Sean Astin brought a lighthearted touch to his speech on Tuesday, where he discussed leadership, the media and his life as an actor.
The Lord of the Rings and Rudy star spoke to around 800 attendees at the final speech of this year's MSE Symposium.
The evening started with a reel of clips highlighting Astin's different film roles. His response to these clips started off the humorous, self-deprecating tone that would characterize his speech.
"Well, after watching that promo reel I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat to partake of the knowledge and wisdom that Doug Whitemore, the steroid using bodybuilder may have to offer," Astin said sarcastically, referencing his role in the Adam Sandler film 50 First Dates.
It has been a good week for the Astin family at Hopkins. This weekend Hopkins Professor John Astin (Sean's father), directed a student-written play that starred Mackenzie Astin, Sean's younger brother.
"The Barrymores are fine, but the Astins are taking the Barn by storm," Sean Astin joked.
This reference to the Merrick Barn was just one of the many nods Astin gave to his connection to the University. Because of his father, Astin made it clear that he knows more about the Hopkins campus than the average speaker, and he used references to the book store, j-cards and lacrosse games as proof.
Astin said that he relishes the chance to speak to students "because of the enthusiasm and optimism that characterizes these communities, and because, to put it plainly, I have something to say . . . I am naturally inclined to want to be heard, a condition common among most actors."
The actor's jokes were enjoyed by the audience, and also by Astin himself - on occasion he would have to pause for a brief chuckle at his own remarks. But Astin talked seriously about what it means for an actor to speak out on an issue.
"Though I relish my First Amendment freedom to speak and I leap at the chance to exercise it . . . often actors views are taken with a grain of salt - sometimes too large a grain of salt," he said.
Astin added, "I worked very hard throughout my life not to have my voice marginalized. I know this is true for students, and really for everyone."
During the lengthy press engagement during promotion of The Lord of the Rings, Astin came face-to-face with how the media can shape and influence the public's perception of someone.
"It's easy to get one dimensiionality locked into the public's mind, and it can be challenging to overcome biases or even more difficult to overcome from self-inflicted mistakes," Astin said. He then paused and joked, "Lucky for me I have never made a mistake."
As the audience laughed, Astin looked down to where his father was sitting, admitting that, "you might disagree with me, Dad."
Astin continued on a more serious note. "The full magnitude of the consequences any of us face when we use our voices may not be fully or completely understood. In the old days if you stood on your soap box belting out your opinions, likely the worst thing that would happen is you would be ignored, or your reputation may be a little tarnished by word of mouth," he said.
With advanced technology creating an instant and universal media, however, Astin felt that things have changed.
"The freedom of speech guaranteed us in the Bill of Rights could not reasonably have predicted the awesome advances in technology that would take place within such a short period of time. The amendment should have come with a warning label: 'Use at your own risk,'" he said.
Astin quoted author Thomas Friedman, who presented the idea that everyone has become a public figure. He then went on to discuss the dangers of this in modern life.
"Thoughtful people are extremely vulnerable and perhaps should be generally afraid to speak, afraid to act, afraid to be ourselves. This, more than just being a sad state of affairs as a new reality, is fundamentally dangerous - dangerous beyond our own individual safety," he said.
While increased technology can bring growth and development, Astin has seen it threaten the impact of powerful and important ideas.
Astin described the modern age as a "tsunami of information and access and universality with its knee-jerk, hyper-overreaction and seriously deficient analytical consideration of events and their consequences."
He said that this is a time in which the ideas "that can affect real change and improve the status quo are quickly identified and ruthlessly attacked by entrenched forces whose interests are worth protecting at all costs."
While Astin did not directly identify these forces, he later mentioned his dislike for certain pundits with comedy tours.
Astin said that he is not opposed to political debate. "We can sit at dinner and talk politics and make jokes and come away with you learning something and [me] learning something, issuing propaganda not based in fact designed to wreck the conversation . . . [but] we have to elevate the personalities and viewpoints who are sentient."
Astin felt that these forces have already worked to silence the voices of public figures, including actors.
"Of course it is right to be held accountable for our actions . . . it is prudent and necessary to be both skeptical and open-minded when subject to the views of any public speaker," he said, admitting that these views included "the musings and sometimes ramblings of a hobbit who was too small to get on the shire football team" (a reference to his most famous acting role).
Astin name dropped several of his films throughout the course of the speech, focusing mostly on the two roles that have helped make him a household name.
When Astin said he was going to, "offer you some of my thoughts leadership and a bit about fellowship," he paused, waiting for the audience to realize the reference to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He then pointed out the reference in a brief aside. "Title of the movie. We got it."
