June 2005 By Philip Berk
Does Legolas have legs?
A question Orlando Bloom needs to answer.
Unknown six years ago, the actor burst onto the Red Carpet when Lord of the Rings became an international phenomenon.
Although he was only one of a large cast of exciting new faces, his was the face audiences were drawn to. Suddenly his soulful eyes and chiseled cheekbones graced the cover of teen magazines all over the world.
And before you could say, Hollywood here I come, he was cast in another blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean in which he and not Johnny Depp had the romantic lead.
Still reeling from his fame and good fortune he accepted another coveted role that of Paris in yet another Hollywood blockbuster, Troy.
Where would it all end? you wondered.
Then things came to a crashing halt in 2004 when Haven, a small movie he initiated came and went unnoticed, and his insipid Paris had critics and audiences shaking their heads.
Was he destined to be yet another Transatlantic flash in the pan!
2005 will answer that question
Not only is carrying Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven all by himself but he follows that with the lead in Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown which was supposed to open midyear but has been pushed back to September to qualify for year end awards.
At his press conference for Kingdom he’s still the sweet, ingenuous young man I met four years ago and you can understand why Scott chose him for the role.
“I had worked with him on Black Hawk Down,” he told me, “and found that he has a special quality, a genuine honesty and integrity that seemed most appropriate. His character is very much about doing the right thing, about fairness and chivalry.”
Paul Bettany was first considered for the lead until Orlando was cast.
Ironically, he wasn’t Cameron Crowe’s first choice for Elizabethtown either.
The role was written for Ashton Kutcher, but because of a prior commitment Ashton dropped out.
Meanwhile the buzz on Elizabethtown is extremely positive.
Kingdom of Heaven is Fox’s big summer movie. The world press have converged on Pasadena, a stone’s throw from Los Angeles, where we are all staying at the ritzy Ritz Carlton Hotel
The night before the press conference the director and stars join us at a cocktail party where Orlando arrives, his dog in tow, wearing baggy pants, looking disheveled as if he has just crawled out of bed.
At his press conference the next morning he is again accompanied by the dog but this time he’s been groomed by his publicist.
He asks that we not take pictures of the dog but he is prepared to talk about him.
(He still refuses to talk about his relationship with Kate Bosworth.
Even his publicist, and she’s hers as well, remains mum on the subject.
So tell us about Cidi. (That’s the dog’s name.)
“He’s a smoggy, which is a Bedouin bred dog. I saw him on the streets of Avila which is where we shot the scenes (in Kingdom of Heaven) where my character Balian assumes title to his father’s lands in the Holy Lands. I saw him in the arms of an old man, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s sweet; he’s got a home.’ But then when I went back and he was eating camel dung out of a box, he was just scrawny, running around. So I picked him up, cleaned him up, thinking I would leave him, maybe rehome him. But with a couple of days he was mine. I just couldn’t let him go. He had shots and tests and I brought him back over here, and now he travels pretty much everywhere with me. And he’ll be coming back to England whenever I actually get there.”
Which won’t be till the end of the year since he’s shooting Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 back to back.
(He’s flown from that location to be at the junket.)
How daunting, I ask him, was it to carry a blockbuster like this on his shoulders?
“Being in the hands of a director like Ridley Scott made it a lot easier. He really inspires greatness. He gave a lot of confidence. Balian was a character I could really relate to because unlike the hero in Gladiator where Russell Crowe did a fantastic job, Balian is a reluctant hero. He’s a man who goes on a journey of discovery. It’s a sort of coming of age story, which were things I could relate to. And the pressure of being the lead was made easier by having worked with and observed actors like Viggo Mortensen in Lord of the Rings, Brad Pitt and Eric Bana in Troy, and Johnny Depp in Pirates who all carry movies with grace. So I felt comfortable to be in that position.”
He’s achieved so much celebrity at such an early age.
Does that worry him?
“I know there’s a small window of opportunity that comes your way. And there’ll be another hot young actor. So then you move on to another phase of your career. Whatever that may be. I just want to continue to be a good actor. It’s great for the time being. I know it’s something that’s going to pass. There’ll always be another generation of young girls and young guys who’ll want to pin their hopes and dreams and aspirations onto the next hot young guy. I’ll be a little bit older then and may not have the same appeal, but hopefully I’ll be able to still work and make interesting movies in another context.”
Like Balian In the movie, he he was in his teens when he learned that the man he thought was his father was really his mother’s husband, and that his real father was someone else.
“He wasn’t my blood father,” he volunteers. “He died when I was four, but for a big chunk of my life I thought he was my father.”
His character in Pirates is also searching for a father.
Did he discuss these coincidence with Ridley?
“Bizarre as it may seem, these roles found themselves in my life unconsciously. It’s certainly a coincidence and I have never discussed them with anyone.”
Did he learn respect for women from his mother and sister?
“You’re influence in life by many things. For me I suppose seeing the way people around me behaved — my grandmother was also important — drove manners into me as a kid.”
What qualities does he admire in a woman?
“I most admire an unshakable sense of self. A feeling of confidence that comes with having a sense of self, an understanding of themselves. And with that comes a lightness and humor and grace. And an excitement and enthusiasm for life itself.”
Was he always aware of the effect he has on women?
Turning the question around, he replies, “I was always very fond of women growing up. I always enjoyed the presence and company of women. My mother and my sister very much raised me because my father wasn’t with my mother. That I supposed had some kind of influence.”
But when did he first start noticing that they liked him?
“I don’t know. I was only sixteen when i moved to London. I had a lot of fun being a boy, running around London, and having fun and growing up. It was a good time in my life. I had left home. I was pretty much on my own. Just enjoying life and my studies and meeting girls and going out. So I was always quite comfortable. Does that answer your question?
