Orlando Bloom is standing by the hotel window gazing over Hyde Park, watching
the traffic snaking past while sunseekers mill about on the grass.
“You know what?” he says, turning slowly back into the room. “It feels good to
be home.”
Bloom was a fresh-faced 25-year-old when he signed up for duty aboard Jerry
Bruckheimer’s first buccaneering blockbuster; now, as Pirates of
the Caribbean: At World’s End, hoves into view, Bloom has turned
30. “I do feel a little as though it has taken over my life,” he laughs as
he flops on to the sofa. “In fact, it feels as though I’ve been on a pirate
movie most of my adult life!”
Bloom then slips from the sofa, landing softly, crosslegged, on the floor, a
position in which he remains throughout the interview. In the flesh, he is
handsome, with high cheekbones and a light stubble, but not as delicate as
he looks when clad in his Pirates finery. He speaks softly and
slowly, with an easygoing charm.
“In between the first Pirates film and the second I did have
the opportunity to work on Kingdom of Heaven and Elizabethtown,”
he continues. “But they were a push; my first leading roles, done on top of
each other, and then I had to go into Pirates 2 and 3. It
has been all-consuming.”
With his seafaring voyage almost over, Bloom is now gazing at a clear horizon
– for the first time in eight years he has no immediate plans. “It’s a great
feeling,” he beams. “I’ve just finished this trilogy and for the first time
in ages I haven’t got a job I need to go into immediately. I don’t have to
work, and I really can say no to stuff. I’ve always found it hard to say no
to work, although, to be honest, I don’t think there’s anything I’ve done
that I could have said no to.”
From the moment he donned the blond barnet and pointy ears of the elven archer
Legolas in The Lord of the Rings, Bloom was arrowed towards
stardom. With his striking looks, here was a raw acting talent who could be
polished and slotted easily into big-budget blockbusters.
Bloom’s roles also included the expensive 2004 flop Troy,
before securing the lead in another sword-swinging epic, Ridley Scott’s Kingdom
of Heaven, the next year. However, the crusader tale also performed
poorly, and Bloom has sought out a more contemporary path, with films such
as Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown and Haven.The
former was overshadowed by Garden State, the latter has yet to
secure a British release.
When considering his CV, Bloom offers a wry smile. “I’m certainly not looking
for another swords movie,” he says. “Or a trilogy! I’m looking for something
contemporary, or at least a very human story. For me, the films that have
resonated most recently are things such as The Constant Gardener, Hotel
Rwandaand The Last King of Scotland. Films that are set against
a socially relevant world, shining a light on character or aspects of the
world that we don’t often consider.”
Indeed, the rumour emerged that Bloom had hoped to secure James McAvoy’s role
as Dr Garrigan in The Last King of Scotland. He laughs this off. “I
did meet Kevin Macdonald, [the film’s director] but he was itching to go,
and while I’d have loved to do it, I was doing Elizabethtown.
But they did a fantastic job. It’s the sort of film I would like to be
making. Really you need to take time to make good choices, and that’s what
I’m doing right now.
“Just look at Leonardo DiCaprio,” he continues. “He started younger than me,
but went from a movie like Titanic, in which he was a real
heart-throb pin-up, and made the transition into an actor who makes really
good movies. I’m in no way drawing parallels between him and me in terms of
ability, but I like the way he navigated the waters.” Bloom’s resolve can be
traced to his childhood in Canterbury. He was an accomplished sportsman – a
strong athlete, the captain of his school football team – but his education
was hampered by dyslexia.
“It was frustrating,” he says. “When I was a kid it wasn’t something that was
massively understood, but my mum was a strong-minded woman and when I was
tested for dyslexia, she ensured I had an IQ test, and I was well above
average. So I always knew that my problem wasn’t a lack of intelligence,
rather it was always explained to me that we have a window to our brain to
access information, and that the size of the window varies. I just had a
smaller window.”
The diagnosis seems to have toughened him up. “Because of the dyslexia I
always thought I had to work twice as hard as everyone else.” At the age of
21 he fell from a third-floor window and broke his back. Told he might never
walk again, he was moving unaided within 12 days.
“Now, whenever I prepare for a meeting or an audition I am always
overprepared. For the Lord of the Rings audition, for example – and
that paid off. So, in one sense, I guess that I’m grateful; it gave me that
drive.” He showed the same mental fortitude when his mother revealed to a
teenage Bloom and his younger sister that his dad, the recently departed
antiapartheid activist Harry Bloom, was not his biological father. Their
real father, she informed them, was their family friend, Colin Stone.
