Sean Astin earned $250K for Lord of the Rings and had to sell his house

Sean Astin revealed in an interview with The Guardian that he earned just $250,000 for the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, playing Samwise Gamgee in Peter Jackson's landmark films. The pay was so low that he was forced to sell his house during the height of the films' fame in the early 2000s. Astin admitted he negotiated a very small amount for the trilogy.