{"id":557,"date":"2026-07-14T11:08:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=557"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:08:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:08:34","slug":"for-sean-astin-its-see-and-be-seen-on-c-span","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=557","title":{"rendered":"For Sean Astin, it\u2019s see and be seen \u2026 on C-SPAN"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It wasn\u2019t Sean Astin\u2019s first time in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a C-SPAN junkie and a guy who loved \u2018West Wing,\u2019 I\u2019ve always just felt a reverence for this place,\u201d the actor says.<\/p>\n

Read more South Carolina governor picks Graham\u2019s sister to serve out his term<\/a><\/p>\n

Between roles in \u201cThe Goonies,\u201d \u201cRudy\u201d and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he managed to fit in a stint as civilian aide to the secretary of the Army. Just a couple years ago, he earned a master\u2019s degree in public administration and policy at American University.<\/p>\n

But his latest part to play \u2014 as president of SAG-AFTRA \u2014 brought him to D.C. this summer on a different mission, as he pushes for change on behalf of the union representing roughly 160,000 actors, dancers, DJs, stunt performers and other media professionals.<\/p>\n

He wants to expand a tax deduction for performing artists\u2019 expenses, create a federal tax incentive to lure productions back from filming abroad, and counter deepfakes by defining intellectual property rights in voice and likeness.<\/p>\n

He may be a performer by trade, but he\u2019s always enjoyed some in-the-weeds reading.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in New Zealand when Bush v. Gore happened, and when that decision came down from the court, I printed it out. It was like 64 pages, and sitting in my Hobbit feet \u2014 there\u2019s a lot of waiting around on the set, you know \u2014 I read this whole thing,\u201d says Astin, who played the loyal Samwise Gamgee to Elijah Woods\u2019 Frodo.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s jumping in with both feet. He succeeded Fran Drescher last fall as leader of the union, joining a list of famous Screen Actors Guild heads like a pre-presidency Ronald Reagan and Astin\u2019s own mother, the Oscar-winning Patty Duke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI care about this stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cMy parents bred that in me from a very young age. I remember the first time I came to Capitol Hill. I was probably 3 or 4, and they took a picture of me in front of the Lincoln Memorial above the reflecting pool where there\u2019s cement kind of pedestals, and I jumped off of it. The picture has me in the air with my hair up, one of those 1970s kids with long hair, and that image is like \u2014 that\u2019s who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited and condensed. To hear more, check out the Political Theater podcast.<\/p>\n

Q: You\u2019ve been making the rounds in D.C. this summer, talking about issues like AI and the tax code.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: A few weeks ago, I was really tired at the end of a couple of days of shoe-leathering it through the halls of the Congress on the marble floors. So I got back to the hotel room and I turned on the TV, and there was a wonky hearing on C-SPAN, and I just watched like two hours of a tax subcommittee.<\/p>\n

Q: How do you make the case for tax breaks for Hollywood?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: If it has the word Hollywood attached to it, it\u2019s instantly reviled by a certain section today. But if you take that word out, and you put in the entertainment industry \u2014 the word industry connotes labor. You\u2019ve got workers pushing dollies and putting up lights, along with our performers.<\/p>\n

Our line of work should not be considered a hobby, and it should not be considered a frivolity. This is real work that real people are doing. But there are quirks of our industry. You need an agent, and that agent takes 10 percent. And a lot of times, if you don\u2019t have a manager, you\u2019re not going to be able to triangulate on a job, so there\u2019s another 10 percent. Now you talk about a number of other expenses, and next thing you know, you\u2019re making 25 cents on the dollar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Trump informs Congress of renewed military action against Iran<\/a><\/p>\n

Q: What about incentives to help America keep exporting movies to the world?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: It\u2019s not one of our biggest exports, but it\u2019s one of our most special. American entertainment over the last 100 years has been a brand for us. Policymakers can talk about certain kinds of movies that promote values they don\u2019t care for, but mostly speaking, they and their families love the romantic comedies, the action films.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of us should be really proud of this American art form. You know, I did a movie in Bulgaria, just two or three days, and when I came onto the studio lot, it looked amazing. It looked exactly like Warner Brothers in Los Angeles, where I\u2019m from. All the lights were on, and it just had that electricity that you have when you\u2019re around movies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s happening in Budapest. It\u2019s happening in New Zealand, where we did Lord of the Rings. Canada\u2019s got big incentives, and basically all over the world, there are governments saying, \u201cPlease come film.\u201d They\u2019ll build a studio over there, and that means fewer jobs for our performers, for our background artists and stunt people and singers and dancers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: In <\/strong>June <\/strong>you testified in front of the <\/strong>House Judiciary subcommittee<\/strong>that deals with intellectual property, chaired by California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: The legislation we were talking about is the No FAKES Act, and it would establish for the first time an individual intellectual property right in voice and likeness.<\/p>\n

We performers, when we have a contract, we\u2019re trading our likeness and voice. That\u2019s what they\u2019re paying us for \u2014 and so when you do a deepfake of somebody, you\u2019re going to interrupt that commerce. But it actually is applicable to everyone, every American.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve had to work with different constituency groups to make sure the First Amendment is safe, so there\u2019s all these carveouts for satire, for commentary, for news. The politicians are mindful of the protection of political speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My argument is if you have a facsimile of me saying something about some hot-button issue, you\u2019ve now robbed me of my First Amendment right not to say something, or my right to say the opposite of that. And if you\u2019re a parent and you see your kid has been deepfaked, what\u2019s your recourse right now? Nothing. The platforms take it down if it deals with sexually explicit stuff, but the rest of it, there\u2019s no recourse. So this would allow them to say, \u201cHey, that\u2019s not me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: How does this compare to your past experiences in Washington?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I\u2019m an expert in performance, but I\u2019m not an expert in intellectual property or AI. My personality is I just don\u2019t want to be unprepared, so I was reading and reading and reading until I really felt like I could speak to what\u2019s at stake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our union does not take positions on individual political campaigns. We try to remain nonpartisan, so whatever happens, we still have an ability to make moves. And our members, they need this.<\/p>\n

Testifying in front of that subcommittee should have been a thrill, because it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever done that. But it was really important, and I was really focused on the substance of it. But when I get on the plane to go back to California, I think I\u2019m going to be like, \u201cWhat just happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Man arrested at Capitol barricade had a gun in his lap, police say<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t Sean Astin\u2019s first time in Washington. \u201cAs a C-SPAN junkie and a guy who loved \u2018West Wing,\u2019 I\u2019ve always just felt a reverence for this place,\u201d the actor says. Between roles in \u201cThe Goonies,\u201d \u201cRudy\u201d and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he managed to fit in a stint as civilian aide to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heard-on-the-hill"],"yoast_head":"\nFor Sean Astin, it\u2019s see and be seen \u2026 on C-SPAN - American Industry Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=557\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For Sean Astin, it\u2019s see and be seen \u2026 on C-SPAN - American Industry Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It wasn\u2019t Sean Astin\u2019s first time in Washington. \u201cAs a C-SPAN junkie and a guy who loved \u2018West Wing,\u2019 I\u2019ve always just felt a reverence for this place,\u201d the actor says. 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