Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has revealed that he had to sell his house at the time because he didn’t make enough money.
During a recent interview with The Guardian, Astin, who now serves as the national president of the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, opened up about finding fame in the early 2000s when the Peter Jackson-directed film franchise became a global phenomenon, grossing $2.9 billion at the worldwide box office.
“I was not prepared for that level of visibility and access,” Astin admitted. “And there was a disconnect between the attention that I was getting and how much money we had. It was not a lot of money!”
“In fact, I had to sell my house because I negotiated such a small amount on the trilogy,” the actor added. He previously shared on the Jim and Sam Show in 2017 that he earned “$75,000 a movie,” which would make his salary for the whole trilogy around $250,000.
Despite becoming one of the highest-grossing film series of all time, Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins, told Business Insider last year that the production company New Line Cinema took “a real gamble” financially, filming all three movies at once. As a result, the ensemble cast did not receive “massive salaries.”
“Because we weren’t making one movie and then renegotiating a contract for the next, it wasn’t the sort of lucrative scenario that you could sort of rest easy for the rest of your life,” Wood explained, adding that the trade-off was “that we were also signing up for something that was going to be a part of our lives forever.”
It’s been over two decades since The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003) hit theaters, and Astin told The Guardian that he’s “very comfortable financially now.”
As for what’s next for the franchise, Lord of the Rings: Hunt for Gollum is currently in development from director Andy Serkis, while another installment with the working title The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is also being co-written by Stephen Colbert.
Astin hasn’t been confirmed to reprise his role, but he said, “I don’t think anybody is opposed to it. We’d all love to connect to those characters, particularly if it’s done with such sensitivity as we heard.” As for whether he’ll fight for better pay this time, he added, “Goddam right.”
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