Cellars of IMDb: Sean Astin Isn't Actually Anywhere Near as Pudgy as You Think He Is
It's Friday, and this is the Cellars of IMDb. Each week we'll profile a differ actor's career, primarily through film stills. Last time we concluded with Brendan Fraser at the unfortunate Pauly Shore vehicle, Encino Man. We're starting not with the obvious choice, Mr. Shore himself, but a less likely costar, one Sean Astin.

You're probably quite familiar with Sean Astin, but I'm guessing it's only recently that you were able to atach a name to this face.


Specifically you know him from this context.


There he is, in all his pudgy glory. He's not actually that portly though. It’s just the special effects.


Okay, so it wasn’t special effects, but look: he’s clearly much than both Peter Jackson and John Cleese. That’s got to count for something, right? More importantly, he put on at least thirty-five pounds for that role. Take a look at an earlier Astin.




And here he is after The Lord of the Rings in the 50 First Dates.



Not so chubbster after all? It is something of pity that he has gotten the vast majority of the attention he is likely ever to receive while he was 35-40 pounds heavier than normal. You see Sean Astin has been quietly been building up a respectable Hollywood resumé for more than twenty years. He’s the consummate supporting actor for the majority of those years. Even his big break was as Samwise Gamgee, possibly the single greatest embodiment of the term “supporting character” ever seen on the silver screen. Literally and figuratively, Gamgee supports his master, Frodo Baggins. Astin has become the master of playing truthfully without stealing any of the focus. You might have seen him in any of the following films, but I guarantee you don’t remember him.

Encino Man
Safe Passage
Courage Under Fire
Bulworth

The exception is 50 First Dates because you probably saw LOTR first, and because Doug Whitmore is one of the most memorable characters Astin’s ever played. Aggressive pint-sized bodybuilders with lisps are going to stick in your mind. That’s just how it works.

Similarly his work on the television series “Jeremiah” would be memorable had anyone watched the show.



How could it fail, a post-apocalyptic comic book adaptation with a cast of former TV stars? Somehow it managed to last three seasons, 2002-04, with Sean Astin appearing as Mr. Smith, the prophet of Fractal Theory, in the second and third.



Now, Astin hasn’t been just minor characters all his life. In fact his very first role was a leading one. The aptly titled “Please Don’t Hit Me Mom,” an after-school special, presented a young Astin being savagely abused by his real life mom, Patty Duke. They were only acting. Acting, in fact, ran in the family. Sean’s father is the legendary John Astin (Gomez on the Addams Family).



Most of his starring roles have been in films that have withstood the test of time no better than that picture. We’re talking megahits like Toy Soldiers (costarring Wil Wheaton!) and Boy Meets Girl and made-for-TV movies like “Harrison Bergeron.”



All three have their niches and small but very much present fanbases. One is actually a great film. It shouldn’t come as a great surprise that the seminal story by the living legend Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is the basis of the actually worthwhile picture. That would be “Harrison Bergeron,” if you’re not familiar with the story you probably should see about remedying that as soon as possible.

This is one of those adaptations that seem a little controversial because the film makes makes no effort to mirror the original story. Instead the filmmakers chose to respond to the original work with a wholly new piece of art, but one that remains very much true to the spirit of Vonnegut’s cynical story about the value of equality in the modern world.



It’s generally foolish to try to make as true an adaptation of a piece of writing as possible, but it is especially ludicrous to attempt it with piece by Vonnegut. The beauty of his writing has nothing to do with his stories, which are delightfully absurdist and usually bitingly satirical. There are an awful lot of folks out there that can write satire and absurdity. Nobody writes like Vonnegut. His style is iconic. Nobody can do it as well, but that certainly isn’t enough to stop them from trying. It’s difficult to describe quite what makes it so special. His presentation is perhaps best described as “artfully artless.” His writing is generally simple, perhaps even simplistic, at times it seems like the narrator might even be a little bit retarded. It’s perfect. The incredible casualness of his writing is a thing to behold. It seems as if anyone could have just tossed off such a piece of fluff. Yet no one else seems to be able to do it so beautifully as Vonnegut has for so long.

There’s no way to translate that to film, and the filmmakers behind “Harrison Bergeron” wisely don’t even try. Instead they make a surprisingly solid film that will never grace the cinema screen and is sadly nigh impossible to obtain today.



I think I’m going to start crying if I write anything else about “Harrison Bergeron, so we’re going to end on something upbeat.

Astin starred in two, count them two, major motion pictures before LOTR. The first is the inspirational, based-on-a-true-story football film Rudy.


Sean Astin plays Rudy, a lad who dreams of playing ball for Notre Dame.



He journeys through great adversity to make the team.



There’s a climactic game at the end of movie. Guess how it turns out?



Hooray football.

The second of Astin’s major leading roles should need no introduction.



The Goonies. Fucking fuck yeah.




And remember the guiding light, lest we forget the glory that be Lemon Party.
Because your blog sucks.
- posted by Odovaucer @ 11:59 PM