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A review by tracey_stewart
There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale by Sean Astin
4.0
I can't believe I never knew about this book till now. I think mention of it popped up somewhere on Facebook (it's good for SOMEthing), and I jumped on it. And I'm glad I did. It was a fun ride, following him through his life and career and a little bit - not nearly enough, but a little bit - of the filming of The Lord of the Rings.
I was definitely hoping for more of LotR. Whatever I may think, feel, and say about Peter Jackson (little of which will ever be positive), the trilogy (THAT trilogy, not the other one) was quite an achievement, and the first movie gave me a lot of good times, and I have no reservations in my love for most of the cast - I would love a book just about the casting and the filming and the hanging out and the living in New Zealand and then more about the filming. Sean very diplomatically hinted at the other actor being strongly considered for the role of Sam (who I have not been able to identify through hunting and asking - he says only that it was a more ordinarily rotund Brit. James Corden? Someone said Johnny Vegas, whom I had to Google, and I don't know whether they were joking or not); I'd love more of that, too. He talked a little about the original actor cast as Aragorn, Stuart Townsend, which I was glad to see - I've heard literally nothing about him and his brief stint on set, and it's a sad story. I'm probably the sole person on the planet who's not enamored with Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, but I'm not sure Townsend would have been a better choice ... although I'll take either of them over anyone else I've seen mentioned in click-bait articles out in the interwebbles. Russell Crowe? I can't see it, and my first reaction is horror, but who knows. Daniel Day-Lewis? God, people were taken aback by Viggo's immersion in the part - THAT would have been ... something. Nicolas ... Cage. No. So - I guess, thanks, Viggo (and Viggo's son, who talked him into it.)
I want transcripts of every conversation he ever had with Christopher Lee.
One funny thing - there is one, and only one, mention of Sean Bean in the entire book. One. I was what was known as a B-Girl back in the day - the tweens could have their Orly, the others could have their Viggo, but me? I was an early and fervent recruit to the Sean Bean bandwagon. (He made me love Boromir, a character I hated - H A T E D - in the books from the age of twelve. For that alone I love Sean Bean.) Granted, they didn't spend a whole lot of time together, but he talks a fair bit about Ian Holm - and my impression is that he would have seen Holm even less than Bean. I wonder if there's a story there. (There certainly was a story about Ian Holm.)
That one mention was in relation to the tattoo pact - and that story alone was worth the price of admission. (Though, again, more would have been even better.)
Sean Astin isn't Samwise Gamgee. He's as self-deprecating and self-effacing as Sam ever was, but he also has a deep craving to be involved - to lead, to handle, to produce, to direct, to be in charge and fix things. You can hear the itchiness all throughout the book - he just wants to step up and be involved and in the heart of everything, and to start telling people in almost any situation where they ought to be and what they ought to do and the best way to accomplish whatever needs accomplishing. What keeps him from being, for lack of a better phrase, a complete and total pain in the ass is that he's got a deep self-awareness - he KNOWS that all of this can lead to people thinking he can be a PitA. And he knows how to control the impulses. Which is all utterly endearing. Sean Astin isn't Samwise - but there is a bit of cautious, protective, big-hearted Samwise in him. The way he talks about his relationship with Elijah Wood is one of the most wholesome and heart-melting things I've read in a while (MORE PLEASE). He might be a bit more Bob Newby than Samwise Gamgee - and that is not a bad thing. I don't know if I'd want to live with him, but I do want to be able to give him a hug one day - and was stupidly pleased to read his description of his hug-prone family - I don't think he'd mind one more from a fan. (Not that it's likely to ever come to pass, but at least I know it COULD.) Sean Astin isn't Samwise - but he gets Samwise. He got Samwise. And he did Samwise proud. Put it this way - he has political aspirations. And based on what I knew about him before, and on this book - I'm in. We could do - and certainly have done - a lot worse. You run, Sean Astin, and I'll campaign my head off.
Side story: About a third of the way in, I noticed a bit of a glitch in the ebook; I noticed that one paragraph seemed to end in mid-sentence, and the next one had nothing to do with what that was talking about. So I hopped on Google Books and plugged in the last phrase, which got me the rest of that sentence and the next one - and there was obviously more. I was able to leap-frog twice more before the method gave out on me, but there was again obviously more, and somewhere in there was mention of his (adopted step-)father ... wanting to play Gandalf? I still need to know more about that; someday I may have to track down a hard copy. I looked for a way to contact Amazon, and my only option was to have them call me, so I reluctantly did. For anyone reading this, don't. Don't do it. It's not worth it. It was painful, and pointless, and it will never be fixed, AND the ... person in whatever country she was taking calls in removed the book from my phone, although I had said I was reading it and didn't want to return it. (An Audible "customer service" person did the same thing last month.) Somehow I still had access through the "read now" button on the website, and by ignoring all the many things I should have been doing and reading through the day I was able to finish the book. But Amazon? Seriously? That was pathetic.