Some of the references were not as successful, leaving Astin jokingly flustered. When the crowd did not get a reference to his role in the film Toy Soldiers, Astin commanded that they should "get older."
A reference to Data's Pincher's of Peril from The Goonies also drew little response from the crowd.
"You gotta do your research before you come to these symposiums," Astin lightheartedly chided.
But when Astin presented his vision - "It's a good vision," he said in mock-outrage when the statement was met with laughter - the speech took on a more serious and thoughtful tone.
Astin related an experience he had had after a speech he gave on making connections between the elderly and at-risk youth in order to benefit both age groups.
The speech was given during a speaking tour he was on while serving as part of the National Council on Service and Civic Participation. Astin was appointed to the board, which works to promote a culture of volunteerism, by then-President George W. Bush - though Astin admitted that he had not voted for Bush.
Astin had always considered himself a political junkie, but when he was approached by the head of the AARP and asked what role he wanted to play, the actor froze up.
In that moment he considered his future in politics, and remembered, "the marble floors I had walked on in the capitol, the bright lights of the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the countless hours of C-Span, my visits to Walter Reed . . . every good thing and bad thing I had said and done in my entire life flashed before my eyes."
"I had always held officials to an ideal standard and now suddenly I wasn't sure I could meet it," he said.
While this was the moment where Astin felt his chance at a political career was closed off, the question "what role do you want to play" was one that he continued to reflect upon.
"I suppose it could be a theological or metaphorical question, or a professional or family question. I take it to mean the obvious: What role do you want to play in the big game, in life, in society?"
Astin then transitioned into talking more about his role in the movies, admitting that that is what most audiences want to hear about.
He described the experience of filming The Lord of the Rings as "incredible. Incredible, meaning not to be believed," and noted that the time they had spent filming the three films in the series squalled the time it would take to complete a master's program.
"It was enlightening and inspiring and intimidating and fulfilling all at the same time . . . plumbing the very depths of my soul to discover new layers of joy and pain that I didn't know had existed," Astin said.
When the difficulties of filming became too much, Astin took solace in the beauty of the New Zealand location.
"The landscape was the most jaw-dropping salvation every time you remembered to open your eyes and breath deep the freshest air on this green earth."
Seeing the final product was "something approaching the sensation of immortality."
After these descriptions, Astin summed the experience up with a humorous touch.
"It was, you know, pretty good . . . The big hairy feet were sticky, it was a real volcano we filmed on, and Orlando Bloom was really that cute," he said.
Some of the biggest laughs and applause came from Astin speaking in the voice of his character, Samwise Gamgee, and referencing an Internet video built around his lines about potatoes.
"You've all been so patient in listening to all these serious things, you deserve it," he said.
It is in his movie roles that Astin drew inspiration for his answer to the question of what role he wants to play.
Astin said that he has chosen to be a leader, something that was characterized by both his role as the titular protagonist in Rudy, and his role as Sam in The Lord of the Rings.
For Astin, Rudy "captures in a deeply emotional way how grit and determination can be the great equalizer between groups in our society."
He noted that having good leadership qualities can help a person to "crawl out from others low expectations of ourselves."
Before the onslaught of media attention robbed him of some of his privacy, Astin felt that he and Sam shared a similar view of happiness being synonymous with home.
"In a very real way I had a pretty simplistic world view, perhaps an enviable world view, perhaps a naive and simplistic one," he said.
Astin acknowledged that the characteristics Sam best embodied - goodness, loyalty, decency and bravery - are difficult to apply in the real world. He added, though, that "from an ideal literary character we can see what is possible."
"Rudy and Sam evoke passionate beautiful feelings from people, and I've been blessed to interact with people who have been deeply touched by these movies," he said.
Many who attended the symposium were some of those who had been touched by Astin's films, and in turn welcomed the chance to hear him speak.
Freshman Janice Duncan, a Lord of the Rings fan, found the section of the speech devoted to leadership to be "really inspiring."
Because he is minoring in theater, junior Rob Powers had hoped to hear more about Astin's acting experience, but was still satisfied with the speech.
"He managed to balance [talking about acting] so well with the other things he had to say about cultivation of the self and of family and of those ideas that make you successful," Powers said.
Senior Emily Daly said she attended the speech because of her respect for Astin's work, and her desire to learn about a career in acting, a future that she has been considering.
"He addressed questions I myself have been grappling with about the relationship between media and the political," she said.
MSE Programming Chair Daniel Ingram felt that Astin provided a nice culmination to this year's series, which was based around the theme "A Transition Between Generations in a Changing America."
"It kind of brought everything together. He discussed really why our theme is relevant to the student body . . . why young people like us are important in society and why it's important for us to take active roles in politics and service," he said.
