge. As far as the more emotional scenes, I have to thank the directors for this one: Jamieson [Fry] and Stewart [Hendler]. Every single take, we wanted to find more depth to this character and more substance, to increase his vulnerability and his desperation. Every take, we wanted to get more and more emotional. We built up that intensity. It’s not every day someone’s on a hunt to find their sister. We wanted that to be very believable.

I feel like being on the water with all that pressure and having a bit of a love interest involved (was I allowed to say that?) is very exciting. There’s no real acting when you put yourselves in those circumstances. I have to thank the directors for that. They made it come to life. They helped the cast really navigate the story. We shot this as if it were a feature.

PC: You touched on this already, but the series brings awareness to the climate crisis that we’re facing as a society. Why do you think Snapchat is the perfect platform to tell this specific story?
Jan Luis: This is almost like a peek into the future. If we don’t go ahead and do something about it now, climate change will be a real problem. I feel like the Gen Zs that Snapchat attracts watch these projects. That’s very important because they are the ones who are going to make an impact in the future. They’re doing a great job. It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to be a part of this project. It’s new, it’s fresh, it’s vertical. I wanted to be on the screen. It was very cool. It’s a great project. Snapchat did a great job. They’ve had tremendous success across the board.

PC: Final question for you, throughout your career you’ve chased really great stories. Besides Breakwater, what’s next for you?
Jan Luis: A lot, actually. I had a great year last year. Breakwater definitely gave me a lot of momentum, along with other Netflix projects. We’re going to be seeing some of those come out in the future. I’m looking forward to continued talk about Breakwater every 48 hours as the episodes come out. It’s so exciting to see what I did last year shown to the world. I haven’t even seen some of these episodes myself. You get antsy as an actor. You can’t wait for them to come out, so I’m super excited.

I believe I have three or four projects coming out. It’s going to be fun. I did Get Lost. We shot it down in Budapest with Ella Travolta starring. Daniela Amavia is the director. It’s like a reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, which is very cool.

I did another season of a series that I did in New York called Bridge and Tunnel with Ed Burns. It’s a great cast and crew.

I did another Netflix feature. I was part of Uglies, which stars Joey King and Keith Powers. McG is directing. Netflix has been really great to me.

I have this short film that I created myself. I’m a guy that loves film, cinematography, and writing. I gathered a couple of my buddies for the project. I’m excited because it’s something that taps into the behind the scenes of social media that a lot of people don’t see. I wanted to make sure that I was involved in social media applications like Snapchat so I could talk about these things that are happening in the future. I’m happy that Snapchat wanted to work with me. It’s given me the opportunity to talk about things like climate change.

To keep up with Jan Luis, follow him on Instagram. Watch Breakwater on Snapchat.