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.”
