So put this on my Christmas list. Sean Astin (Aka Samwise in the Lord of the Rings films), has writen a book, entitled There and Back Again : An Actor’s Tale, about his experiences on set over 5 years. I want one! Stuff recently interviewed Sean about the book. Here’s an excerpt:
He worried constantly that his part, as Frodo’s sidekick and the ultimate hero of the film, was not being given enough prominence. And he was shocked by his $250,000 contract, despite his huge desire to be part of the trilogy.
“All right,” he writes. “I can live with that. Three movies . . . that’s $750,000. I’m covered for the next three years.”
“Uh, Sean?” his agent says.
“Yeah?”
“The offer is $250,000 – total.”
Astin, who is back in New Zealand this month working on US TV series Hercules, says he and the other actors never talked about money on set, although his book records his frustration with the 12-hour days and 18 months of filming.
Besides being what I believe to be the single greatest accomplishment on film, the behind the scenes stories of Rings should be really interesting. I can’t wait to get a copy.
I came across this site and couldn’t help but add a note. I came across the following on imdb:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/trivia
“The hobbit actors, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan received bonuses of between 430,000 and 560,000 per film.”
I read that when it came time to promote the film and reshoot alot of the scenes, the actors made the studio pay up. Big time!
From what I understand, ALL the actors in the trilogy were able to have their agents negotiate a nice fat BONUS CHECK due to the success of the films. And they certainly deserve a FAT BONUS CHECK in my opinion. And hopefully they’ll get a piece of dvd rental, cable tv both north american and foreign and network tv. If not, THESE ACTORS NEED NEW REPRESENTATION.
Crystal
(no, I am not a talent agent)
I’ve got two words for actors as far as salary negotiations are concerned:
Back End
That really stinks, actually I ran the numbers and if you use 6 day work weeks at 12 hours a day X 18 months that’s less than $37/hr… and that’s all straight time, no overtime.
Yikes.
As John says, I hope Sean makes some good decisions that allow him to capitalize on LOTR.
Vic
Add this to my Christmas list as well, but I really hope that there isn’t much ‘Rings’ bashing in it. I’m a big fan of the movies and I always hate it when I find out bad behind the scenes info on projects that I like.
BTW, I met Sean Astin at last year’s Wizard World Convention in Chicago and he was a super cool guy. I was sitting in a bar with some friends and one calls out “Hey Sean,” as he walked by. He turned around, came over to the table, shook everyone’s hand and posed for a couple of pics. He then made the rounds in the bar, hanging out for over an hour.
Marc Bowker
Alter Ego Comics
New action figures and collectibles at fair prices.
Yeah Rob, but you won’t be world famous and get TONS of more acting jobs either… like Astin will. His career is now set for life as long as he’s not stupid about it and plays his cards right. He’ll make millions just off this book.
That’s like $57 and hour. When I do contract work, I make $75 and hour, and I don’t work 12 hour days for 18 months!
Bummer, Sean.
I didn’t like the Lord of the Rings movies. I thought the characters were shallow, and I didn’t agree with Peter Jackson’s decisions as a director. I thought it had too many eye-candy moments that he was trying to shove down my throat.
Interesting to see that maybe I’m not the only one in the world that may have thought the characters were bad.
theres like 1 or 2 studios that do actually pay performance bonus to the actors and thats only if they had some mucho directors like spielberg to push for those bonuses.
most studios are like any other big corporation. they would wave your contract in your face before paying you extra.
the other recent case was for spiderman 2. they almost got a new spidey when tobey wanted more or else. the truth is no studio is gonna budge if you play hardball with them.
they are not santa claus.
Tricky one that. I think the Star Wars actors, who were practically all first timers got v. little money too didn’t they?
But I agree, after the film has proved it’s worth they should pay him some dosh now.
That’s obviously one of the bummers when making 3 film rolled into one. No re-negotiation after each film does well.
I’d think you could manage to get him a performance bonus, even if it’s not in the contract. In the final analysis there’s nothing stopping New Line from saying “we have decided to give Sean Astin one… million… dollars!”
I suppose you could claim it would set a bad precedent, but really, the trilogy is a special case.
yes it was a sad thing to hear about his pay. that movie made and is still making loads of money. sean was underpaid.
but i also understood the side of the studio. when they made this, they really have no idea if this movie is gonna suck or not suck, everyone thought it was going to suck going in. particularly because they have no idea what and how this will look like. taking an relatively previouly unknown company like WETA didnt rise the confidence level.
there was a very low confidence level in the beginning especially towards peter jackson whose movies before LOTR were hardly impressive.
thus the shooting of the trilogy back to back. and the lump-sum way the actors were paid.
it was blind territory.
but when the first one came out and blew everybody’s expectations, then it was a whole new ballgame.
unfortunately, by then, all 3 movies were already shot and contracts were already signed. so nothing could be changed.
what had previously put on low expectation managed to blew everybody away.
if you look back when the first LOTR came out, no body gave peter jackson any recognition, no oscars no globes. there was fan recognition, yes. but he was still not accepted in the top echelon of directors yet.
it wasnt until the return of the king when peter was really heralded as the best.
i think not everybody got a huge paycheck out of this. but their agents are just grateful they got to be a part of this and keeping their mouths shut. thats why for king kong they are getting a bigger paychecks this time.\