Kidsday interviews actor Sean Astin
Photo credit: Newsday Photo / Pat Mullooly | Actor Sean Astin with Kidsday reporters Gigi Ericson, Sydney Schwartz, Jessica Sekler and Samuel Willens
We interviewed actor Sean Astin, who does the voice of Agent Oso in the Disney show "Special Agent Oso." We had a great time -- he talked about his career, his parents' influence on his acting and his kids.
Is Oso your first cartoon? If not, how many have you been in? I have done a bunch of them. "Oso" is the one where I am the main character, the title character. You get to be the bear, you know what I mean? You have to work harder and you have to do more than other people because you have more lines and stuff. Do you remember "Meerkat Manor"? I was the narrator for that. It is not animated, per se, but it is voice-over stuff. It was really popular when it came out a couple of years back.
How was it working with Adam Sandler? We know you were in "Click" and "50 First Dates." He is a great guy. He has a lot of responsibility. His company is largely responsible for getting them made, and they get the kind of distribution they deserve. He is responsible for hundreds of people's employment. He is really funny, he knows his comedy and he can relax and have a good time, but he is also about the business of the work of it. He's got a great sense of humor; he loves to play basketball.
Is there one characteristic of Oso that you share? The bumbling one comes to mind. We are both fearless! Well, in certain things, I am fearless. I do all these things that others are afraid to do. I am not as fearless as Oso, but I have a willingness to find adventure.
Why did you decide to provide the voice of Special Agent Oso? I like doing cartoons. I was making a movie in England. I was staying at Windsor, a castle outside of London. They offered me the job and sent me some images for what they thought Oso would look like and other characters and gadgets. I remember the second I looked at it, I said, "Yep, that's me." He is kind of a combination of all the different characters I have played. What I have learned since then, there are a whole lot of elements of the TV show that are really cool. . . . I've got kids. My daughter Alexandra is 12, Elizabeth is 6 and Isabella is 3, and they are Oso fans now. I must say I was more nervous to see if they were going to like it or not than I am about anybody else.
In the movie "Rudy," you looked very comfortable as a football player. Is football your favorite sport? I played basketball the other night. I was terrible. I used to be so good at it. Baseball was the game I played growing up, but I love football, too. My mom actually told me that I could not play tackle football because she was afraid . . . because I was so small, I would get hurt. I was secretly grateful because I was scared.
Did your mom or dad inspire you to be an actor, or did you decide to become an actor by yourself? My mom and dad were both very famous actors. Patty Duke is my mom. She won an Oscar when she was 14 for playing Helen Keller. I guess you people know about Helen Keller, and they made it into a movie. She was on Broadway and she won an Oscar for it. She went on and had a TV show and so forth. When I was 7 or 8 years old, she was offered a part in an ABC after-school special. When I was a kid, those after-school specials every week dealt with a different issue. One week a kid who had cancer, another week a kid was into drugs. My week was about child abuse, and my mom asked me if I wanted to be in it. I, of course, said, "Do I have to go to school?" And she said, "Only for three hours during the day." And I said, "Well, are they going to pay me money?" They paid me, like, $10,000. Now, I didn't get that money at first. That money was put into an account because of certain laws that she helped put in place. That went into an account that I got when I was 18, and so, yeah, she inspired me so far as she gave me my first job and we were in it together. My father, John Astin, who was, you guys know "The Addams Family"? Do you know that there was a television show? He was the original Gomez in the 1960s TV show. He was really an inspiration to me in a lot of ways. Education was always really important to him, formal education, college. And he was also a director and a writer and a producer.
