'Castle' actor Jon Huertas talks new short film 'The Box'

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- As a police detective on ABC's "Castle," Jon Huertas has helped solve crimes on all 129 episodes.

As a budding film director, he enlisted the help of his TV co-star, Tamala Jones, to co-star with him in "The Box." It's a short film about two slaves who are kept like prisoners in a box as a form of punishment.

"We were in a 5-foot by 5-foot by 5-foot box, but only for a day. We literally shot the entire short in one day," said Huertas.

The film takes place almost entirely inside this box, sometimes with one of them watching the other one tortured.

"He's watching two grown men rip her clothes off and he's locked in this box," Huertas explained. "They've got guns, they've got, you know, clubs, they've got whips. What can he do?"

"It's like helplessness, I think is what the emotion that I had in that moment," he added.

Besides being in his movie, Huertas is executive producer, co-writer and co-director.

"I think that after 19 years, film school is completed. So this is kind of like my thesis project," he said.

With almost two decades in show business behind him, Huertas' ready to take on new challenges.

"I'd like to branch out and do feature films as a director. I look up to people like Peter Berg, who made the transition from acting to directing, and I see that success that he's had," said Huertas.

Huertas is off soon to shoot a movie during his hiatus from "Castle."