I was definitely hoping for more of LotR. Whatever I may think, feel, and say about Peter Jackson (little of which will ever be positive), the trilogy (THAT trilogy, not the other one) was quite an achievement, and the first movie gave me a lot of good times, and I have no reservations in my love for most of the cast - I would love a book just about the casting and the filming and the hanging out and the living in New Zealand and then more about the filming. Sean very diplomatically hinted at the other actor being strongly considered for the role of Sam (who I have not been able to identify through hunting and asking - he says only that it was a more ordinarily rotund Brit. James Corden? Someone said Johnny Vegas, whom I had to Google, and I don't know whether they were joking or not); I'd love more of that, too. He talked a little about the original actor cast as Aragorn, Stuart Townsend, which I was glad to see - I've heard literally nothing about him and his brief stint on set, and it's a sad story. I'm probably the sole person on the planet who's not enamored with Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, but I'm not sure Townsend would have been a better choice ... although I'll take either of them over anyone else I've seen mentioned in click-bait articles out in the interwebbles. Russell Crowe? I can't see it, and my first reaction is horror, but who knows. Daniel Day-Lewis? God, people were taken aback by Viggo's immersion in the part - THAT would have been ... something. Nicolas ... Cage. No. So - I guess, thanks, Viggo (and Viggo's son, who talked him into it.)
I want transcripts of every conversation he ever had with Christopher Lee.
One funny thing - there is one, and only one, mention of Sean Bean in the entire book. One. I was what was known as a B-Girl back in the day - the tweens could have their Orly, the others could have their Viggo, but me? I was an early and fervent recruit to the Sean Bean bandwagon. (He made me love Boromir, a character I hated - H A T E D - in the books from the age of twelve. For that alone I love Sean Bean.) Granted, they didn't spend a whole lot of time together, but he talks a fair bit about Ian Holm - and my impression is that he would have seen Holm even less than Bean. I wonder if there's a story there. (There certainly was a story about Ian Holm.)
That one mention was in relation to the tattoo pact - and that story alone was worth the price of admission. (Though, again, more would have been even better.)
Sean Astin isn't Samwise Gamgee. He's as self-deprecating and self-effacing as Sam ever was, but he also has a deep craving to be involved - to lead, to handle, to produce, to direct, to be in charge and fix things. You can hear the itchiness all throughout the book - he just wants to step up and be involved and in the heart of everything, and to start telling people in almost any situation where they ought to be and what they ought to do and the best way to accomplish whatever needs accomplishing. What keeps him from being, for lack of a better phrase, a complete and total pain in the ass is that he's got a deep self-awareness - he KNOWS that all of this can lead to people thinking he can be a PitA. And he knows how to control the impulses. Which is all utterly endearing. Sean Astin isn't Samwise - but there is a bit of cautious, protective, big-hearted Samwise in him. The way he talks about his relationship with Elijah Wood is one of the most wholesome and heart-melting things I've read in a while (MORE PLEASE). He might be a bit more Bob Newby than Samwise Gamgee - and that is not a bad thing. I don't know if I'd want to live with him, but I do want to be able to give him a hug one day - and was stupidly pleased to read his description of his hug-prone family - I don't think he'd mind one more from a fan. (Not that it's likely to ever come to pass, but at least I know it COULD.) Sean Astin isn't Samwise - but he gets Samwise. He got Samwise. And he did Samwise proud. Put it this way - he has political aspirations. And based on what I knew about him before, and on this book - I'm in. We could do - and certainly have done - a lot worse. You run, Sean Astin, and I'll campaign my head off.
Side story: About a third of the way in, I noticed a bit of a glitch in the ebook; I noticed that one paragraph seemed to end in mid-sentence, and the next one had nothing to do with what that was talking about. So I hopped on Google Books and plugged in the last phrase, which got me the rest of that sentence and the next one - and there was obviously more. I was able to leap-frog twice more before the method gave out on me, but there was again obviously more, and somewhere in there was mention of his (adopted step-)father ... wanting to play Gandalf? I still need to know more about that; someday I may have to track down a hard copy. I looked for a way to contact Amazon, and my only option was to have them call me, so I reluctantly did. For anyone reading this, don't. Don't do it. It's not worth it. It was painful, and pointless, and it will never be fixed, AND the ... person in whatever country she was taking calls in removed the book from my phone, although I had said I was reading it and didn't want to return it. (An Audible "customer service" person did the same thing last month.) Somehow I still had access through the "read now" button on the website, and by ignoring all the many things I should have been doing and reading through the day I was able to finish the book. But Amazon? Seriously? That was pathetic.