SarahJanet's Books

There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale

I requested this book when I was in a particularly nerdy Lord of the Rings mood, because I wanted to get some of the behind the scenes peeks from the movies, and I figured I'd wade through Sean Astin's writing to get them. Having listened to the cast commentaries for two of the LOTR movies, I had a sneaking suspicion that I was going to find him incredibly tedious, although not as bad as John Rhys-Davies, whose commentary was just awful. But I figured I should give the guy a chance. And it's not like I went out and bought his book. The delightful thing about the library is not having to feel like you need your money's worth out of a book.

Well. I was not wrong. Sean Astin is a totally pretentious guy who thinks he's pretty damn fabulous. The book was mostly him pontificating on his own personal hangups (of which there are many), peppered with occasional references to how other members of the cast felt about the Fabulous Sean. He seems to be totally shocked that every single member of the entire production did not hang on his every word.

In the interests of full disclosure, I did get some perverse glee out of the stories of him being snubbed, and the part of my brain that cares about scandal kind of enjoyed hearing the shit-talk about a few of the cast, but overall, this book was just...boring. He's not an engaging writer, and he's not an engaging actor (I was seriously underwhelmed by Sam, I have to say), so the appeal of the book was pretty limited.

Now, if Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd got together and wrote a book, that would be worth money. This? Was barely worth the lengthy wait on the hold list. Bleah. Stick to acting in small movies that I won't see, Sean.

posted by SarahJanet @ 11:56 PM