Steven Spielberg Walked Out of Sean Astin’s Goonies Audition. Then Their Relationship Took a Turn

Astin was among the stars of the beloved 1985 film reunited at Awesome Con 2025 in Washington, D.C.

Even Oscar nominees like Sean Astin have tough audition stories.

During Awesome Con’s “Hey You Guys! The Goonies Reunion” panel discussion and fan Q&A in Washington, D.C., which was moderated by PEOPLE’s Breanne L. Heldman on Saturday, April 5, Astin opened up about his somewhat rocky road to the film, in which he eventually starred.

“So the audition I had, I kept messing up,” he said. “And at a certain point Steven Spielberg got up and walked out. And I was like, ‘Well I’ll never work again.’ ” Spielberg crafted the story for the beloved 1985 film, and his company, Amblin Entertainment, produced it.

But then, director Richard Donner approached the young actor.

“He got on his knee, put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye and said, ‘This is what I want you to do,’ ” Astin, 54, recalled. “And he just told me what to do and as he was talking talking to me, I stopped worrying about stuff and we did it. And when it was over, he had this look of satisfaction, like, ‘I can get a performance out of this kid.’ “

Astin, of course, got the part of Mikey, joining actors including Ke Huy Quan, Corey Feldman, Martha Plimpton, Kerri Green, Robert Davi, Josh Brolin and Joe Pantoliano in the film, which marks 40 years in June.

Speaking to Today while in D.C. over the weekend, Astin said that at one point, Spielberg sent him a poster that reads, ‘I’m Still a Goonie, How ‘Bout You?’

“He’s wanted to make the sequel,” Astin added of a long-awaited second film, which was recently confirmed by Warner Bros. “And he’s the sole reason it hasn’t been made now because it hasn’t been right. The fact that he is endorsing this next thing is why we know it’s going to happen and why it has every chance to be spectacular.”

The cast, however, remains to be seen. “They’re doing it,” Feldman, 53, said of Spielberg and Chris Columbus, who wrote the original script. “Whether we’re doing it or not is a different story. If they come to us, we’ll consider it at that time.”

The actors spoke to the “magic” of their film, which Feldman said was came from the “moral of the story.”

“It’s a bunch of kids trying to save their families, trying to save their friendships and trying to keep their community strong,” he shared.

For Green, 58, it was the fact that the actors “really were like a family,” she said. “A big, dysfunctional but loving family.”