Every once in a while, a new fun fact about the production of The Lord of the Rings trilogy is unearthed, and then the fan community obsesses intensely over it until a new fun fact comes along. Recently, one of these trivia facts weirdly puts Hugo Weaving talking to himself in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. As it turns out, he has not only one, but rather two roles in that movie. This secret second character isn’t as obvious as Elrond, though, and it takes some paying attention to see it — or, better yet, hear it — but, once you find it, you’ll just have to point it out to anyone who’ll listen.

Hugo Weaving Voices Isildur in the Character’s Only Line in the Trilogy

Isildur (Harry Sinclair) is perhaps the most important character in the Second Age of Middle-earth, being the man who refuses to cast the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom and end the threat of Sauron once and for all. The prologue sequence in The Fellowship of the Ring shows how he cuts the relic off the Dark Lord’s hand, and, later, Elrond recounts leading Isildur into the mountain to destroy the One Ring, but he is turned down. Everyone remembers Isildur’s now-corrupt features as he looks at Elrond and tells him: “No.”

However, the voice that says “no” doesn’t belong to Harry Sinclair, who plays Isildur, but to Hugo Weaving. It takes a lot of reviewing the scene, cranking up the volume, and paying attention to it, but, after all that, one can confirm that the voice that comes out of Isildur’s mouth is indeed Hugo Weaving’s. So, in that scene, Elrond, played by Weaving, tells Isildur to throw the One Ring into the fire, and Isildur, voiced by Weaving, refuses. It’s the only moment in the trilogy where two characters voiced by the same actor talk to one another.

This scene is arguably the most important moment in the Second Age, and playing it on the big screen is a huge honor, but, although it’s Harry Sinclair who we see playing Isildur, it’s not him who we hear voicing Isildur. What makes the whole thing ever weirder is that this line is actually the only line Isildur has in the whole trilogy, consisting of a single word, and still, it isn’t his interpreter’s voice that we hear.

Harry Sinclair’s Voice Didn’t Sound “Corrupt Enough” for Peter Jackson

The reason why Peter Jackson decided not to go with Harry Sinclair’s voice for his character’s only line in the trilogy is just as weird as the fact itself, but it makes some sense. They are actually good friends, and Sinclair has been part of other Jackson movies before, too. Although there’s no official confirmation, it’s widely known among fans that Jackson cast him as Isildur because Sinclair was the most “corrupt-looking” person he knew, and everyone thinks of Isildur almost as the definition of the One Ring’s corruption.

There was just one problem. Sinclair may look corrupt, according to Jackson, but he doesn’t sound it. This isn’t hard to confirm, since he has speaking roles in other Peter Jackson films, like one of his earliest comedy horrors, 1992’s Dead Alive (or Braindead). There is nothing wrong with his voice, but Jackson didn’t think Sinclair sounded “corrupt enough” for Isildur. So he turned to Hugo Weaving, who recorded the word “no” in ADR, which Jackson then used to replace Sinclair’s voice in The Fellowship of the Ring.

In the context of the movie, however, replacing Sinclair’s voice with Weaving’s actually works, but for a completely different reason. When we hear it, it’s part of a flashback sequence in which Elrond recounts to Gandalf (Ian McKellen) the events of that fateful day, and Weaving’s voice works as Elrond himself remembering what Isildur said, so it makes sense we’d hear Elrond’s voice coming out of Isildur’s mouth. Whether that was what Peter Jackson intended remains unknown, but the fact is that, in the end, everything worked out perfectly — except for Sinclair, perhaps.

The Lord of the Rings Fans Have a Never-Ending Thirst for Fun Facts About the Movie’s Production

Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy truly is a gift that keeps on giving in the sense that there are always new, fun facts, like Hugo Weaving having two roles, to be discovered. Any movie’s production is a complex process, but the trilogy’s was an even longer and more demanding one, so new factoids like this are constantly being unearthed. This has even become a source of merriment for the fans, who turn these things into huge inside jokes, so, from now on, you bet that everyone will point out that Isildur’s voice is actually Elrond’s every time you watch The Fellowship of the Ring.

Another great example of how this works is the scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when Aragorn kicks a severed Orc’s head and lets out a loud scream. While that may simply seem like great acting on Viggo Mortensen’s part (and it is, indeed), that scream was partly because he broke his toe kicking the prop at that moment, and fans feel compelled to point it out to anyone who’ll listen every time they watch it. These silly customs are part of the joys of being fans of something, and, truth be told, The Lord of the Rings is among the silliest out there in the best way possible. If you weren’t part of it, dear reader, now you are, and this has become your mission, too.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is available to stream on HBO Max.