The 4K edition of The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogy are set to come out this December, a lot of new attention is coming back to the franchise—especially with the upcoming release of Amazon's LOTR series.
In a recent appearance on CinemaBlend's ReelBlend podcast, Samwise Gamgee actor Sean Astin talks a bit about a ‘brutal' experience he had acting for director Peter Jackson.
"The most painful thing Peter Jackson ever said to me… you know, he's a man of few words. He's a very, very stoic guy. He can be performative when he wants to, or needs to. He can act things out, and he's very eloquent and so forth. But on a day-to-day basis, Peter Jackson is basically like a quiet guy. He sort of lets the work do the talking, and his direction was always very minimal. Mostly his direction would be, ‘Let's do it again.' … But he came up to me at one point and he looked at me and he said, ‘I just didn't believe that.' Oh my God, he might as well have -- it was like a Mortal Kombat death blow. It was like he ripped my hair off of my body, and my spine came out with. … [But] it was, it was true. It was true that I was not invested, that I was out of it. I was out of character. I was out of the mood. I was out of... I just wasn't there."
Though Astin didn't say which specific scene Jackson told him he wasn't doing better, he did say it happened while they were shooting Fellowship of the Ring. If anything, Jackson probably did something right, because Sam was probably one of the best—if not the best—character in the entire trilogy, and I can't help but tear up whenever he has his moments.
Astin's Samwise days may be over, but his performance is going to be enjoyed by audiences for generations to come. We don't know if he'll ever get a role like that again, but Astin does have a penchant for likable characters—just look at Bob from Stranger Things.
Catch Astin in The Lord of the Rings trilogy when it comes out on 4K UHD on December 1.
Read Also: Sam Gamgee Actor Sean Astin Announces Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies 4K UHD Release
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Lord of the Rings