Over winter break, I watched The Lord of the Rings for the first time. I hadn’t watched it before, because when it came out, I was only 7 years old, and still, I didn’t want to watch it because I thought it would be cheesy and violent. Nevertheless, when I did watch it, I found that I actually enjoyed it. But more importantly, I had discovered the British heartthrob, Orlando Bloom. Now, I had heard of him before, but hadn’t really payed attention to him when he was in Pirates of the Caribbean. So I re-watched the trilogy and thought, “Oh my god, this is what I’ve been missing?” And promptly after that moment, I fell in love with his work, and admittedly, the ethereal actor himself. However, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to his handsome looks. Let me take this opportunity to share some information and facts that you may not have known about the British actor turned Hollywood star.
Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent England to Sonia Copeland and Harry Bloom. His father was a renowned political rights activist and worked alongside with Nelson Mandela to advocate civil rights in South Africa. He was also the author of many controversial books and was jailed for his ideals. Unfortunately, he died when Orlando was only 4; consequently, his mother and guardian Colin Stone had to raise both Orlando and his older sister, Samantha. And at the age of 13, Orlando was sat down and told that his biological father was really, family friend Colin. Another unique aspect of his childhood is that he developed dyslexia at the age of 7. Dyslexia is a developemental reading disorder, which causes the brain to have trouble with forming words and processing alphabetic letters. In an article by Jackie Robb in Life Story magazine, Orlando said, “I was dyslexic. I am dyslexic, and school and education was always a bit tricky, but I got all my exams and degrees and I kind of had to work harder to get it.” Other than that, he was a pretty average boy. Superman was his role model, and he liked to play sports, go to the movies, and he even had a part time job at a shooting range as an assistant clay trapper. However, he was extremely accident prone. When he was a young drama and photography student he was trying to help a friend get into their apartment; the door had been warped from the weather, so he was going to try to get on the balcony to open the door from the inside. In doing so, he slipped and fell back three floors, landing between and old washing machine and a railing. Fortunately, he survived, but when he came to, he couldn’t feel or move his legs. He had broken his back, and for about 4 days, doctors thought he may have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. However, 12 days later, after having multiple surgeries on his vertebrae, he walked out of that hospital. He also broke his arm, cracked his skull three times when he fell off a stool, a motorcycle, and when his mom accidently knocked his head against a tree. He broke both his legs and a wrist while skiing and snowboarding, his nose while playing rugby, and a couple of ribs when he fell off a horse. Despite his long laundry list of injuries, he was very creative as a child, and excelled in art, poetry, and drama. This in turn, is what lead him to pursue a career in acting, as well as his love for superheros and action stars. In the same article by Robb, he said, “When I was a kid, we used to have running races in the playground to see who was going to be this one girl’s boyfriend for the day. So I thought, if I could be Superman and fly in and whisk her off, then I could be her boyfriend. And once I realized that all those superstars and hero’s for me onscreen were actors, I thought, ‘I want to be an actor too’.” So at the age of 16, he left St. Edmunds school in Canterbury, and moved to London to finish high school and joined the National Youth Theatre. During his time at the theatre he eventually earned a scholarship to the British American Drama Academy. While he took classes at the celebrated acting school, he landed a few small roles including a thief who gets stabbed with a pitchfork in the TV drama Midsomer Murders, and a rent boy in a biopic about Oscar Wilde. He then attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he finally received his drama degree. The charasmatic and blossoming actor was then discovered when he did a series of plays including, Twelth Night, The Seagull, and The Trojan Woman. With a bit of luck, up and coming director Peter Jackson attended one of his 1999 performances, and was taken by his classic look and acting, and asked him if he wanted to audition for role in the movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.
Orlando landed the role of Legolas right when he graduated from drama school and flew to New Zealand to start training for his powerhouse role. He had to go through extensive archery, swordsmanship, and horseback training for his part in the film, which took three years to film. His role in The Lord of the Rings is what catapulted him to stardom, since the trilogy grossed 2.9 billion dollars worldwide, according to the Internet Movie Database, and won multiple Oscars, including ‘best picture’. Hollywood directors were now scrambling to score this now in demand actor for roles. So he then signed on for Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, where he had a small role as Private First Class Todd Blackburn. He then joined another trilogy alongside Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. He also continued to work alongside other big names, such as Heath Ledger in the 1840’s Australian western Ned Kelly, and with Brad Pitt, in the 1,000 year old epic Troy. Then he received his own lead role in another Ridley Scott film, Kingdom of Heaven–a film about a knight during the crusades. However, amongst all the epic and swashbuckeling movies, he still had a desire to work in some smaller independent films. He got his wish when a friend announced that he was going direct a small British comedy, The Calcium Kid. In this lighthearted film, Orlando played a milkman slash amateur boxer, who through a series of events is forced to fight the American middle weight champion. Continuing with the theme of small indie films, he played a policeman in Mainstreet, a rockstar in Sympathy for Delicious, and a failed shoe designer in the Cameron Crowe film Elizabethtown. Most recently he reprised his role of Legolas in the Hobbit movies, where he was still able to fit into his costume. He also had his broadway debut in the famous Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet where he played the star crossed lover, Romeo himself. Over the years, he has won multiple awards including, ‘best breakthrough preformance’ at the 2001 MTV Movie Awards, ‘choice movie fight scene’ at the 2003 Teen Choice Awards, and most recently got honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and won ‘best fight sequence’ at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards. Despite all of his achievements, he still tries to give back to people who are less fortunate than him. According to the UNICEF ‘news line’ website, Bloom has, “… Long supported UNICEF’S work. He became a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in October of 2009. Before then, in 2008 and 2007, Bloom visited UNICEF and supported schools in Nepal to help advocate on behalf of the rights of children, including access to quality education and clean water.” His list of acting successes is pretty amazing by itself, but it is also amazing that he uses his time and money to help make a difference.
When I sat down to write this article, I wanted to write about someone who I respected and admired, someone whose story deserved to be shared. So now let me end with a quote from him that shows why I have given this respect and admiration, “Recognize challenges for what they are, moments of growth, battlescars on your journey, and badges of honor decorating your lives. Appreciate what you have, and embrace the challenges that you face, they are your gifts.”