Orlando Bloom reveals regret over famous role: “I didn’t want to play that character”
With his work in The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean, Orlando Bloom has starred in some of the biggest franchises of all time, but there is one huge role he regrets.
Just one year after taking his final bow as J. R. R. Tolkien’s Legolas in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Bloom took on an adaptation of even more epic proportions: the Iliad. In 2004, director Wolfgang Petersen attempted to translate the epic poem and the story of the Trojan War to screen with Troy. The film would find great commercial success, taking in hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, but it would receive criticism for prioritising entertainment value over fidelity to the source material.
Brad Pitt starred in the film as Achilles, alongside an impressive ensemble cast. Diane Kruger played Helen of Troy, while Brian Cox took on the role of Agamemnon and Sean Bean played Odysseus. Bloom took on the role of Paris, the prince of the titular country, in a performance he has since regretted.
During a conversation with Variety, Bloom failed to recognise a line he had delivered in the film, admitting that he “blanked that movie out of [his] brain.”
“So many people love that movie,” he acknowledged, “but for me playing that character was just like [slits throat]. Am I allowed to say all of these things? I didn’t want to do the movie. I didn’t want to play this character.”
While the actor maintained that the movie was “great,” he acknowledged that he really struggled with the role he had taken on. “It was completely against everything I felt in my being,” he stated.
Bloom isn’t the only cast member who has shared his regrets surrounding Troy. Pitt, who led the cast as Achilles, has also openly admitted that he disliked the project, criticising it for its commerciality.
Not long after starring in Troy, Bloom returned to more familiar territory, making his second appearance as Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean series in 2006. He would also return to the character of Legolas for the second entry into The Hobbit trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug, in 2013.
Since then, Bloom has continued his commitment to fantasy, taking on the role of Philo in Amazon’s Carnival Row, starring opposite Cara Delevingne. The show came to an end last year.
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