Sean Astin Gained 30 Lbs. of Muscle for ’50 First Dates’

Sean Astin put in a lot of effort to star in 50 First Dates.

On the Nov. 25 episodes of The Drew Barrymore Show, the 53-year-old actor opened up to Barrymore — who starred in the film alongside Adam Sandler — about the physical transformation he endured for the comedy.

“I had to gain like a million pounds to be in The Lord of the Rings because I played a ‘stupid fat hobbit,’ ” he said, noting that’s what Gollum calls his character, Samwise Gamgee, in the three-film series. He appeared in 2001’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2002’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

After the movies, he said, “I lost like 30 pounds.” He went on to appear in season 2 of the Showtime series Jeremiah, which he called “so much fun.”

“And then Adam said, ‘We’d love you to do this. Can you put on 30 pounds?’ ” he said of 50 First Dates. “I was like, oh my God, of course, of course, I’ll put on 30 pounds.”

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Barrymore, 49, expressed her surprise that he had to gain weight because his character, Doug, was “just so muscular.” He explained, “They paid for a trainer and we were in the gym and we’re like eating and lifting weights, which is different than eating and watching TV.”

Astin also revealed that originally he didn’t want to do 50 First Dates. “My whole career is about me not wanting to do stuff and people tell me, ‘You gotta do this’ and then I do it and I was like, oh, that’s good.” 

When 50 First Dates came around, he was tired from Lord of the Rings and excited about his acting and directing work on Jeremiah. “My wife was like, ‘Do that audition.’ She doesn’t generally say stuff like that to me, you know, and when your wife says something to you, you gotta like, listen to it.” he said. “And I was like, ‘I’m tired. I don’t wanna, I read the script. It’s like a great script, but I don’t know what I’m doing in it’ and she goes ‘Do the audition.’”

Astin’s many iconic roles also include an appearance in The Goonies when he was a child actor. He told Barrymore that one of his favorite memories from the set was seeing the large pirate ship that factors into a pivotal plot point. “They really wanted to catch our authentic reaction [to the boat],” he told Barrymore. “The crew was threatened, ‘If you let any of these kids see this ship before we shoot it, you’re fired.’ ”

But, he said, “I snuck and saw it.”

Astin is currently making his Broadway debut in Elf The Musical as Santa. He follows in the footsteps of his mom, Patty Duke, who appeared on Broadway three times. He’ll also appear as Santa in Sabrina Carpenter’s upcoming Netflix Christmas special.