BostonHerald.com - the Edge: Ring of truth: Hobbit Sean Astin tells all in new memoir

BostonHerald.com - the Edge: Ring of truth: Hobbit Sean Astin tells all in new memoir

Ring of truth: Hobbit Sean Astin tells all in new memoir
By Stephanie Schorow
Saturday, October 16, 2004


Five minutes after arriving in Boston, Sean Astin - ``Sam'' in the blockbuster ``Lord of the Rings'' movie trilogy - launches a quest.

He wants a bite to eat. Merrily ditching his handlers, Astin, 33,
strolls down Land Boulevard, finds a restaurant and sweet-talks the staff into making a pre-lunchtime snack.

The upbeat actor is decidedly more svelte than the onscreen hobbit, but Astin's wool sweater, sturdy shoes and jaunty cap could have been tailored in the Shire.

``There's a lot of me in Sam,'' Astin said, heartily diving,
hobbit-like, into his soup. ``But I know Sam is better than me. He's an archetype of the nature and essence of loyalty and goodness. I'm a clay-footed, flawed human being. Sam's grace and his simplicity are so admirable. And while I can appreciate it, I haven't figured out how to live that yet.

``I seem to want to be a little more strategic than Sam ever wants to be in his life.''

Astin's strategy is laid out in his book ``There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale'' ($25, St. Martin's Press), written with Joe Layden. The book details Astin's early career and his emotionally draining work on ``Lord of the Rings'' in New Zealand.

In a rambling, conversational style, Astin's book dishes details on fellow Rings actors as well as Warren Beatty, Pauly Shore and other Hollywood types. He talks lovingly - yet truthfully - about his mother, actress Patty Duke, and father, actor John Astin, who played Gomez on ``The Addams Family'' and was briefly considered for the role of Gandalf in the trilogy.

Astin is Sam with a plan: he wants to direct, produce, even run for Congress one day. Yet his book lays out his anxieties, mistakes and missteps as well as successes.

``The truth is I've had extraordinary advantages laid before me so it seems almost kind of unfair for me to appropriate this `pull-yourself-up by the bootstraps' narrative,'' he said. ``But that's the way it felt.''

Astin confirms the various stories circulating about LOTR actors'
camaraderies and dedication, with his own twists. Like how Viggo Mortensen so thoroughly lived his role as Aragorn that he hounded director Peter Jackson with suggestions. Or how Astin tangled with Andy Serkis when Gollum's stand-in pulled off Sam's wig in a too-real scene.

He happily pulls down his thick sock to display the Elvish tattoo that almost all the Fellowship actors got to seal their bond. But he admitted he hadn't even heard of Tolkien before the movie.

His book ``is as honest as it could be. It's not comprehensive. But it is honest. And it's maybe a little more abrasive than I wanted it to be,'' he said.

Even if superstardom has eluded him, ``I don't think I'm ready to let go yet of the idea that I could carry motion pictures,'' Astin said. ``I think there's precedent in Hollywood for leading men to not conform to traditional standards of good looks and sex appeal. You think of Jimmy Cagney or Tom Hanks.''

At least, that's the plan. He noted humorously, however, that the editors had packed his book with Orlando Bloom pictures.


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*runs to the store with credit card*

"I know you have the book! Don't lie to me, I know you're not sold out! You're just hoarding them till payday! Cough it up sister!"