“That was very unusual,” he says, softly. “I was 13 and my mother thought that
it was the right time to tell us. So it was strange, but it was also kind of
exciting, because the man who had been acting as my father for all intents
and purposes, the guy who I’d hung out with on the weekend, he turned out to
be my real dad. I have a great relationship with him, because growing up he
was more friend rather than my father. And now he’s my father.” He stops and
smiles. “I guess we missed out all the bad stuff, the tellings-off . . .”
Bloom now spends as much time with his family as he can. He still considers
himself UK-based and is currently finishing work on a house that he has
bought in London. He split up with his former lover, the actress Kate
Bosworth, of Superman Returns, last year, and says that he is
enjoying the single life.
“There are always rumours, whenever you’re seen out talking to someone. It’s
not the most appealing part of the job, and it is kind of frustrating. But I
get to dress up in funny outfits, put on wigs and have a laugh – so if
that’s the trade-off, then so be it!”
As we finish talking, Bloom picks himself up off the floor. He walks to the
door and then stops.
“Actually, I think I’ll just relax here for a bit,” he says, surveying the
elegant suite and returning to the sofa. “After all, this is the first time
in ages that I haven’t got somewhere I need to go.” Pirates
of the Caribbean: At World’s End is on general release from Thur
SUMMER BLOCKBUSTERS
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (May 24)
Budget: $225 million
USP: More villains (Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy and Chow Yun-Fat), more
effects (see the whirlpool action finale), more cameos (Keith Richards) and
more screen-chewing Johnny Depp.
Projected opening weekend: $120 million (Boxofficeprophets.com)
Shrek 3 (Jun 29)
Budget: $100-plus million
USP: Poor advance word from Variety will make no difference – Shrek
4 is already under way.
Projected opening weekend: $99 million (Boxofficeprophets.com)
Live Free or Die Hard 4.0 (Jul 4)
Budget: N/A
USP: “Yippiekiyay Motherf*****!” – 12 years after the last Die
Hard, the ageing supercop John McClane (Bruce Willis) returns to save
the planet from terrorists, destroy buildings and leap in front of
screen-filling fireballs. How could you resist? Projected opening
weekend: $32 million (Boxofficereport.com)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Jul 13)
Budget: $150 million
USP: The series has already made $3.52bn, and global Potter hysteria
will be further inflamed by J.K. Rowling’s final book, published on July 21.
Projected opening weekend: $98 million (Boxofficereport.com)
Rush Hour 3 (Aug 10)
Budget: $120 million
USP: This time our mismatched heroes, Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan,
find themselves in Paris, facing an, er, evil Triad gang. High-kicking belly
laughs all round.
Projected opening weekend: $60 million (Boxofficereport.com)
v ALTERNATIVE CHARMERS
Wedding Daze (Jun 1)
Budget: N/A
USP: Rebound romantic comedy starring Jason Biggs ( above left,
with Matt Malloy) and Isla Fisher.
Charm factor: Zany dialogue and squishy “love conquers all” message.
The War on Democracy (Jun 15)
Budget: Peanuts, one would suspect.
USP: The ultimate antiblockbuster tackles US capitalism with this
veritable love letter from John Pilger to the Venezuelan president, Hugo
Chávez.
Charm factor: An irresistible draw for Bush-bashers everywhere.
Paris, Je t’aime (Jun 29)
Budget: $16 million
USP: Twenty short films about Paris and love. Everyone from the Coen
brothers to Wes Craven gets a shot, with mixed results. The standout,
however, is Alexander Payne’s profound and funny meditation on life, love,
and life without love.
Charm factor: An arthouse movie that’s user-friendly, and
mostly in English.
Knocked Up (Aug 24)
Budget: $33 million
USP: Seth Rogen stars as stoner Ben who gets the ambitious Alison
(Katherine Heigl) pregnant after a one-night stand. Genuine hilarity ensues.
Charm factor: Intelligent writing, sensitive performances, and sperm
gags.
Hallam Foe (Aug 31)
Budget: $7 million
USP: An adaptation of Peter Jinks’s novel, in which Jamie Bell ( below
left, with Sophia Myles) stars as an introspective teenager whose
penchant for voyeurism leads him through a world of trouble and revenge.
Charm factor: A breathtaking turn from Bell, and a thumping soundtrack.
KEVIN MAHER
British film journalists make statements that such and such a film was a flop, but they never seem to do their research. Troy took $497 million at the global box office, it wasn't a flop. Kingdom of Heaven took $211 million and was probably a disappointment.
By comparison The Constant Gardener made $81 million and The Queen took $114 million.
tom Brady, ny, usa