Elijah Wood Says ‘Lord of the Rings’ Orc Was Designed to Resemble Harvey Weinstein “As A Sort of F*ck You”

Elijah Wood stopped by Dax Shephard‘s Armchair Expert podcast on Monday, and dropped some standout Lord of the Rings trivia: Director Peter Jackson designed one of the film trilogy’s orcs to look like Harvey Weinstein “as a sort of fuck you” to the former film producer and convicted sexual assaulter.

Jackson began developing Lord of the Rings at Miramax under Weinstein’s supervision, but the two soon came into conflict when Weinstein insisted Jackson only helm one film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. Jackson wanted to direct at least two films under the studio, reportedly leading to Weinstein threatening to replace him with Quentin Tarantino or Shakespeare in Love‘s John Madden. He eventually agreed to make a two-part, $75-million movie, but Jackson ultimately worked with Bob Shaye at New Line Cinema instead.

“I think the lore is that they were coming with two, and it was Bob Shaye who said, ‘We have to do three,’ which is insane,” Wood said. “An incredible risk. Miramax thought there was no chance in hell.”

Wood added: “It’s funny, this was recently spoken about because Dom [Monagahan] and Bill [Boyd] have a podcast, The Friendship Onion. They were talking to Sean Astin about his first memory of getting to New Zealand [to film Lord of the Rings]. He had seen these orc masks. And one of the orc masks — and I remember this vividly — was designed to look like Harvey Weinstein as a sort of fuck you.”

“I think that is okay to talk about now, the guy is fucking incarcerated,” Wood concluded. “Fuck him.”

Where to watch Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring