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Orlando Bloom - Anglo Cowboy
L'Uomo Vogue (Italy)
November 2002
By Alessandra Venezia
Translated by Stephanie His name is Orlando, just like Ariostos* chivalrous hero. And just like the protagonist of the Song Of Roland**, he is destined to have a glorious future.
He soon left Canterbury, where he was born in 1977. When, he was ten, a girl told him she preferred superman to him, he decided to become a hero himself. Thus, at the age of sixteen he left school and his family and went to London to become an actor.
He joined The National Youth Theatre and after two years he won a scholarship for the British American Drama Academy. After that he attended the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama. A very impressive curriculum to let him carry on to be on stage with Shakespeare, Chekhov and Sophocles.
Nevertheless, at 22, he chose to participate in the biggest cinema production ever made: the 360 million dollar trilogy of the Lord of the Rings, the fantasy/medieval saga of J.R.R. Tolkien adapted to the screen by Peter Jackson. With the role of Legolas, the warrior elf who accompanies eight companions to protect the young hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood) in his mission against evil, the name of Orlando Bloom had entered the mystical universe of Tolkien. At the end of the year we will see him in the second instalment The Two Towers, and at the end of 2003 in the final instalment The Return of the King.
"I was twenty-two years old and I was about to complete acting school, when they offered me a part in the Lord of the Rings. Wow, suddenly I had a career coming my way", he remembers today.
First he auditioned for Faramir. Instead, they gave him the role of the noble and brave elf. Leaving his home in Notting Hill and his beloved dog Maude behind, he went for eighteen months to Wellington in New Zealand. He spent that period with extraordinary actors such as Ian McKellen and Ian Holm as well as with other young actors, he considers today among his best friends, leaving indelible memories:
"We worked like crazy, with weary schedules, but in our spare time our group of elves and hobbits changed into surfers and snowboarders. We did skydiving and parachute jumping."
He is a daredevil. He has already broken both legs, the nose, and ribs but sticks to it. He's speaking into his mobile from his car while he returns home from the set. He's not easy to track down. He seems to be the busiest boy in the world. The 25-year-old actor is now one of the youngest and most wanted actors by studios and publicists: A new face to launch, a talent not to lose. Within only a few months Movieline put him on the list of the ten best performers of 2001; Teen People on the 25 hottest stars under 25; GAP chose him as the lead for the commercial Denim Invasion (beside Kate Beckinsale) directed by Cameron Crowe.
Orlando now says he is glad to return to work and living in London, after being nearly three years around the globe, from New Zealand and the Australia's coasts to Moroccan deserts. After shooting the trilogy of Tolkien had finished, he actually went to Africa to shoot Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott), where he portrays the American soldier Todd Blackburn, after that The Kelly Gang. Based on the true story of the famous Australian outlaw with the scope of a Robin Hood, the film is directed by Gregor Jordan (Two hands) starring Heath Ledger, Rachel Griffiths and Geoffrey Rush.
"My role is the of Ned Kelly's best friend, the polite guy, the one who thinks. Working in Australia has been a fantastic experience. The landscapes and the light are unforgettable and the people are laid-back and kind."
Each film becomes a life experience for the young Bloom: "Meeting all these different cultures makes me open my eyes on a lot of things. In Morocco I could not communicate because of the language, but in New Zealand, where I have almost spent two years, I was taught a great lesson. It taught me to stay more down to earth".
And it has paved the way for his first film as the lead: The Calcium Kid, which is currently shot in London. "Perhaps because it is my first lead role I have the impression that it is the most gratifying experience of my professional life. I work with a director who is a long-time friend and with people from my country with whom I share the same humour and language. I am happy when I work "
Then he explains: "The Calcium Kid is the story of a young milkman who spends all of his spare time in the gym to become a boxer for his country. In the end he becomes a national champion, thanks to his strong bone-structure strengthenedby the enormous quantity of milk, which he drinks daily".
After this little intimate comedy, Bloom will join the big production of Pirates of the Caribbean, a film based on the famous Disney park ride in Los Angeles, starring Johnny Depp.
"I can't believe Im going to make a movie with Johnny Depp!" he confides enthusiastically like a child. "He's always been one of my favourite actors, a sort of aspiring model because of his unconventional choices, for his professional integrity, for a career I consider the most interesting in Hollywood. It will be a lot of fun. It is a production by Jerry Bruckheimer and its a story about pirates: What more can I ask?
For him who, since he was ten, has intended to become a hero, actually many heroes, there couldn't be a better happy ending. But it has not happened by chance: Bloom has spent years of working and practicing. "I have been lucky", he affirms."My mother has always encouraged us, me and my sister, to recite when we were children. We always participated in the Kent festival in Canterbury, where we had to learn to memorize poetry and biblical stories for recitation in public. I decided to become an actor because I wanted to portray the fabulous characters that I had seen on television and in the cinema".
He had started reading The Lord of the Rings when he was fourteen, but he didnt finished the book. Today, however, he is an expert on the subject. "I am convinced that the audience won't understand the entire scale of Jacksons work until they have seen all of the three movies; to be able to spend an entire day with their favourite characters and losing themselves in that fantastic world without the now yearly interruptions. I am convinced that Peter has created a new genre. An epos, a moving realistic fantasy, where everybody can identify with the characters, even with the imaginary creatures such as elves and goblins".
For his role as Legolas he expresses admiration and endless gratitude. "It was an extraordinary character to play. He is graceful, noble and he doesn't have one tiny bit of viciousness or maliciousness in him. His honesty deeply struck a chord within me, because it forced me to reflect to be braver in trying to do what I've never done before. I even learned how to fight with two knives, even how to handle any kind of weapon skilfully. To recall, I was a young actor about to make my first experience when I started with this movie "
* Translators note: Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533); Italian poet, remembered primarily for his Orlando Furioso published in its final version in 1532.
** Translators note: La Chanson de Roland, or The Song of Roland, is the oldest surviving French poem. It is also the oldest and greatest of the chansons de geste, medieval epic poems written in French. In old French, "geste" means a deed or action, often of heroic proportions. |
