"I had to sell my house": Sean Astin on tiny fees for filming in "The Lord of the Rings"
Simultaneous filming of the trilogy deprived actors of the opportunity to revise their contracts.
Sean Astin frankly spoke about the financial side of filming "The Lord of the Rings" in an interview with The Guardian. Although Peter Jackson's trilogy became a global phenomenon and grossed over $2.9 billion, the actor who played Samwise Gamgee was forced to sell his house at the height of its popularity.
"I wasn't prepared for that level of public scrutiny. There was a dissonance between the enormous attention on me and how much money we actually had. It wasn't a lot of money at all! Because I negotiated a modest fee for the trilogy, I ended up having to sell my house."
The actor clarified that he received about $75,000 for each of the three films, with total earnings of approximately $250,000. According to him, the main problem was that all three parts were filmed simultaneously. Therefore, the actors could not revise their contracts after the box office success of "The Fellowship of the Ring". Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas, previously spoke about a similar situation: he received about $175,000 for the entire trilogy.
Astin emphasized that today he is "absolutely financially secure", but the period of the films' release was a difficult test for him. The franchise is set to return to the big screen with the film "The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum", directed by Andy Serkis. If Astin is offered to play Sam again, he promised to fight for a much more impressive check:
"Damn right, you can bet on it!"
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