Crowe has crafted another very personal story with “Elizabethtown,” casting the handsome Brit Bloom as the very American Drew Baylor. Drew's an ambitious shoe designer who goes off to find his fortune only to wind up costing the company he works for a whooping $972 million when his new, innovative design turns out to be the worst thing to ever hit the shoe industry. On top of suffering that humiliation, Drew finds out his father has suddenly died and now he has to travel to Kentucky to deal with relatives he barely knows.
Describing his “Elizabethtown” character, Bloom said, “I think Drew’s a character who’s obsessed with success. This is more of a wakeup call to life for him and I had my own when I broke my back. But for Drew, it’s like the idea of being able to have enough money to buy the new house, the new car, the new watch, the new handbag, whatever it may be, that’s what’s important to him.
When he gets this phone call about his father, he goes home to Kentucky. He gets on a plane, he meets this girl [played by Kirsten Dunst], and she really draws him into life. She puts up a mirror in front of him and goes, ‘Look, start to appreciate who you are and what you’re about.’ In order to be able to appreciate the family who love you in Kentucky and who welcome him at the door, in order to come to terms with the loss of his father and then ultimately fall in love with her. I think we can all relate to that thing.”
Orlando Bloom on Getting the “Elizabethtown” Accent Right: “That was difficult. I won’t lie to you. It’s not easy because it was my first contemporary leading role. Then on top of that, I was playing an American and there’s a subtlety and a nuance that’s important for character. There isn’t an explosion. There isn’t a big set piece in the movie that an audience can get caught up in. What they’re looking at is you and the rest of this cast and your cast members, your fellow cast members. They’re looking at the way people are interacting and there’s nothing to hide behind. There’s no sword or horse. I still feel like I’m learning as I go, so we’ll see.”
Orlando Bloom on Cameron Crowe’s Use of Music on the Set: “He uses music as a tool. He’ll play a piece of music before you start a scene of dialogue to create [the tone]. It’s like I just knew what he wanted. He could play a piece of music and I was like, ‘Okay, I get what you want.’ Then he’ll blast it in the middle of a take and suddenly it makes the text have this sort of sense of irreverence. It’s like, ‘Oh, well, if he can just blast a piece of music in the middle of it, then I can let rip and do what I want.’"
Bloom admits that music is very important in his life. "If I go two or three days without listening to music, I’m like depleted," joked Bloom. So who does he like to listen to at the moment? “I’m into Coldplay. I got into, down in Kentucky, Iron and Wine. I’m always listening to Jeff Buckley because he just is amazing to me. I’m always listening to Dylan and Ben Harper, Jack Johnson. I like acoustic [and] great lyrics. Then there’s the Shins and Franz Ferdinand. There’s a whole bunch of stuff. There’s Patti Griffin,” said Bloom.
Bloom went on to explain, “You’re obviously influenced by the location that you’re in and by the area. I heard Iron and Wine for the first time in Louisville. They were gigging. They played a gig down there. It was a room like the size of this and it was very, very cool.
Music… I think it’s a universal language that can evoke a feeling or an emotion in anyone. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or who you are. It has the power to do that. So especially in those scenes in the car, it was like just driving. …He would just put something on and I could rap around it.”
PAGE 2: Orlando Bloom on His "Elizabethtown" Roadtrip and Tackling Roles Without Swords or Bows and Arrows
