Super Megafest - my review - Boston Events INSIDER

Interview by Johnny Monsarrat

I don't know how they do it. Super MegaFest manages to draw A-list celebrities like Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard from Star Trek the Next Generation) and Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings), and yet, there's plenty of room to walk. You don't feel stifled by the crowd. Even the panels have plenty of seating and you'll get a chance to ask a question if you want to. It's impressive.

Despite my lack of proper notice, Sean Astin kindly offered a quick interview, and I was able to ask a question at his Q&A session as well. I was pleased to find him so comfortable with the fans, and humble. If fame comes to any of us, we should keep our act together so well.

Events INSIDER: Tell us about Lava Entertainment, your own production company. Do you have any projects coming up?

Sean Astin: We've been in active development on an adaptation of Lois Lowry's best-selling, Newbery award winning children's book, Number the Stars. We've loaded a lot of time, energy, and resources into it, and we are currently in a phase of raising the money independently, the production budget independently. We're going to shoot it in Denmark, post-production in Los Angeles. No cast or distribution yet, by design. It's a long, arduous, and tedious process, but we're committed to getting it done.

Events INSIDER: And you'll keep creative control, doing it that way, which I assume is the reason for doing it on your own?

Sean Astin Yea, when you say "creative control", I think it sounds a little, kind of Machiavellian.

Events INSIDER: I can rephrase that. A lot of actors want to become directors and own their own creative output.

Sean Astin (mock seriously) I - WANT - TO KEEP - CREATIVE - CONTROL.

Sean Astin (laughs) No, I love collaborating with people. I just want to do it from a position of strength.

Events INSIDER: Tell us about Amazing Love, a new movie coming out in 2012 in which your own mother, Oscar-winning and Emmy-winning actress Patty Duke, stars.

Sean Astin She does, she does. She was beautiful and gracious enough to come and play a character who starts the movie off, kind of helps set the tone for the movie. I play a preacher, who's married -- Erin Bethea, who was in Fireproof, is my wife -- and the two of us take four or five kids up into a Christian camp up in the Arrowhead mountains. It's basically, the thrust of the movie is I tell the story of Hosea, and his challenge to have unconditional love with his harlot wife Gomer, and the movie cuts back and forth between Jerusalem in Biblical times and us as the camp. It's a Christian movie, a straight ahead Christian movie designed for a Christian audience, and I had a fantastic time making the film. I loved everyone who worked on it. I've never worked in such a specific, isolated genre.

Events INSIDER: Your mom got you started in acting -- I assume that you loved it as a kid?

Sean Astin The big question is always like, "Did your parents push you?" and they never pushed. They made it available, and I always loved it. I always reserved the right to do something else with my life, throughout my entire childhood experience, even today maybe. I never wanted to feel consigned or relegated just to acting. I've always wanted to direct, producing is fantastic, but maybe being a schoolteacher, or get into politics, or who knows what else. I don't think I'm going to be an engineer at any time, but you never know.

Events INSIDER: You supported Dan... someone, in California, I hear.

Sean Astin Dan Adler, yes, he had a bid for a special election seat, the 28th US Congressional seat because Jane Harman resigned, and I jumped in as his campaign manager.

Events INSIDER: Oh, really? That's pretty serious!

Sean Astin Yea, it was, it was. We didn't have a lot of time. He got in on the last day of the filing deadline on the special election. So it was like 29, I can't remember exactly how many days. He didn't have any money, he didn't have any name recognition, he didn't have political backing, but he was a friend of mine and I took a crack at it.

Events INSIDER: Thank you for your time.

[ Later, I got a chance to ask a question during his Q&A session. ]

Events INSIDER: Sean, In 2008, you made several appearances in support of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and now you're managing Dan Adler, who's running for US Congress--

Sean Astin No, he's done, he lost.

Events INSIDER: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

Sean Astin He lost hard, and it was my fault, too, my political career's over, man. Sorry, what was your question?

Events INSIDER: What's your attraction to politics versus other charities you've supported, and might you become your own candidate some day?

Sean Astin I don't know, with the way you're talking, maybe you should be my campaign manager. (laughter)

Events INSIDER: All right! We'll hook it up (laughter)

Sean Astin I realize now, having been the campaign manager for Dan's election what an important job that is. My mom was president of the Screen Actors Guild. My dad was on the board, I think of the WGA [ Writers Guild of America ]. During the Writers Guild strike, we were out there picketing, and we were part of lots of charities. My mom was a gay rights activist at a time when that wasn't in vogue, and had death threats.

Sean Astin So my family was always -- and when you're famous and when you want to do something, it feels like name recognition is essential to political life. And you're way ahead of the game. So there's this expectation that maybe you, no matter who you are, if you're famous, that you might have some proclivity, or interest. And actors love to talk, and think, and influence. So I revere the fact that several presidential candidates have included me in some way, shape, or form in their presidential campaigns.

Sean Astin I'm saying right now I'm on the fence with this whole Occupy movement. I'm poised to move once the leadership of that movement, whether the ones that you see are leading it, or the people behind the scenes who are orchestrating things demonstrate that they'll really be responsive to the actual will of the people who are swelling the ranks. If they do that in a way that satisfies me then I'll be happy to jump in with them. And if they don't, you know, I think they're missing the boat on a lot of things, too.

Sean Astin I love human beings. I love helping. I love looking at our world and thinking, "How could it be better?" Politics is a dirty, ugly, yucky, shitty place, pardon my French, but we're only going to have the country we want when we hire the kind of people-- You know, people say, well how can that politician make this money when people who are working class aren't making anything near that? You want to hire the best, pay them 10 times that. You want the smartest, best possible people in there, orchestrating a government in a society that's going to benefit the most amount of people. So to the extent that I can contribute in a way, in a small, my actual small way, I love it. But I'm actually now 40 years old and I'm a lot more humble than I used to be. I realize that everybody has a role to play, and I'm happy with my role and what it is. I don't know if I'll do anything more.

Sean Astin is trying to get to 10,000 Twitter followers. You can find him at @SeanAstin_LA.

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