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Sean reports that he is going to be joining the cast of 24. He doesn't know whether to characterize his character as good or bad. He's being brought in to run CTU for a bit. Initially he was supposed to be in 7 episodes, but now it's going to be longer. He says that he gets to wear designer clothes and that the costume designer spends a lot of time making sure that the dots on the knot of his purple tie matches in every scene/episode. Sean says it's typical of the effort put into the program, where the time is such a factor. He says that joining the cast and crew was easy, because it runs "like a well oiled machine." How did he get the job? Sean met the director in the chiropractor's office and got offered it.
He's also going to be in Adam Sandler's Click movie. In this movie, Adam portrays an architect who just cannot seem to get ahead. One day he comes into the possession of a remote control device that can control his life . . . fast forward through the unpleasant bits, pause while he thinks of an appropriate response. Somewhere along the line, though, he loses control over the controller. Sean reports that Adam Sandler is very loyal to those people he works with, and tends to hire them again and again when he does a project. Sean says that he now feels like he belongs to Adam Sandler's group.
On a personal note, Sean told us that he's a graduate of the University of California in Los Angeles. He was happy to film part of Click there, and it was an open set. During the filming, he was in a pair of speedos, and someone took a photo, and it ended up in the tabloids. Sean stated that there was a picture of him in his speedos, right next to a picture of David Beckham in his speedos, and it was a compare and contrast sort of caption. Sean did find it funny.
Sean proudly announced that he and his wife had their 3rd child on July 22nd, and that her name is Isabella Louise.
Sean and his wife went to college together. Sean has degrees in History and English. He credits his father, John Astin for encouraging him to seek a classical education. He says that his dad is teaching drama at John Hopkins currently because he was unhappy with their drama department. He says his dad is very erudite, and Sean went to college because he didn't want to disappoint his dad. Sean did graduate with honors.
He credits his mother, Patty Duke for his work ethic. He said Patty led by example. No matter what was going on at home, she showed up for work, she knew her lines, and she hit her marks. He says she handed him a career.
In fact, he said he got his role in The Goonies because of his parents. That, and the fact that he wanted the role so much, and kept trying to get it right in his audition.
Responding to a question about his forays into directing, Sean reports that it's difficult to raise money and very difficult to do it right. He says he's enthusiastic about several projects, but it takes time and dedication to get the funding.
Although Sean directed an episode of Angel, he says he only met Joss Whedom briefly.
One of his favorite movies is Patton. Sean still wants to do the movie about the Storm of 1900, but it's a huge expensive story on the magnitude of Titanic.
As far as Jeremiah goes, Sean loved being Mr. Smith. He had watched the first season, and didn't like it, he thought it was hokey. Then he met J.M. Straczynski over tea, and was won over to the role by Straczynski's intelligence and prophet-like vision. Sean said he always felt like he was channeling Straczynski's vision through his character. He thought the scene where he had the standoff with and eventual shooting of Libby was very powerful.
Sean says that up until recently, he only read non-fiction. Martin Wood, the director of Jeremiah told him, "You're trapped in this world," sorrowfully when Sean told him his of his reading habits.
Sean does eventually want to write a political book. He's angry and frustrated at what's not working. He thinks there's a problem with communication. He's furious at human beings for "not doing better."
Sean loves comics, but he's afraid to get excited about any of them until he knows who owns the movie rights.
Sean reports that he almost got to direct The Fantastic Four movie.
Sean said it was like having a little brother, working with Elijah Woods in Lord of the Rings. He felt like Obi Wan Kenobi when dispensing advice to Elijah. He joked that there was an ongoing debate with Elijah about Lear jets. Sean insisted that Nick Cage probably had a Lear jet and that everyone should have one in their hanger. Elijah would get all huffy and say that it was rather pompous, but like Henry Ford's car in every garage, Sean stuck to his guns and said that everyone should have a Lear jet in their hanger. Then, he said, during the many promotional appearances that he and Elijah had to make during The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Elijah leaned over to him and said, "I wish we had a Lear jet."
Sean also stated that his brother was featured in an episode of Lost. He was in the flashback scene with Kate.
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