Jon Favreau & Sean Astin: Rudy reunion photo arrives on Instagram

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Published on August 15, 2015 04:08PM EDT

Rudy. Rudy. Rudy. On Friday night at Disney’s D23 fan expo event, Jon Favreau and Sean Astin got together for a brief Rudy reunion, and documented the occasion on Favreau’s Instagram account. “Surprise Rudy reunion,” Favreau wrote.

Released in 1993, Rudy is often cited as one of the best sports movies of the last 25 years. The film starred Astin as the title character, an undersized, underdog football player who dreamed of playing for Notre Dame. (Spoiler: He did, and everyone cried.) Favreau played Rudy’s longtime friend in the film, which also starred a young Vince Vaughn as Rudy’s nemesis.

Favreau would go on to become a successful actor and director after Rudy, and said the movie taught him a lot about being a filmmaker.

“I remember we were filming on the campus on the second floor of the library, I was doing a scene with Sean Astin where we were studying together, and David Anspaugh was directing us,” Favreau wrote during a Reddit AMA in 2014. “In the middle of rehearsal, we heard a loud noise from outside, and we all rushed to the window. One of the condors that was holding a light had toppled over. Everybody was buzzing around and everything had stopped. David asked if everybody was okay, and after he was assured that nobody had been hurt, he pulled the two of us back into the scene, and calmly continued directing us.”

Favreau, who would later direct Iron Man and Chef among other movies, wrote that it was a “real lesson in directing.”

“I realized that he was concerned about this crew, and wants to make sure everybody was okay first and foremost, but he realized that everything was okay, he created a calmness and a focus so we could get back to work,” Favreau continued. “And he was unfazed by the chaos that was swirling around him. I realized it was a director’s job to create a mood and to reassure the people around him. It was a real lesson in leadership as well, and it made me feel very lucky to be working with a guy like him.”

•‘Rudy’ screenwriter Angelo Pizzo brings Texas’ undersized underdog to the big screen

•‘Rudy’: EW review

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