duncan writes: I was able to attend the speech Sean Astin gave at UGA in Athens yesterday. We were in a grand hall with about 2000 people. They showed us a short video of all the movies he has done but of course everyone only cheered for ‘The Goonies’, ‘Rudy’, ’24’, ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Everyone laughed at ‘Encino Man’.
The speech he gave was about leadership and what he learned on the sets of ‘The Goonies’, ‘Rudy’, and ‘Lord of the Rings’. I really can’t remember any details about the speech because I was so thrilled that I got to be there 20 feet away from Sean Astin. I spent most of the time studying him and thinking about all the cool things this guy has seen and done and what it must be like to be in the three biggest movies of all time. I was trying really hard to put aside the fact that he was Sam in LOTR and listen to his speech but that is really hard to when your a HUGE lord of the rings fan. I mean I went to the midnight showings for all 3 movies and took the day off of school so I can go buy the Extended DVD’s and do nothing but watch the movie and bonus features all day. Anyway I was having a geek moment.
The speech was about 45 minutes long so he spent the last hour and 15 minutes answering questions. Most of the Questions were very funny but most were stupid. He showed us his ankle tattoo and we all took ‘The Goonies’ oath. All in all it was an amazing experience. He is not the best at giving speeches but when it came to telling stories and answering questions he seemed right at home.
