Update (April 22) - We just about died when we watched this video from TORN Digital. At around the 2 minute mark, Sean mentions his meeting with us! :-D

"I was in Texas, as you know, and I was talking to a couple of people who were taking a class in Tolkien at a university or something in Texas -- (You were at Texas A&M, right?) I was at Texas A&M, but there were some students there who had driven down from near Waco, and they were working on an essay, and I read some of their essay questions. And I thought... and I felt sort of... I was inspired by what they were doing..." [wav file]

So how did this happen? I found this news item on TORN the day before the event, and my roommate Shannon and I called about three minutes later to reserve tickets!

We arrived at Texas A&M two hours before Sean was scheduled to speak. I wanted to walk around a little bit, but Shan was tired so we just sat outside the theater. Thank goodness for that! We'd only been sitting there about ten minutes, and I was working on homework, when Shan grabbed my arm and whispered, "DeeDee!" It was Sean walking right past us with a few other people. I just about died. The guy in charge of the event walked past us a few minutes later, and Shan asked if it would be ok to ask Sean for an autograph, and he said he'd find out.

A little while later, I heard, "Hi, I'm Sean," and I looked up from my homework to see Sean shaking Shan's hand. Shan introduced herself, then Sean offered his hand to me and held it firmly while I told him my name, and he said again, "I'm Sean, nice to meet you." Cue DeeDee turning beet red. He asked us where we were from and that sort of thing, and seemed surprised that we had driven "all the way" from Waco. As if we wouldn't have driven double that distance to meet him!

Then he looked down at my notebook and asked what I was working on, and I said, "Study questions for a class." And he said, "Oh really? What class?" I told him it was for the Tolkien class, and he said, "Wow! Can I see these?" So he reached down and took the sheet of study questions on TTT, and read off the first question, about the nature of lembas. He said, "Hmmm, the nature of lembas." And I said, "I might get extra points if I had Sam's authoritative opinion." So he answered the question, then started going down the list and reading a few questions. After a little while, his filmographer guy (who had been standing at the side of my bench), moved around by Sean and also started looking at the questions.

As if I wasn't already about to die, Sean then said, "Would you two do me a favor and pose for a picture with me?" Erm, let me think..... yes?! So we got up and Sean put an arm around each of us, and I put my arm around him. As his filmographer was setting up the camera to take our picture, Sean said, "Is it ok if I put these on my website?" ...yes?! Then the filmographer offered to take pictures with our cameras.

At this point, there were several people starting to gather around, so I figured Sean would move on. But he saw that we had brought things for him to sign, and he took Shan's big calendar page first. He said while he signed hers, "I always write 'The road goes ever on.' I should probably start using a good Sam quote." Then he took my calendar picture and said, "Ohhh, this is Mr. Frodo and I seeing the oliphaunt!" I quoted what he said in the movie, "No one at home will believe this." He asked how to spell my name ("Is the second D capitalized?") and was writing this long message. While he was signing mine, Shan asked jokingly what he had learned from working with Pauly Shore. Sean kind of laughed and said, "Um... I'd have to think about that for a while." He gave me my page, and he had written, "DeeDee, If they don't believe you back home, show them the picture + tell them to relax. Thanks for coming to visit! Sean Astin (Sam)"

After that, we knew it was about time for Sean to move on to the other people, because there were quite a few around us now. But he asked what we were studying in school. Shan told him about what she's studying in seminary, and then said, "And DeeDee's just gonna be an English teacher." Sean said, "I agree with everything up to the 'just an English teacher' part." He said how he was an English major, and that English teachers didn't get paid nearly enough. I told him that I'm working on my MA, and that my parents are highschool English teachers. Then we talked about Jane Austen, and how he had visited Jane Austen's home in Bath.

Shan mentioned that her favorite character is Sam, and Sean asked me for my favorite. I told him Eowyn, and he replied, "She's so strong, isn't she?"

After that, we thanked him for his time, and he said, "No, thank you, it always amazes me how much trouble people go to to see me." He started talking and signing autographs for the other people, and at one point, one of the other girls said she was an English major. Sean pointed at me and said, "Hey, DeeDee was an English major too!"

While he was talking to us out in the foyer, he told us that he is planning to film an epic about the Galveston storm of 1900, and that we were the first people he was announcing it to, even before the press. Then he had to go to the press conference, and he invited us in to listen. But the people in charge said that wouldn't work, so he apologized to us and said he'd be back out soon.

He came out later, signed more autographs, and they took him somewhere else before his tribute began. I used the time to call home and gush insanely about what had just happened.

At noon, we went into the auditorium, and we had first row center seats. Sean was introduced by the moderators. First he talked about how he had just sent flowers to his mother for her last night performing on Broadway. Then he talked about a movie he tried to make when he was a little kid, called "The Enchanted Dreamer," and how he wanted his dad to be in it.

Next he described his first acting lesson. He was filming a movie with his mother, where he played an abused child. He started giggling during the scene where she was "abusing" him, and she pulled him aside and lectured him about how she took a chance on him, etc. He started crying, and the director shot the scene. Then his mother told him, "That's acting!"

