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orlando bloom cafePirates: Dead Man's Chest Interview
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 Orlando Bloom: It's great fun to go to work everyday on Pirates
When he was at drama school, Orlando Bloom never quite imagined himself in action adventure movies. As he notes with a smile, it's funny how things turn out.
His first major project was playing Legolas the elf in Peter Jackson's award winning Lord of the Rings trilogy and recently, he starred in Ridley Scott's action epic, Kingdom of Heaven. And let's not forget playing Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean. How could we?
Along with Johnny Depp as the lovable rogue Jack Sparrow and Keira Knightley, as Elizabeth Swann the governor's daughter who falls for Will, Orlando obviously, and understandably, holds the first movie in high esteem.
“Oh we had a fabulous time making it,” he says. “Lovely people, fantastic locations and a great director. It was one of the best professional experiences I've ever had.”
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And so it's easy to understand why he was keen to repeat the experience on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and Pirates 3, which have been filmed, virtually, back to back.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski have reunited their key creative team - cast, writers, crew - and added some new talent - Bill Nighy plays Davy Jones, the underworld captor of sea faring souls - and Bloom couldn't be happier to be back.
“I really enjoy doing it,” he says. “I get to work with you know Johnny and Gore Verbinski and all these great talents. It's amazing because it's a chance for me to continue to learn my craft from some more experienced actors.”
Orlando admits that he never dreamed that he would be making quite so many action movies. But one of the many benefits is that his sword fighting technique gets better and better.
“I used to have to rehearse for weeks and weeks in advance but now I can have like three or four sessions with the stunt guys and I can pick it up much quicker which is a bonus,” he says.
“I find myself in all these action adventure movies and they are fantastic but I never thought I would be doing so many of them. But I have to say I really love them. It's great fun to go to work everyday on Pirates and it `s got the same kind of kinetic energy as the first one, only there's even more.”
Orlando knew better than most that filming two sequels virtually back to back would be a rollercoaster ride and a supreme challenge for all concerned. There was a two-month hiatus last year and another break whilst Verbinski edited Dead Man's Chest ready for release this summer.
He spent almost two years in New Zealand making Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy and Pirates 2 and 3 was, in some ways at least, a similar experience.
"I am reminded of the experience on Rings where it was that feeling of a huge steam train and everyone is just grabbing hold of it, trying to get a ride and letting is blow out of steam a bit,” he says. “But at the same time that madness, that crazy kind of wild beast that is running away from you is what gives it that energy and excitement and it makes the tension that much more palpable.”
Born in Canterbury, England 29 years ago, Orlando has enjoyed a remarkable career since Lord of the Rings enjoyed phenomenal box office and critical success. He played Paris opposite Brad Pitt in Troy, a milkman turned boxer in the small budget British comedy The Calcium Kid, was reunited with Ridley Scott for the starring role in Kingdom of Heaven - they had previously worked together on Black Hawk Down - and recently, played opposite Kirsten Dunst in Cameron Crowe's romantic comedy Elizabethtown.
This interview was conducted during a break from filming on the Universal Studios sound stage in Hollywood.
Q: So how's it going, what is it like compared to working on the first one?
A: It's really exciting, I have to say. You probably know that we had to sign up to do a second movie when we did the first movie and the idea of doing two and three back to back was something that came up and I thought `This is great, family fun entertainment' And I really enjoy doing it, I get to work with you know Johnny and Gore Verbinski and all these great talents. It's amazing because it's a chance for me to continue to learn my craft from some more experienced actors.
Q: Do you ask them for any advice?
A: All the time, yeah, and they are great, they are really good. The other day I was doing some press for Elizabethtown and thinking that I find myself in all these action adventure movies and they are fantastic but I never thought I would be doing so many of them. And I love them. They are fantastic but I never thought I'd be doing so many of them - sword fighting stuff. But I have to say I really love them. It's great fun to go to work everyday on Pirates and it `s got the same kind of kinetic energy as the first one, only there's even more. I guess after the success of the first one they, they've been able to elaborate with costume, with set design, with locations and we've been to some amazing locations. In the first one, there wasn't so many shots of turquoise ocean that you can't imagine we were in the Caribbean because we were filming in like St Vincent. This time we have been filming in some pretty amazing places like the Exumas in the Bahamas which has that particularly vibrant white sand and blue ocean. It will look amazing and just gives such a rich colour texture on screen.
Q: How much easier are the fight scenes for you now?
A: It's like when you start learning dialogue. It gets easier the more dialogue you have the easier it comes to learn it. The body is a muscle and the more you do you get `muscle' memory. There is basic parry routine that works for pretty much any sword fight and you vary it, depending on what sword you are using. But yeah, it has gotten a lot easier. I used to have to rehearse for weeks and weeks in advance but now I can have like three or four sessions with the stunt guys and I can pick it up much quicker which is a bonus.
Q: Is it true that your character is developing a darker side in Pirates 2?
A: Yeah, it slowly develops in the third movie. But, listen it is still a Disney pirates movie and it's not like I am going to go around slaughtering people unnecessarily. It's not like I'm Hayden Christensen in Star Wars as Darth Vadar. But there is character development in terms of the relationship with my father and my desire to release my father from his physical imprisonment, which is the form that he takes, as do all the pirates under Davy Jones' command. They all become these kind of grotesque sea creature monster things which is basically a new and improved and excitingly different version of the skeletal pirates. So my desire is to free him from that prison and somehow get the girl at the end, go with that connection to Elizabeth. And so I think the darkness comes in a sense that you are not quite sure what angle Will is coming from. He manipulates things in order to get what he wants and he has kind of gotten wise to Jack Sparrow in some respect. He has learned a few tricks from Jack Sparrow so he playing the game a little bit himself, as are all the characters.