No.
“It’ll have to do though, won’t it,” he replies good naturedly.,
French actress Eva Green plays his love interest in the movie. She was the only woman in the set.
Did he take care of her?
“She didn’t need any pointers from me,” he responds.
(When I asked her at an earlier press conference if she bonded with him the way she had with her two costars in The Dreamers, she shook her head.
Remembering that at the time he was in a relationship with Kate Bosworth, I correct myself, but she looks at me in disbelief.
For whatever reason we’ll never know!)
What message would he like audiences to take away from the film?
“The movie has a great message for humanity. Balian is a man who has lost his religion. He’s seeking answers for the bigger questions in life. He learns a lesson of tolerance and the importance of human life. For Balian what’s important is the lives of the people behind the walls of Jerusalem not the temples or the walls or the churches, which is a fantastic message of tolerance for all of us.”
Is he a spiritual person. What does he believe in?
“The Buddhist philosophies have always been something I’ve thought were very interesting. I have a friend who I’ve known for ten or eleven years who often spoke to me about those ideas as ways to finding inner peace. To be able to live a life that is less swayed by environment, with an unshakable sense of self.”
Did his spiritual journey begin after his freak accident when he thought he’d be paralyzed for the rest of his life?
“When you have an accident like that, you explore a lot of different facets of your mind. But I had been introduced to the ideas and philosophies of Buddhism when I was 18 a few years before.”
Has ever been to Jerusalem, and does he have any connection to it?
“Jerusalem is not a city that I’ve ever visited, although I would love to now having worked on this project. But I have no connection to Jerusalem although I think it would be a remarkable place to go.”
Nothing spiritual?
“I’m not sure. It would be like that sense of awe you feel when you walk into a cathedral. I imagine there would be something similar within the walls of Jerusalem, but not having been there I can’t really comment.’
Two years ago he bought a house in London, which he’s still furnishing.
Has his celebrity made it difficult for him to enjoy his life there?
“I don’t really pay very much attention to any of that sort of publicity. I try not to get involved in any of it really because it just confuses the individual. I try to keep pretty much to myself.”
Are the paparazzi camped outside his house when he’s there?
“You just just try to keep yourself to yourself. I have friends that walk out of their house, and they’re constantly being photographed. You have to try to find ways of avoiding that. It’s not always easy. But i haven’t been thee long enough; honestly I haven’t been in England for long. And when I’m there I’m there for two or three days. So far it’s been fine.”
AND SIX MONTHS LATER
Orlando Bloom is no longer an afterthought.
He showed up last December almost uninvited to the junket for Lord of the Rings The Two Towers because the producers were told he was filming in the Caribbean, and he couldn’t get away.
But so eager was he to join his mates, he prevailed on producer Jerry Bruckheimer and he got time off from the set of The Pirates of the Caribbean to be there.
Six months later at the Pirates junket in Los Angeles, he and Johnny Depp are the star attractions.
Since Lord of the Rings, he’s made Black Hawk Down, Ned Kelly,The Calcium Kid, and is still working on Troy with Russell Crowe and Eric Bana.
Has he had a chance to catch his breath?” I ask him.
“You’re right. I have been really busy. I haven’t really stopped to take a breath which has been good and bad. I am really grateful for the opportunities because I love to work but it’s kind of surreal because every time I go away on a job you go into your work mode and then you come out and suddenly there’s a release of a movie and you come into town for it and it’s all crazy and then it all dies down again so I’m just kind of adjusting to all the different changes that are happening and trying to deal with that.”
Is he aware of his huge fan base?
“It’s definitely surreal. I’m trying to get through the fan mail and there’s mountains of it and it’s really a lot to deal with. I’m grateful for the fans and I try respond to as many as possible, but it’s a lot.”
As a drama student in England, did he ever imagine he’d play a pirate in a Disney blockbuster?
“My character doesn’t really feel like a pirate because he doesn’t really know he’s a pirate until later. That’s part of his arc: he’s the boy from the wrong side of the tracks, in love with the girl from the right side, and he doesn’t think it’s a possible match; so it was really cool watching Johnny play the pirate, but once I felt I was in pirate mode, it was just the best, the most fun ever.”
Did he learn a lot of skills for the role?
“It’s funny. I was talking to my mum the other day and I was saying how I’ve got all these really, really great skills that are completely useless in this day and age. However, throw me back a few hundred years and I’ll be able to like take care of myself. But it was a lot of fun and, I mean, working with Johnny was like one of the most rewarding experiences I could ever have.”
What made it so rewarding?
“I think any actor my age would say that Johnny Depp’s a role model. He’s like the map, he’s the gold, you know what I mean, in terms of creating a character. And even though he’s one of the best looking guys around, on screen he kind of morphs into these quirky characters, hides behind them and embellishes them with such detail. He’s not just a guy who looks good on screen, he’s an actor who’s had a really fascinating career.“
And as a person?
“It was so great to have somebody who I’ve looked up to for so long, live up to everything I hoped he would be. He’s a rally cool guy, just a really nice guy.”
Let’s get back to Orlando.
How good are you at fencing, and were there any accidents on the set?
“I got pretty good at it because I was working again with Bob Anson who was the guy who trained me for Lord of the Rings. As far as accidents, there were a few. There’s always a few little nips and nabs when you’re doing that stuff.”
Despite having fallen down three floors, which three years ago left him paralyzed, he was reported bungee jumping in New Zealans.
Is he as reckless as ever?
“I got into all that stuff in New Zealand because that’s what they do in New Zealand. They have fun with bungee jumping and skydiving. I did all that stuff because I thought it would be fun to experience it, but I don’t make a point of arriving in a location and finding the nearest bungee jump, although I did a bit of cliff jumping in
22