Frodo Baggins actor Elijah Wood said Monday that an iconic, ugly orc from “The Lord of the Rings” (LOTR) was designed to look like disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.
Wood said that after director Peter Jackson finally got the trilogy away from Miramax — which was then run by Bob and Harvey Weinstein — one of the orcs was made to look like Weinstein as a sort of “fuck you.” (RELATED: It’s The Perfect Time To Watch ‘The Lord Of The Rings.’ Here’s Where You Can Stream The Series)
LISTEN (1:24:30):
On the actor Dax Shepard’s podcast, “Armchair Expert,” Wood discussed the reports that Weinstein, who originally owned the rights, had pushed for LOTR to be a single film at Miramax. Jackson argued in favor of dividing the trilogy the way the books were divided, which prompted Weinstein to threaten to replace him as director.
Jackson eventually took the project to New Line Cinema, which at the time was small enough that taking on such a project essentially risked the entire studio. Producer Bob Shaye signed on as well.
In another recent podcast hosted by LOTR actors Billy Boyd (who played Pippin) and Dominic Monaghan (who played Merry), Samwise Gamgee actor Sean Astin mentioned the resemblance between one of the orcs and Weinstein.
WATCH:
“There was one that looked like Harvey Weinstein. It was an absolute, photo-real image of Harvey Weinstein on this villainous Uruk-hai rubber suit, the mask or whatever. I didn’t know if I was supposed to say anything,” Astin said.
Wood confirmed to Shepard that was absolutely intentional.
A ‘Lord of the Rings’ orc was designed to look like Harvey Weinstein as a ‘f*ck you’ from director Peter Jackson https://t.co/SsS80CTrmZ
— UPROXX (@UPROXX) October 5, 2021
“One of the orc masks — and I remember this vividly — was designed to look like Harvey Weinstein as a sort of a fuck you,” he said. “I think that is OK to talk about now, the guy is fucking incarcerated. Fuck him.”