The creative team behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy disliked Harvey Weinstein so much that one of the film’s costumes was designed to be a deliberate dig at the Hollywood mogul, according to actor Elijah Wood.
Weinstein was one of the industry’s biggest powerbrokers before his rape conviction last year, and his Miramax production company had the initial rights to the Lord Of The Rings films.
Elijah, who played Frodo Baggins, told the Armchair Expert podcast that Weinstein had saddled filmmaker Peter Jackson some seemingly impossible conditions for getting the movies made with another studio, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Jackson pulled it off anyway, securing a deal with New Line Cinema for what would become an iconic big-screen franchise.
The director even ended up taking at shot at Weinstein with one of the costumes for the film’s orc characters.
Elijah explained that co-star Sean Astin – who played Samwise Gamgee – had previously revealed in another podcast interview that he spotted the mask when he arrived on the set.
“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 a ‘fuck you’,” Elijah said, according to THR, adding: “I think that is OK to talk about now, the guy is fucking incarcerated. Fuck him.”
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison after his conviction. He is appealing the sentence but is also facing more charges.