Sean Astin appears in CarMax slow clap commercial

In a nod to his role in Rudy, Sean Astin shows up in CarMax's Big Game commercial, in which a customer gets a slow clap acknowledgement of his purchase. A shorter version will appear during the SuperBowl; it's not known at this time if Sean will be in the aired version.

Sean appears at 0:31!



CarMax also made a puppy version of the commercial, matching the human ad shot for shot. Check out Sean as a puppy in a football jacket!



Which do yo think is cuter??

More photos from Rudy Anniversary Celebration

Here are a few more photos from the Rudy 20th Anniversary Celebration held October 17, 2013, in Las Vegas. See more photos here.

Thoughtful Sean on the flight to Las Vegas.

What's this? The Eye of Sauron in the desert??? 

Sean Astin at the Rudy 20th Anniversary Celebration

Sean Astin, Rudy Ruettiger and screen writer Angelo Pizzo attended the 20th Anniversary Celebration of "Rudy" in Las Vegas on October 17, 2013. There were red carpet arrivals, a VIP reception, screening of the movie and a Q&A session. Here are some photos from the event. [More photos here.]

Sean Astin to attend Rudy 20th Anniversary Celebration

Sean Astin will be a special guest at the 20th Anniversary Celebration of "Rudy" in Las Vegas October 17, 2013. The event will include red carpet arrivals, a VIP reception with photo ops for the attendees, and a screening of the movie followed by a Q&A with Sean, screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, and the "real" Rudy Ruettiger!

Proceeds from the event go to the Rudy Foundation Scholarship Fund for Education, Sports and the Performing Arts.

For more information, visit the Facebook Events page.

"Rudy": An Oral History

For the 20th anniversary of the release of "Rudy," Sportsnet.ca has published a fascinating and in-depth interview with several of the movie's filmmakers, including director David Anspaugh, screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, producers Robert Fried and Cary Woods, Daniel "Rudy Ruettiger and more.

Portions are excepted below, but do read the entire article here, there are many more fascinating details.

"Rudy" 20th Anniversary Celebration

The Rudy Foundation is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of "Rudy" in Las Vegas on October 17, 2013. The event will include red carpet arrivals, a VIP reception with photo ops, movie screening and Q&A with cast and crew. Confirmed guests include Angelo Pizzo (writer), David Anspaugh (director), Rob Fried (producer), and Rudy Ruettiger, with more planned. Tickets are available at showtix4u.com.

The Rudy Ruettiger Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the support and recognition of those who aspire to fulfill their dreams through character, courage, contribution and commitment. More information here.

Sean Astin talks about Notre Dame BCS Championship Game

It's been 20 years since "Rudy" -- the story of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, who, despite obstacles, wanted to play football for Notre Dame -- came out in theaters. The star of the movie, Sean Astin, is often reminded about one of the best sports movies of all time. "Every day, I go out of my house and in public," he said, "someone asks me about it." With tonight being the BCS championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama, Astin talked with ESPN's senior writer Lynn Hoppes about his thoughts on Notre Dame and the game. Here's his column: 

In some ways, this is my championship season also. 
The movie, which is 20 years old, predicted this when Coach Ara Parseghian said the goal for the team is play for a national title. And here we are. 

I love the idea of Notre Dame. The fact that the fans live, breathe, eat, sleep and die thinking about the Fighting Irish is something very contagious. You can easily connect with that feeling. The school has a shiny, golden dome, which is a beacon of hope and faith. 

"Rudy" finalist for baby giraffe name!

He may be only 5 foot nothin', 100 and nothin', but "Rudy" has been chosen as one of three finalist in the naming contest for the baby giraffe at the Louisville Zoo! You may recall that Sean met the then 5-day old giraffe when while in Louisville for Fandom Fest this summer.

Now three months old, the youngster is 7'2". Louisville Zoo visitors can vote for "Rudy" or one of the other finalists "Silvester" and "Cassius" by dropping money in the kiosk near the Zoo's entrance. Voting ends October 14.

Sean already has a young black-footed ferret named Twoflower in his honor residing at the Zoo. Pretty soon they may name the whole Zoo after him! ;-)

More info on name voting here. Photos by Kyle Shepard.

Video: Sean receiving alumnus status at Holy Cross

South Bend Photo Collection

Sean spent the weekend in South Bend, IN, visiting old haunts from the "Rudy" days and campaigning for his friend Brendan Mullen, who is running for US Congress. Here are many photos from Friday and Saturday:

Photo by South Bend Tribune

On Friday, Sean visited Holy Cross College, the school Rudy Ruettiger attended before being accepted into Notre Dame.

Photo by @spes_unica

Sean Astin in Nissan Heisman House Ad

ESPN and Nissan teamed up with Heisman House greats for a series of six 30-second ads. Sean was there with Heisman Trophy winner and former Notre Dame player Tim Brown for the Rudy-themed commercial!



Click here for more on the Nissan Heisman House and the other ads!

Sean on HBO's Newsroom Rudy reference

Source

Two episodes ago, The Newsroom used the jersey speech from Rudy in an episode of the HBO drama. Today [August 3] Rudy himself was at the Television Critics Association press tour with a new animated show. Sean Astin provides a voice in Nickelodeon’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, so after his panel we asked him what he thought of the Rudy reference on The Newsroom. 

“Loved it, thought it was great,” Astin said. “The funny thing is that that scene that they’re depicting in it is actually one of the pieces in the movie that is a dramatic license, but it’s got that emotional resonance. Aaron Sorkin is my favorite television and film writer/producer/creator ever and he’s always been really nice to me. We’ve had interactions together, but the show is exactly what you want to have now to look critically at that business which has such an impact on American culture. So to see him do that show and have another huge success is not surprising, but gratifying. Then to see them use Rudy to help make an emotional point, I felt it humanized Jeff [Daniels]’s character and that made me happy.”

Watch Sean in Hollywood Treasure here!

(Cost to view: $1.99) Sean's segment begins at about 24:30.

Hollywood Treasure Tidbits

From Sci-Fi Talk interview with Hollywood Treasures host Joe Maddalena:

Tony Tellado: And I want to ask you, do you have coming up a journey to Middle Earth featuring Sean Astin. Can you tell us about that? 

Joe Maddalena: Sean Astin is a neighbor. He lives close by, and is a friend. We’re selling a large collection belonging to the Drier family, and in the collection is – was this amazing map of Middle Earth. And I thought Sean, knowing his interest obviously in that part of the world, would enjoy seeing the map. So it was actually Tolkein’s copy, so he came by and we kind of had a little period where we went through his, you know – he took us back down memory lane and we learned interesting things. He was basically, like – he went from the Shire to Mordor on what happened, and it was an interesting response, because he said well, we’re making this movie, Elijah and I figuring we’re going to have all this time together, a year and a half, and at the end we’re going to do this epic climax,  throwing the ring in the mountain, and  and by the time we get there, we’ll be ready. And what happened was we were filming and there was a giant flood, and the set got wiped away, and they came in and said well, we’re going to film the climax instead, and this is very early in the process, and Sean’s like, I – we can’t do that. We’re not ready. And they’re like, you’re ready. So – and they literally – it was just like amazing insight into his world, his character. It was – it’s fascinating to meet him and kind of learn about that world. 

From Zap2it.com:

The episode also includes an incredibly touching segment in which Maddalena restores the football helmet his friend Sean Astin wore in the movie "Rudy" and in doing so, helps Astin realize for the first time how much that movie meant to countless fathers and sons.

Sean on Hollywood Treasure today!

Don't miss the season 2 premiere of Hollywood Treasure tonight, 10pm ET on SyFy! Sean shows off Samwise Gamgee's pots and pans, a Goonies doubloon, and host Joe Maddalena restores Rudy's Notre Dame helmet! What else might we see??

Astin has long collected mementos from his films—everything from the One-Eyed Willie treasure map from The Goonies to the backs of the director's chairs with his name on them. (His wife Christine keeps most of it "nicely tucked away" in a storage locker.) One of his favorite items, though, isn't technically from a movie: It's all the Lord of the Rings fan art sent to him over the years. "I have tons of poems and drawings and songs and DVDs, little dolls dressed up as Samwise," he says. "I feel like it’s wrong to throw that away."

Read more of Inside TV's great exclusive interview with Sean and watch the sneak peak video.

ForceCast interview with Sean at C2E2

Jason Swank and Jimmy "Mac" McInerney of ForceCast.net, a Star Wars focused podcast site, interviewed Sean at C2E2 two weeks ago. They talked in depth about the expected topics: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Rudy and Goonies, but some unexpected anecdotes and tidbits came out!

It's a great interview!

Listen here. Sean's interview starts at about 27:30. Stay for the post interview discussion of #run3rd and Sean's autobiography "There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale"!

Sean Astin among "Hollywood's Gridiron Greats"

Sean will be featured as one of the actors who portrayed football players and football players who became actors in Reelz Channel's "Hollywood Gridiron Greats," premiering Saturday, January 28 at 7:30pm ET (4:30pm PT). The show will re-air several times over the next few days.

