Hey, where does it say that honesty is such a bad hobbit?
Lots of actors write memoirs. Some do it as career repair, explaining an embarrassing spiral into drug use or scandal. Others do it to enhance their image as lovable, humble professionals, just honored, by gosh, to be part of this wonderful, wonderful business.
And then there’s Sean Astin, whose performance as steadfast hobbit Sam Gamgee in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy gave the movies their heart and soul.
In his new book, “There and Back Again: An Actor’s Tale” (St. Martin’s Press), Astin does something positively revolutionary: He’s honest.
In recounting his experiences making the “Rings” films, Astin touches on his Hollywood family (his mother, Coeur d’Alene’s Patty Duke, and dad, John Astin), his career missteps (“Encino Man”) and, most of all, his own turbulent emotions working with director Peter Jackson and his castmates in New Zealand.
“I’m surprised by how surprised everyone is that the book is honest,” says Astin, 33, looking boyish and considerably slimmed down from Sam’s hobbity heft.
Having scored early success in “The Goonies” and “Rudy,” he was in a period of transition when “Rings” came along. For much of the filming Astin wrestled with anxieties about his appearance, his role as a husband and father and his own ambitions as a filmmaker.
At various times, he felt jealous of Jackson’s position, underappreciated and insecure around his co-stars.
“It was just the stage I was at in my life, and it really bothered me that I had all those thoughts and feelings,” Astin said. “I felt like if I couldn’t expunge them from the emotional record of my life and history, at least I could turn them into something sort of valuable.
“Selfishly, that’s what the book did for me. I finished the manuscript and I went, ‘OK, now I don’t have to get stuck in the rut of that kind of thinking anymore.’ And I haven’t been.”
He’s coming to grips with the fact that his frankness has upset some of those he writes about. Describing his stressful time acting in the movie “Bulworth,” for example, Astin calls star-director Warren Beatty a “megalomaniac.”
“People say, ‘How can you call Warren Beatty a megalomaniac?’ ” Astin said with a laugh. “I meant it as a compliment.”
Among the book’s other frank observations are that Astin’s salary for all three “Rings” films was a less-than-lordly $250,000; that Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf, “can be selfish and self-centered”; and that Stuart Townsend, the original choice for Aragorn, was fired because he couldn’t “sublimate his own desires about his character to Peter’s vision of the character.”
Since the book’s publication, Astin says he’s learned more about what to say in public and what to keep private.
“I was willing to risk my reputation with some of those individuals by experimenting in a public way,” he says. “It’s the conceit of believing in your own goodness.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Frank Langella is 65. Musician Country Joe McDonald is 63. Comedian Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci) is 62. Actor Rick Hurst (“The Dukes of Hazzard”) is 59. Rapper Grandmaster Flash is 47. Actress Dedee Pfeiffer (“Cybill”) is 41. Actor Morris Chestnut (“The Brothers,” “The Best Man”) is 36. Actor Verne Troyer (“Austin Powers”) is 36. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (“Magnolia,” “Boogie Nights”) is 35.