What is your favorite part that you have ever played? Every time I am asked that question I come up with different answer, so I don't know if that means that they were not actually my favorites when I said they were. Some were my favorites while I was doing them, some I don't like and then later on, I think, you know what, I really liked that. So one that might be appropriate for you all is "The Goonies." This is one you are going to like. It is about a group of kids who are going to lose their homes because the property developers are coming in and bought out their parents. My character Mikey, his dad is a curator at the museum. And we go up and we are kind of hanging out, all the "Goonies" kids, there are seven of us, and one kid's name is Chunky and he is sort of a fat kid, and there is Data, who is an Asian kid with all these cool inventions he makes. I am kind of the leader of the gang. I have an asthma inhaler. We all go up into the attic and we are playing around and we discover in all my dad's junk this map. And I remember that this is a map from a pirate treasure we had heard about. And I say, "You guys, we need to go find this treasure and we can buy our houses back." I talk them into it and we go on this adventure and some crazy things happen. Ultimately we get to find a pirate ship and there are tons of jewels and cool things in the pirate ship. This is way before "Pirates of the Caribbean." I was 12 when I acted in it and it was my first movie. To this day, people love that. In almost every interview I do, people want to know, is there going to be a second "Goonies"? I recommend that to you and friends after Oso.
Which movie your favorite genre and why? It changes. I am sort of shifting right now at the moment, but lately comedy has been my favorite genre. I would say that it is more fun to do. Part of what you want to do besides working hard is finding where the funny is and try to make someone laugh. I think when you do dramatic acting, and for people who are older than you, know me from a movie called "Rudy." It is kind of hard to watch in the beginning, but it gets better. That is one that is all about determination. Everybody tells Rudy, you can't. Rudy, you are 5-feet-7. You can't play football against people who are six feet tall and weigh 200 pounds more than you. That is his dream, and he finds a way to fight, and that is dramatic acting. That is incredibly rewarding and you feel really good. If there is a crying scene or a scene that is touching, painful in some way. As an actor, when you start doing it, and you feel it and you do it, and you are, all of a sudden, you are not acting, you are not aware of the fact that the camera is right there.
If you could, would you pick another part than the one of Special Agent Oso? Hard to do. How about Sam? There is a series of movies called "The Lord of the Rings," and my character's name was Sam. Sam teaches you about perseverance, about courage, about loyalty. Oso teaches you about knowing that if you break things down into small parts if you have a job to do, you can do it, but you have to like make it a puzzle. What is the first thing you have to do, well find the corners, find the edges, then look at the picture on the box. So even if he doesn't know how to do it, Oso knows, if I try I can probably figure it out. That is a pretty important value, I think, for kids.
How was it working with Phil Lewis? Do you get to see him a lot? Not very much. He came in, and I think we were in two sessions together, maybe three. It is weird, because my daughters watch his show, so you are kind of used to seeing him. He wasn't dressed like that, he was dressed kind of normal. He is a real pro, he knows exactly how to do what he is supposed to do. I kind of learned things from him. He is a very crisp performer; he knows exactly what he is doing.
We noticed there are positive messages in all the episodes. What is your favorite message? That is a really an important thing to the Disney Channel. They have a curriculum. There are certain cognitive and reasoning skills and moral and ethical values they want to embed in their programming. It is really, really important that they do that. Disney provides entertainment that is fun. Oso's bright and colorful, it's got those James Bond kind of songs and that kind of fun stuff. I love the letter one. We are so used to texting, Twittering and e-mailing. One of the children need to get a letter off to grandma, and Oso comes in and says, "What are three special steps to get that letter sent?" This idea of formal communicating, especially with your grandparents or someone that you love, I really like that one.
What do you and your kids like to do for fun when you are together?
All the kind of normal stuff that you do. The one thing that I do that is kind of cool with Alexandra, Elizabeth is kind of freaked out about the dark, is play laser tag. It's awesome, and Alexandra is phenomenal. She is goal-oriented and she is sneaky.
Is there one celebrity you have always wanted to meet? Because some of the movies that I have been in have been really popular, I have basically gotten to meet when you are doing publicity tours or you go to premieres or different things, you kind of come across a lot of people. But I don't know, I am sure there are dozens, but no one pops into my mind.
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