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Orlando Bloom drops anchor about 200 yards off the shore of Bequia, an island just south of where he and Johnny Depp are filming back-to-back sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean. Though his personal assistant and trainer decide to take a leisurely kayak ride to shore, Bloom chooses to swim. A race to the beach is suggested to make things more interesting. "Sure," Bloom says, ever agreeable. As he flips onto his stomach and starts paddling, it becomes clear why directors like working with him. He is game for anything -- the perfect putty. Having shed the twenty pounds of muscle he put on for his role as a crusader in Kingdom of Heaven, Bloom is lean and toned, cutting through the water like a dolphin in green board shorts. I try to pull ahead, calling on four years of swim competitions, but find his feet flailing near my face. I attempt to veer around him, but he is too fast to pass. Fifty yards away from the shore, exhaustion sets in. When Bloom wins by two tired strokes, he doesn't gloat. "Wow, that was fun," he says, collapsing on the sand, breathless. Yes, life is good here. And what makes it even better is that just twelve hours ago, the interview had been shaping up to be a disaster. I had arrived in St. Vincent, the Caribbean Grenadines island where Pirates is being shot, with only two days to spend with Bloom. And he began the interview by phoning to cancel the first day. "I thought we'd get a cocktail, but I have a 5 a.m. call time tomorrow." His voice crackles over the phone in a British accent so light and charming that it's hard to be too upset at him, especially since it's almost 9 p.m.
"I understand," I tell him, trying to hide the disappointment in my voice. Disney has refused to allow journalists to pollute the set of Pirates, so meeting him the next day will be an impossibility as well.
"Did you manage to see any bits of Kingdom?" he asks. He is being polite. This is something he is known for. Politeness will ultimately win an actor more jobs than arrogance. This is one reason why Bloom is already, just four years after his first major film role (as the elf archer Legolas in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy), starring in Kingdom of Heaven, the epic morality play set in the time of the Crusades. The film, from Ridley Scott, who also directed Gladiator, cost $140 million. That's a lot of money riding on a newbie who has yet to prove he can carry a movie on his name alone.
"I saw an early screening of the whole film," I tell him.
"No way!" The polite veneer in his accent disappears, replaced by boyish excitement. "I haven't even seen it yet. I'm dying to know what bits they put in and what they left out." He adds, sheepishly, "Maybe you should come by. I have to eat dinner anyway. And I was going to do it alone."
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Fifteen minutes later, I'm walking along the beach of Young Island Resort, peering into several thatched outdoor huts that add up to a restaurant. They are empty. Suddenly, a voice calls out from the shadows. I turn and see Bloom, standing alone in the distance. He is beaming.
Perhaps this interview is going to work out after all.
"What did you think?" he asks in greeting. He is referring to the movie.
"I thought it was gorgeous. Epic." I choose my words carefully. 2005 is the year of Orlando Bloom, in which he steps away from his traditional role as the hero's sidekick -- in The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Troy -- and becomes a hero himself. Besides Kingdom, he also has the leading role in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown.
The problem is: Though Kingdom is great eye candy, Bloom's character, the reluctant knight and troubled soul Balian, hardly speaks or merits any empathy during the first half of the film. When he finally does take a stand, it leads to thousands of deaths.
"Did you think it was great?" he persists. His heart is on his sleeve, which, by the way, is checked. He is wearing faded jeans and a tight, button-down, tablecloth-patterned shirt. His dark curls stop just above his shoulders. Though renowned as a sex symbol, his charisma is not physical. He sucks you in with his deep, patient eyes; his earnest lack of self-consciousness; his graceful gestures and easy, relaxed body language; and his wholesome, empathic energy. It's easy to understand why Rings director Peter Jackson cast this unknown as the most fair and graceful of J.R.R. Tolkien's creations.
Bloom sits down at the table and leans forward. He rubs a thumb along his ragged mustache, and the interrogation continues.
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BLOOM: Does it open with my character in jail?
ME: No, there's no scene like that. It opens with your wife's body on the road.
BLOOM: How about the sword fight at the end? What did you think of that?
ME: Um, I don't think that was in there either.
BLOOM: How was the Knights Templars scene?
ME: That was in there. It looked great. Like a Jet Li or a Clint Eastwood scene.
BLOOM: How does it compare to Gladiator?
ME: It's a completely different movie.
Bloom's curiosity and anxiety are understandable. The future of his career rests on Kingdom, on the untested hypothesis that, at age twenty-eight, he is not just a pretty face but a bona fide leading man.
Finally, I try to reassure him that no matter what, the movie is a shoo-in for number one at the box office.
"Hopefully," he replies. "I worked so hard for this film. I wanted that role so badly. When I signed up to play Paris in Troy, I knew I'd be playing a weak person who was a coward. So to have the opportunity to play a hero like Balian, who has no fear, was great."
There is something disarmingly unintimidating about Bloom. Scott, who also directed him in Black Hawk Down, says Bloom doesn't have a gram of diva in him. In fact, he goes out of his way to make those around him feel like they are not in the presence of a star. When a ten-year-old girl thanks Bloom for signing her shirt the night before, he apologizes for not signing it as well as he could have.
When I ask if he considers himself a people-pleaser, he replies, "If life isn't about humanity, then tell me what it's about, because I'd love to know. Money and power aren't what life is about. It can't be."
Bloom isn't quick to offer specifics about himself. They have to be extracted slowly, like an impacted tooth. I ask if he's ever studied Buddhism, and he says that he has. I tell him that his statement is very Buddhist, and he agrees. I ask him if he considers himself a Buddhist. After a long pause, he admits, "Yeah, I probably would."
When the conversation turns to drugs, he's even cagier.
BLOOM: ...but my cousin loves to party.
ME:: What about yourself?
BLOOM: Um. I never felt comfortable with anything that alters my mind.
ME: You never did acid or Ecstasy?
BLOOM: [Silence]
ME: You must have done Ecstasy when you were going to clubs in London.
BLOOM: It just never really... [pauses] When I broke my back when I was twenty-one, it became all about looking after myself and preserving my back.
Topic evaded, but somewhere between the lines an answer has been given.
Before we turn in for the night, Bloom talks about a phenomenon he experienced while filming Kingdom of Heaven in Spain. That phenomenon was himself. It was the first time he had to deal with mobs of screaming fans outside his hotel -- so many that police barricades had to be erected. He eventually had to hire Brad Pitt's security guard. "I think I'm mentioning this because I feel slightly bad that I didn't cope with it better," he says. "I really feel like if I were ever back in Spain, I'd make an effort to spend time with those people. Because they were all so sweet. I felt like I froze."
Either Bloom is truly a good guy or he's a great actor. Perhaps even both.
(Excerpted from RS 974, May 19, 2005)