"Hosted by former NFL star Tiki Barber, the program will highlight stars that have gone from the field to the big screen, including NFL legends Lawrence Taylor, Howie Long, Brett Favre and more. Plus, we’ll put the spotlight on actors who boosted their careers by tackling roles as football players—from Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Jerry Maguire and Sean Astin in Rudy to Mark Wahlberg in Invincible and Burt Reynolds in The Longest Yard."

More information, showtimes and how to find Reelz Channel in your area.

Sean and friends at Rudy screening

All the luminaries from "Rudy" were there—Sean Astin, Jon Favreau (D-Bob), director David Anspaugh and even the original Daniel E. "Rudy" Ruettiger—for the special screening of the movie at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica Thursday evening.

Photo by Sean Astin posted to his Twitter account.

The following is based on a report from Jan-u-wine, who attended the screening.

The movie played to a nearly packed and appreciative audience, and the special guests were given a standing ovation when they took the stage for the Q&A afterwards. There were many good questions asked and good answers shared, and all in all, it was a general love-fest.

David Anspaugh, Jon Favreau, Sean Astin and Rudy Ruettiger. Source

On the topic of the casting of Rudy, the director said Sean had been recommended to him by the script writer, Angelo Pizzo, who had seen a trailer for "Encino Man." (Sean rolled his eyes when this movie was mentioned—it is apparently not one of his favorites!) A lunch meeting was set up between David and Sean, and the director immediately knew he had his Rudy. The studio execs were not so sure, but eventually gave in, and later admitted Sean was the perfect Rudy. The audience cheered wildly in agreement with this sentiment, and Sean appeared very touched by their reaction.

Sean talked about the scene where he had to cry on reading the news that he'd finally been accepted into Notre Dame. He'd come on set that morning and had been instructed not to talk with anyone, so he'd been alone and isolated for a couple of hours. Even so, when it came time to do the scene, he couldn't muster up the tears. Sean said that until then he'd found it hard as an actor and a man to cry. After three takes, David came up to Sean and asked him "What are you so afraid of?" David's question was just what for Sean the actor and Sean the man needed. Why indeed are we afraid of honest tears? It was enough to trigger the tears, and Sean said he cried for at least two hours.

Sean was asked about the scene where Rudy steps onto the football field for the first time. It's a quiet moment, and Rudy hesitates for a moment before stepping reverently onto the field. Was it the director's idea or Sean's? Sean responded by talking about a similar moment in The Fellowship of the Ring, supposedly one of Peter Jackson's favorites, where Sam hesitates before taking the step that will take the farthest away from home he's ever been, moving him into a hugely different world from the one he's known.

David said Sean did a lot of his own stunts, but managed to avoid injury. (In another interview, Sean did mention a small cut he got over his eye from Vince Vaughn's long fingernails. They had to duplicate the cut with makeup later for continuity!) Sean's stunt double had to have knee surgery. The real Rudy also avoided major injuries, quite amazing considering he really was a little guy among the big Notre Dame players!

Sean said that not a day goes by when he isn't stopped and complimented on Rudy, or hears chants of "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!" He believes it's the movie he'll be most remembered for when he dies.

There was also a discussion of Jerry Goldsmith's beautiful and evocative score. Sean said he was honored to have been a part of one of Goldsmith's projects.

Sean's oldest daughter Ali (Elanor Gamgee in "The Lord of the Rings"), now 15 and a cheerleader, was in attendance, and Sean said they held hands throughout the movie. :-)

Says Jan-u-wine: It's easy to see the Sean that you hear about often: the passionate, caring man, very intelligent, his ideas spilling out so fast that they even (seemingly) take him by surprise.

After the Q&A session, David said they would continue the discussion at a nearby bar on Wilshire Boulevard, what surely must have been a great experience for those who tagged along!

Sean and fan. Source

___
My gratitude to Jan-u-wine for providing her thoughts on the Q&A. All remarks are to the best of her recollection, and we apologize for any inaccuracies.

Sean Astin appears with costars: Supermegafest and Rudy screening

• Sean will be doing a Q&A with "Lord of the Rings" costar Sala Baker at the Boston Super Megafest convention at noon on Sunday, November 20. It's expected he will be signing autographs both Saturday and Sunday.

Source

• He will also be doing a Q&A following a screening of "Rudy" at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, CA,Thursday, November 17 at 7:30pm, with costar Jon Favreau and director David Anspaugh.

Source

Sean Astin interviewed by ReelGayTV

Sean Astin discusses his role in "And They're Off", at the Hollywood Film Festival at the Arclight on Saturday October 21, 2011. Sean also talks about "Rudy" and "Valley of the Dolls" in which his mother Patty Duke starred. Listen how they relate to the gay community.

Watch video here.