Hello gentle reader. I have been gong to Dragon*Con in Atlanta GA now for quite a few years and one of the things that I have really grown to love is the attendance by celebrities and pseudo-celebrities. As a member of The Unique Geek, I have agreed to do a weekly highlight on one (possibly more than one) of the Con attendees that qualifies for ‘celebrity’ status.
This time: Sean Astin
Last week I discussed my thoughts that the more ‘geek -cred’ a celebrity has the more valuable they would be to the con, at least that is my opinion. Well Sean Astin gets lots of cred but I am not sure how much of it we would call ‘geek-cred’. Here are the resume items I give the most credit to Mr. Astin for.
First and foremost to the geek crowd, Samwise Gamgee. Loyal friend and member of the Fellowship of the Ring. Automatic ‘geek-cred’ for life. If nothing else, he can come to Dragon*Con for the next 20 years and no one would blink and ask why he’s invited. Any man who gets tattooed because he played a hobbit gets the benefit of the doubt.
From here on out I am a bit leery about which resume items would be ‘geek-cred’ worthy, but here goes!
Mr. Astin played Mikey Walsh, defacto leader of the Goonies. Mikey Walsh qualifies because the Goonies were considered outsiders in their community, and let’s face it, most geeks tend to be the outsiders in the community.
Mr. Astin played Rudy Ruettiger in the film Rudy. This one is a pretty dicey. In Rudy, the role of Rudy is one of an outsider trying hard to make his dream of playing for the Notre Dame football team come true. The strikes against ‘geek-cred’: This is a SPORTS movie. It makes hardened men cry. Did I mention it is a SPORTS movie, specifically FOOTBALL?! Ok, the pros: It’s a story about overcoming our limitations, which we geeks are prone to enjoy. It has Jon Favreau in it (Director and actor in Iron Man & IM2), and lastly, being a Geek can be seen as having a lot of in depth knowledge about a specific subject…and there are in fact Football, and more specifically College Football geeks. Me being one of them!
Mr. Astin played Doug Whitmore in 50 First Dates. ‘geek-cred’ worthiness? Well he plays a foil to Adam Sandler who is pretty geeky. Ok, so I have very little else here and, to be brutally honest, I don’t care if we give Mr. Astin ‘geek-cred’ for 50 First Dates. The bottom line is, he was in a movie with Drew Barrymore. For that alone Mr. Astin, you have a sh*tload of ‘Serv-Cred’.
Mr. Astin has also appeared in various other roles on TV and Cable and the decision about his ‘geek-cred’ is one that can be debated. That being said I know I am excited that Mr. Astin will be returning to Dragon*Con in 2010!
I would say the character of Mister Smith from “Jeremiah” is undeniable geek cred.
A post apocalyptic world? Created by J. Michael Straczynski of, among other things, Babylon 5 fame?
Ultimately, with that, along with his pedigree, he qualifies without debate.
And don’t forget Drew Barrymore…mmmmmmm, Drew….
Certainly “Jeremiah” should count, since I don’t think Luke Perry is appearing on the strength of “90210!” 🙂 And don’t forget Terry Pratchett’s “The Colour of Magic,” in which Sean played Twoflower.
But for pure geekiness, how can you argue with appearing in 3 Spitzer Space Telescope educational vids, the latest of which is here:
Belleferret…disparage 90210 but enjoy my next entry, coming very soon!