Orlando Bloom names the movie that saved his career: “It was a dream, really”
With a name like Orlando Bloom, there was no way the British actor wasn’t going to become famous, and the early 2000s was his time, with his roles as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings series and Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean allowing his star power to rise, along with his position as a Hollywood heartthrob.
By landing such high-profile roles early in his career, Bloom seemed invincible, but it was only a matter of time before he appeared in a movie that proved to be the wrong decision; what looked appealing on paper turned out to be a disaster that would hang over these otherwise fertile years of his career.
Troy, starring Brad Pitt, emerged in the wake of Gladiator’s popularity, an epic historical film inspired by Homer’s classic The Iliad, a notoriously difficult story to adapt. And hence, it fell flat here, failing to captivate audiences, with various stars of the film openly criticising this swords-and-sandals cinematic travesty, like Peter O’Toole, and it wasn’t long before Bloom opened up about his disappointment surrounding the movie, too.
He needed a movie, then, that would redeem his place in Hollywood, and he needed it fast. Luckily, the chance to work with Ridley Scott, whom he’d previously been directed by in 2001’s Black Hawk Down, arose at the perfect time, restoring his faith in his abilities.
Kingdom of Heaven, in which he played Bailan, proved to be Bloom’s ticket out of temporary cinematic jail, and he found himself deeply impressed by Scott’s approach to filmmaking. Talking about his admiration for the director, Bloom told Yahoo UK, “Ridley is just an artist, and he uses the cameras like paint brushes. I think he is actually a painter as well, but he inspires people to do anything and everything to deliver something authentic and honest, and real.”
He continued, “There was so much young talent in [Black Hawk Down], we were all so young, I mean, everyone in that movie has gone on to have remarkable careers. And then when I got the chance to work with him again, I [had done] Troy and I was like ‘ugh, [his character] Paris was such a ugh… I struggled to be [him].”
Jumping at the chance to work with Scott after the disastrous Troy, Bloom explained his disdain better, noting, “I remember when I got cast in Troy, and it was like I don’t [like this], I’ve got to grovel at my brother’s feet, but it’s this iconic kind of thing. And then I got to go and do Bailan, who’s this knight, an heroic, earnest, spiritual character with an epic story.”
He couldn’t have asked for a better experience in not only getting to work with a filmmaker he considered a genius, but getting to immerse himself in the kind of thing that only comes with shooting a Hollywood historical epic.
“It was epic filmmaking at its greatest, in a way. I mean, for me, I’d learned to ride horses on Lord of the Rings, actually, and that was obviously a really huge part of Kingdom of Heaven, riding into battle and wearing the suits and the armour, and it was a dream, really,” Bloom gushed.
Kingdom of Heaven was a success, grossing almost $220million at the box office, and it might not have become as iconic as Gladiator, but it remains one of the early 2000s’ most essential epics, even if it wasn’t all that historically accurate.
