However, that wasn’t the case for this team, and Sean Astin is making that fact go viral again with his latest comments on the salary he was paid to play Samwise Gamgee. There’s no doubting the impact The Lord of the Rings movies had and the global success they were (and honestly, still are, as people continue to stream them with an HBO Max subscription ). So, the juxtaposition of that with Astin having to sell his house because of his salary for these movies is quite jarring. Latest Videos From Cinemablend Watch full video here:At this point, it’s well known that the cast wasn’t paid well for these movies. So, now the question becomes: Would Astin ever return to play Sam?