Q: What sort of a tricks?
A: You will have to wait and see I am afraid. But all the characters actually have that kind of a development. It's exciting because with a sequel you think, `what are we going to do? How can we recreate the magic? Shouldn't we have just left it?” But, actually, with all the same writing team, Ted (Elliott) and Terry (Rossio) Penny Rose doing the costume, everyone, the same. OK, the production is, I think, a little different perhaps in design but it's all just improved really and the character development is really improved and it certainly doesn't feel like a poor man's version of the first one. And I'd be the first one to go “whoops” if it did. But Gore is such a fantastic director. He has so much vibrancy, so much life and energy to do this sort of thing. It's remarkable. It is kind of crazy doing two movies back to back because it's just such a huge undertaking and I am reminded of the experience on Rings where it was that feeling of a huge steam train and everyone is just grabbing hold of it, trying to get a ride and letting is blow out of steam a bit. But at the same time that madness, that crazy kind of wild beast that is running away from you is what gives it that energy and excitement and it makes the tension that much more palpable.
Q: Is this the most exciting project you've worked on?
A: Well, I had the most ridiculous good fortune when I left drama school to work on a project like Rings that went into three movies. That was an incredible break out for me but Pirates really sealed the deal in terms of giving me opportunities to do movies like Kingdom of Heaven and Elizabethtown or this little movie I did called Haven and it's given me the kind of fan base which has enabled me to move forward and to be able to make choices. Moving forwards I'll be able to make interesting choices that I always hoped to be able to make anyway. Pirates was doubly amazing because it came from the side, out of left field and when this script was going round town a lot of people just passed over it because it was like a Disney adventure ride. It was one of those scripts that nobody really jumped on and then we jumped on it and it was a really good script So it was exciting in that sense because it was like' wow `who knew it would have that kind of cachet and success?'
Q: How do the sequels differ from the first movie?
A: Well if you veer too far away from what you achieved in the first one then you let the fans down because you know there is something that is working there. If you try and be too clever, you'll lose the integrity of what was working in the first place but they had to do something better than the pirates turning skeletal in the moonlight. And that I think has definitely been achieved through this character Davy Jones (played by Bill Nighy and his pirates that, like I said, have this grotesque formation from living at the bottom of the ocean which is really interesting. It's cool, because it is within the myth and legend of piracy and Davy Jones and it maintains the integrity of that which is cool. It feels like it is not just flying off into some far fetched realm of Hollywood making another movie for the sake of making more money .It is maintaining some integrity in the sense that it's based in pirate legend.
Q: What did you want to get from playing Will this time around?
A: Listen I am definitely confined in the sense that Will is the poster boy, the guy that gets the girl. But the darker side has definitely taken me into a place where I can have some interesting storyline and feel like I am developing the role. But it is still within the realms of making a pirate movie. Johnny's playing the guy and Geoffrey is the outlandish pirate captain and now Bill Nighy is doing some fantastic work and Chow Yun-Fat brings this whole new thing. Singapore and going into the East gives an amazing new flavour to the (third) movie. So it's really very exciting.
Q: You have become such a public figure, are you still enjoying that or is it becoming a little intrusive?
A: It's really interesting and amazing in the sense that I don't get out of my car and walk home and get swamped by people. It's funny because I try to keep a low profile as much as possible because that is kind of who I am and when I am at premiers or whatever then that's when people know you are going to be around and it creates that kind of excitement. It's like the circus coming to town. I have used this analogy before. People get wrapped up in it and I am always really grateful to the fans because like I said, I have had amazing opportunities and the studios that I have worked with have bankrolled some pretty big movies on the basis of the fact that I do have a great support system and a movie like Kingdom, I got a shot at, you know. It's funny to me because it makes over $200m worldwide and it is still considered not to have done so well. But it is just that Hollywood has such high expectations. It's crazy. But I got to do that role and it was just fantastic, I am very proud of it and a lot of that is down to the fact that I have great support of people who come to see me at events or premiers. So I am totally glad about that. But it will never be normal; it will always just feel like it is just something that I just have to get on with. It's a lot of energy coming at you and it's a little bit like “whoa”, you know? Sort of crazy.
Q: It's interesting because Keira is probably going through the same thing and you guys go back a long way don't you? Do you remember the first time you met?
A: Yeah I do, we met at the Ivy. It was so funny because Gore had a dinner for us to get together at the Ivy and I remember we left and she just snuck out and I got like hammered because the Ivy is like one of those places where you get hammered (laughs). I admire her in such a massive way: the choices that she has made, the directors that she has got to work with, the way that she handles herself. I was just looking at her the other day and she is handling a sword, doing this whole sword routine. She's the most beautiful woman on the set and you know still like, she's got that kind of ability to sort of rough it with the lads and still look ethereal and can still be the beauty and the talent that she is.
Q: She kind of said you first came across each other in London when you were going for auditions.
A: I hadn't really hung out with her . She was working more than me. When I finished drama school, she had already done movies .She had already had star billing .She was making a mark for herself in a movies like Bend it like Beckham. She shot that before. She did stuff like that while I was at drama school. We did do an audition together. Yes, we did an audition for a Russian project, that's right. I had forgotten.
Q: What do you do in your free time?
A: Free time is sparse but I just keep it as normal as possible. I have dogs, I have a great family, I have good friends.
Q: Did you have your dog with you in the Caribbean?
A: Yeah, he is a very well traveled dog. It's very expensive to travel with a dog but he is like my baby.
Q: Where's home?
A: London, yeah, I am never there but London, yeah.
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