Actor Mackenzie Astin Finds A New 'Life'

'Facts Of Life' Alum Talks About His New Show, His Famous Parents, And The Lessons He's Learned

Dear Readers: Welcome to my new readers at Sacramento's NBC KCRA Channel 3! And thanks to all of you who write to me each week. It-kai Chng, a student at the University of California-Santa Barbara, is a particularly big fan of this week's interviewee, Mackenzie Astin. It-kai, Mackenzie read your letter and appreciated your kind words. He sent a personalized picture to you.

Acting is in Mackenzie Astin's blood. Literally. His mother is Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke and his father is actor John Astin of "Addams Family" fame. Big brother Sean Astin starred in the title role of the feature "Rudy."

But these family ties aside, Mac, as his friends call him, stands on his own merits. Landing his first gig at the age of 9, Astin went on to win our hearts playing Andy Moffett in the hit series "The Facts of Life."

After leaving show biz to continue his education, Astin returned in 1993, starring in Disney's "Iron Will." Since that whopping success, he's costarred in "The Evening Star" with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson, "The Last Days of Disco" with Chloe Sevigny and "In Love and War" opposite Sandra Bullock and Chris O'Donnell.

Today, Astin is once again geared for prime time. You heard it here first: Astin just landed a starring role in the hot new NBC pilot "This Life," based on the British series of the same name.

Family Affair
"It's worked out pretty well so far," Astin says of his show biz career.

He met me at the Insomnia Cafe on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. The joint lives up to its name. Inside, aspiring screenwriters high on lattes pluck away at their laptops.

Astin and I sit outside, thankful for a break in the recent series of L.A. rainstorms.

Astin has a natural energy and charisma that is contagious. Physically, he is a handsome guy who favors his mother around the eyes.

I ask him if it's been a burden or blessing having parents who have been successful in show business. Coincidentally, he's just come from an audition where it seemed to come in handy.

"I just had an audition for Neil Simon and the director Richard Benjamin," Astin says. "The first thing they said was, 'Are you any relation to John Astin?' And that's the best.

"A couple of times it's been weird. But for the most part, it's terrific," the actor says of having famous parents. "The generation that's older than ours likes (my parents) and are comfortable with them."

Astin says many people have watched his mother on television or in films all their lives.

He says people tell him, "I grew up with your mom." He smiles and tells them, "Oh, so did I."

But Astin's success has been all his own. It's been his talent, not his family connections, that has fueled his career.

Just The Facts
For four seasons, Astin played preppie Andy Moffett on the hit NBC sitcom "The Facts of Life."

"('The Facts of Life') is where I grew up," Astin says. "George Clooney was on the show for two years. There was a guy named Ryan Cassidy, five girls and myself."

Astin says he still keeps in touch with the cast. Some of them had a reunion about two years ago.

"It was most fun for me because I was the one who'd had the most dramatic change," Astin says. "Kim (Fields) and Lisa (Whelchel) and I were the only ones who were there. Nancy (McKeon) was working and Mindy (Cohn) had something else to do.

"Everyone is doing well," he says of his former castmates. "Lisa's married to a reverend and has kids. Her kids are beautiful."

And on which "Facts of Life" co-star did Astin have a crush?

"I always had a crush on Mindy (who played Natalie)," he says. "People expect me to have a crush on Lisa or Nancy McKeon. No, no, I liked Mindy."

After "Facts" ended its nine-year run, Astin took time off for high school.

He says he was humbled by the experience out of the spotlight because he "went through the ugly part of adolescence." His self-confidence was also shot when realized he wasn't going to be as good a baseball player as he thought he would be.

He says taking time off from acting was good for him "as a person."

Screen Saver
When Astin finally did return to the screen, he did so with a hit.

After contemplating a journalism major at Johns Hopkins, Astin returned to show business in the triumphant film "Iron Will" in 1993.

The movie has become a new Disney classic, and Astin likes the film because of its strong message: "If you believe strongly in yourself you can accomplish anything."

It is themes like those that seem to inspire Astin the most.

I ask him about his part in the powerful movie "Selma, Lord Selma," about the U.S. civil rights movement.

"That role choose me, thankfully," Astin says. "I would have chosen it had I had the opportunity. But they approached me and I was thankful for that because that was another unbelievably mind-blowing experience getting to relive some of the instances that took place during the '60s.

"Meeting Yolanda King, Martin Luther King's daughter, and being able to have exchanges with her and going to the civil rights museum in Selma, Ala., which was an absolutely religious experience," affected him greatly, Astin says.

"(My co-stars and I were) sobbing like crazy while a lady is giving a testimonial," he says. "It was a really fortunate experience."

And what about his other high-powered roles? I tell him that I loved Whit Stillman's 1998 "The Last Days of Disco."

"That was great because I got to play somebody who I am ideologically opposed to -- that being the pretty, well-bred and well-subsidized Republican-type character," Astin says. "And I found I didn't like myself at the end of the day because I didn't care for the guy I was playing. I learned a little bit about acting in that."

Astin says he also learned a lot from his 1996 "Evening Star" costar, screen legend and new age enthusiast Shirley MacLaine.

"She was intimidating at first," Astin says of MacLaine. "But I had a lot of questions for her other than show business because I kind of dig where she's coming from ethereally."

But who is the "nicest" Hollywood heavy hitter that Astin has met?

Astin says that would be Richard Attenborough, who directed him opposite Chris O'Donnell and Sandra Bullock in the feature "In Love and War."

"He is probably the nicest man I have ever met," Astin says. "And it is so genuine. There isn't a negative bone in his body."

Oh, and the charming Bullock wasn't too bad either, he says.

I would think not.

Prime Of His Life
Astin just landed one of the hottest NBC pilots for next season, "This Life."

"'This Life' was originally a show overseas," he says. "It's about five lawyers in the same house, all of whom went to school together and now reconnecting in the working environment."

The show is being developed by Studios USA for NBC.

Astin and I have talked non-stop for two hours and it's time to go. I'm certain that a few writers inside the Insomnia have had time to finish a whole screenplay.

But hanging with Astin is like shooting the breeze with your best bro. Smart and funny, Astin is no spoiled Hollywood kid.

Simply put, Astin is a cool guy with a whole lot of talent and a future that is definitely all his own.

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