Orlando Bloom on His Roadtrip in “Elizabethtown:” “I have to tell you, I’d never understood about the heartland of America. Like southern hospitality. We went down to Kentucky and I got it. It was like people were baking cakes, cookies, ice cream, taking ice cream to the set. There was a whole open door policy.
When a movie comes to town there’s often like apprehension that they’re going to leave it in chaos and disarray. But this was like, ‘Come to our town. Enjoy it. We’ll see you later.’ We left with a wink and a wave and a smile.
We really inhabited those places and had a great time being there. This is an America that you don’t see portrayed on film that much anymore. I think people need to see this; the world needs to see this America that I think is portrayed on this movie. I was lucky to stand outside the Lorraine Motel, to stand in front of the Survivor Tree in Oklahoma City or just to cross a bridge in Arkansas, this beautiful yellow bridge, to see smoke come up the river. These places had an impact on me, as they did on Cameron, which is why he wrote this movie when he was going around Kentucky. So I felt really, really lucky to be the British guy playing the all-American guy and going to these locations that probably most Americans haven’t been to.”
Orlando Bloom on Places He’d Still Like to Visit: “I took my own roadtrip from Scott Bluff back to LA, which was cool. I’d love to do that drive from New York to LA - Route 66. That feels like it’s the famous [one], the one to do.
I was in a car driving up through Colorado. The Rockies were like, ‘Boom!,’ suddenly there and it’s intimidating. I was like, ‘God, the determination of the pioneers who were like we’re going to get to the other side of this mountain range and make a new life.’ It’s just like a whole new respect when you drive through a place as opposed to flying over it. You move through it and you experience it on a visceral level. It was cool. I have to say, a very cool experience.”
Orlando Bloom on His Oklahoma City Experience: “We were there for like 24 hours or less. We were shooting at that location, the Oklahoma Survivor Tree, and we were welcomed by a lot of people, which was really wonderful. I think they knew we were coming.
I think I met some of the city officials. They have different names in England. They’re called mayors and stuff like that. I’m not sure what you call them in America. And we were just really welcomed. It was the same kind of genuine excitement and hospitality that we received in Kentucky and all over. I’m sure a lot of that is down to the fact that Cameron is who he is and he makes movies that people really like. But I got given one of the football shirts. I liked it – ‘OU’.”
Orlando Bloom on Fragility and Strength in the Roles He Selects: “For me, ‘Troy’ took a lot of courage to grovel at my brother’s knees. I was terrified of that moment and I was either going to try and run from it and do something different and try and get away from the fact that that’s who this guy is, or I was going to just go for it. And I went for it because that’s what the character needed.
I don’t know… I suppose a lot of who I am is growing up and learning as I go about who I am. I feel like, ultimately, I am trying to be a strong individual, but at 28 I am also in that part of my life where you question things and you wonder about the future. I am growing up on-camera, in many ways, and I have been for the past few years, but I feel very lucky to be doing that. Thankfully, I have been only doing action-adventure roles, because I would have made a big mess of it if I had had any real dialogue earlier in my career.”
Orlando Bloom on Tackling Roles That Don’t Require Swords or Bows and Arrows: “Definitely, I’d love to. I’m working on ‘Pirates’ right now and that’s really great fun too, and I’m very grateful to the opportunity that doing those movies has given me.
…There’s more to go. I feel like there’s a tip of an iceberg and I really just want to keep digging down and exploring more and finding different roles that are aggressive and come forward, as well as passive like some of the other characters that I’ve played. Hopefully there’ll be a lot of different things to experience and learn from.”
PAGE 3: Orlando Bloom on Choosing Roles and "Haven"