After that story, they showed two clips from Goonies. Everyone was cheering and clapping really loudly. Then Sean talked about how they had filmed the two scenes we saw. The first was the map scene where he tells the story about the pirates, and Sean told us that the speech was written for someone else, but the director gave it to him. He just told Sean the story and then wanted Sean to retell it in sort of a rambling, impromptu kind of way. The other scene was the one in the wishing well, and Sean just described how originally, it was shot with Mikey looking down at the others, and Spielberg changed it to have him looking up at everyone.

At one point during this time, he poured himself a glass of water, but before he drank it, he offered it to each of the moderators on his sides. He said something about the importance of courtesy, and how so few people cared about it anymore.

They showed a clip from Memphis Belle, where Sean's character bores a woman at some kind of party. Sean laughed and said, "Just so you know, I've been married for ten years, I do know how to pick up girls!" After that was a Toy Soldiers clip, and right when it started, Sean exclaimed, "the naked one?!" Apparently he's naked in that movie, I haven't seen it. But everyone was laughing.

After that, the moderator asked him about the impact of 9/11. He told us how on that morning, he was worried about his friends in the Pentagon, and also because Elijah had taken a plane from NY to LA. Sean talked about his relief at finding out that his Pentagon friends and Elijah were safe. He also recommended Bowling for Columbine. He talked a bit about politics and his role on the presidential council, then stressed that while he was in New Zealand, he had realized his role as an American filmmaker.

Then came his official announcement of his plan for the Galveston film, for which his company, Lava Entertainment, optioned the rights to Isaac's Storm. It's going to be an epic kind of love story, and he's been working on it for three years. He said that it would be filmed on location in Texas, which got a lot of cheers. And the woman who wrote the screenplay is the wife of the guy who filmed and took our pictures with Sean!

Next they showed a funny clip from Encino Man, where he gets stapled to a wall, and a great clip from Rudy, where he first goes into the locker room and stands on the stool. People cheered really loudly for that clip. Sean mentioned how he thought Jerry Goldsmith's score for that film was beautiful, and never got an Oscar nomination.

After that, we saw a couple of LotR clips, where Gandalf throws him on the table, and then the scene with him running out to the boat. People were cheering so loudly we missed the first several lines of the clip.

Then they showed his short film, which he filmed on the LotR set, "The Long and Short of It." People were cheering when they saw PJ driving the bus, and laughing during the credits, whenever they saw the names of Elijah, Dom, Billy, and the others. When the film ended, they presented him with the Texas Film Festival award for best short film. Sean talked briefly about how he and Dom had come up with the idea of the film. Originally, it was Dom's idea to have the three changing a lightbulb. He mentioned how excited PJ was about being in the film. He also said that the last part of the credits had a message for his wife ("I love you, Christine!"), because for some reason when they screened it for us, it cut off the very end of the credits.

Next was the question and answer time. The first person asked him about Brian Bansgrove, to whom his short film was dedicated. Sean explained that Brian had worked with Andrew Lesnie on the lighting for LotR, and had killed himself last year.

The next person asked him about directing the helicopters, and he hung his head and laughed. Shan asked him for his favorite rule of Tig, and he said he really didn't know, because he always preferred Cup - "any old Dixie cup will do." He was asked to show his tattoo, and he took off his shoe and sock and showed it to us, on his ankle. But we weren't allowed to take pictures.

He talked about his injury with the glass in his foot, and about another time when an Elven loom fell on his head and knocked him out. He said the swelling was so bad, it was pushing up his wig. A girl from the "Texas Ringers" presented him with some kind of pin. A girl asked (in a subtle way) if he thought Sam and Frodo had a homosexual relationship, and he said no. He mentioned the bit from the DVD material about how Ian reminded him to hold Frodo's hand in Rivendell. He said "Mr. Frodo" in his Sam voice, and everyone went "Awww!" and Sean laughed. He was asked for the pros and cons of being an actor and a director, and he mentioned that he likes being a director because he's a control freak.

A little girl stepped up with her question written down and asked in the sweetest voice, "What did you think when you saw yourself transformed as a hobbit?" It was so cute, and Sean gave her the warmest answer about what it was like to see himself so small. That's the picture below of him looking down at his palm.

Another person asked if he had ever seen the Very Secret Diaries, and he laughed and said he had. Then he said how most of that online stuff was "all about Orlando and how cute he is." And someone yelled, "Viggo!" Some people started whistling and cheering, and Sean laughed and said, "Yes, Viggo. And they always tell me how beauuutiful Elijah's eyes are. But one of the crew once told me, 'If you want your man true - Sam's your man."

Everyone cheered, and then he had to leave immediately to catch his plane. As he walked out, he said, "I'm going to come back! That's a promise, and you know how I am about promises, Mr. Frodo!"

Sean flew in right before the tribute, and then had to leave right after it. I'm so grateful to him for finding a few hours in his hectic schedule to allow us this experience. I had never met anyone famous, and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. I can't imagine any man being more kind or generous than Sean Astin. =)