Orlando Bloom (Q&A) -- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Last week I participated in the junket for the second installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy @ the Regent Beverly Wilshire; here 's what went down during the press gaggle with Orlando Bloom -- he's a funny kid, yo...


Q: What're you going to do this summer, now that everything's wrapped for a while?
Orlando Bloom: I'm going to -- that's a good question -- I might shoot a movie...might go on holiday but actually I'm still going to be breathing.

Q: Is it a conflict for you that Pirates of the Caribbean is opening around the same time that Superman is coming out?

OB: It's great, are you kidding? I just saw that film, it's fantastic! It's great and so is my girlfriend and it's awesome, you know? It's so important (to the industry) that when big movies are made, that they are successful (financially). Because, otherwise, I think audiences lose faith in big movies -- or in the movies period. So, I want them all to be great.

Q: How much fun was it to play Pirates?

OB: Arrrrghhh! How do you know when you're a pirate? You just arrrgghhh! [laughter] I heard that joke when my sister came on the set -- she walks up to Johnny and asks him...it was great [acting in the film] I just love it!

Q: Talk a little bit about doing some of your own stunts and was there ever one particular stunt that where you thought 'you know what, [the studio] is getting their money's worth?

OB: Soaking wet, 6 in the morning with a flaming sword in your hand -- that's worth every penny. They're getting their money's worth.Believe me, it was hard work -- being wet and cold. It doesn't matter if you're in the Caribbean those rain machines pump out cold water, big drops and if it's night time it's freezing! All the wet suits in the world can't stop that feeling but, you know, when you see it on the big sceen you go: it was worth every moment. And Gore [Verbinsky, the film's director] nailed it -- that's what makes me really happy to see. Because in movies like this, you don't really know what you're doing -- you don't know...You just go, you've got a lot of grey suits around you, the grey suits are those [CGI created] Davey Jones/ pirate crew characters you see on screen -- all those guys all wore grey suits -- they were going to be painted in later. So, you don't have a visual and you see [the end results] and you go: I'm so glad I didn't overact because you could, easily.

Q: Do you think shooting on locations like the one in Pirates is one of the perks of show business?

OB:oh, it is...it's was a gorgeous Island that they found to shoot on but there was nothing [on it] -- absolutely nothing. No good food, no good water nothing...Look, it was a paradise in one form or another, some people would go [probably] go on holiday there, spend two weeks to scuba dive and at the end of the two weeks they're like, 'yeah, I'm ready to go home'...we were there for six months, eight months and you can't go home. I'm not complaining, you just make it what it is -- it really was all about finding the most distant island -- some of that stuff, like the sword fight on the sand, was shot on an island in Gran Bahama. The tide would go out, so we had six hours to shoot it in a day- you had six hours of filming. By the time we got out to these two huge tankers where the makeoup trailers were and then we got ferried out on these little boats to where the water was about [2 feet deep] and then you have to get out and walk in your costume [across the beach] to the set. It was an adventure, it was very, very cool but v ery challenging -- in a good way. But you know, in six hours the tide would come up, we're like 'go,go,go - water's coming! Quick, everyone back on the boat!'

Q: You mentioned the swordfight on the wheel, was that one of those things that look good on film?

OB: -- and an absolute nightmare to shoot! It was mad, absolute nightmare!

Q: You have a favorite scene in this movie that you feel special about for whatever reason?

OB: I thought, when Johnny kissed Kiera, I felt something...I thought a special moment in the movie was when the giant squid ejaculated all over Johnny -- is that a rude word? That was one of my favorite moments. You know, to me, the really special stuff was me working with Stellan Skarsgard. I loved the stuff I got to do with Stellan because it's a father/ son dynamic that is at the real core of Will [Turner] -- that's his battle. The girl or my dad? The girl or my dad? What do I do? What do I do? He wants to have -- as a young man, you have to have a relationship with your father. He needs that and he's fighting for that. There was a couple of things but I just liked hanging out with him. He's a family man, he's a great actor, he's a great guy -- he was a great example for me of a wonderful guy to hang out with.

Q: Are you finished filming Pirates: 3?

OB: Not yet, we're going back in three more months.

Q: So, haven't this been a part of your life for several years? Is part of you ready to say goodbye to pirates?

OB: Good riddance. (laughter) No, you never really say goodbye -- it's weird, by the time you've done all the press and the movie's been released and they're out in the world and people come up to you and tell you about it, you never really say goodbye...It's like The Lord of the Rings, I was really sad to say goodbye to that but I don't really feel that I've said goodbye to it because Legolas is still a part of my life in one form or another. I still think about him -- he's still kind of out there, you know what I mean? It's like he's out in the world and so is Will. So, you never really say goodbye. But I will be very sad not to be walking up to set or flying down to the Caribbean and hanging out, even if it was a long time away from home, lovers and that type of thing -- girlfriends and family - but you know.

Q: Having been hurt in the past for performing your own stunts, does that make you fearful of doing them?

OB: I was fearless up until I broke my back, it's not like that disappeared, then I just realized that this physical form that I"m in is mine and I'm going to live with it until I die. I want it to serve me as well as it can -- I don't to be limping and in pain when I don't have to be. I've been blessed to be given a great physical form and I want to treasure it, you know what I mean? I was very close to not ever standing on my feet again. I was very close to actually dying. But the prospect not ever being able to walk out of the hospital would pretty much terrify anybody into having a new respect [for their bodies] and a new lease on life. I was 21 and still in drama school. I was just a young guy...I was very lucky, I feel very, very lucky because I was young enough to have awake up call that taught me to appreciate my life in a way that probably another young guy wouldn't necessarily get. And I was able to walk out of it. I was in a hospital and there was this young guy who was 18, so he's a couple of years younger than me, and he was a soldier -- a cadet in the army. He just dove into a lake [broke his neck] and he was never going to walk again. He had a cage around his head and that was that. He lived to go outdoors -- he chose a career in the army -- that's physical activity. So, there's a lot that I saw and it was a very humbling experience.

Q: So why do you continue to do the stunts that you do then?

OB: It's a controlled environment. A movie set is a controlled environment. I'm not putting myself in danger-- if I think I'm in danger, then I'll go to the stunt coordinator and say 'You know what? This doesn't feel right.' And then they'll say, 'let's make it feel right.' For the most part, there's a lot people employed to make sure that you're safe.

Q: Do you live in L.A. now?

OB: No...but, you know, never say never. When I'm here and I'm working, I'm here and I'm working. So normally I stay in a hotel and I go to work...You can get anything you want in L.A. -- it's anything. Whether it's food...a mystic healer...a great back doctor. In L.A. there's the weather [and] the fact that you can be in the ocean and then be in the canyons, wherever -- it's just great.

Q: So what's the most extravegant thing that you've bought for yourself?

OB: I'm a watch freak! I'm a watch freak and I love watches! I've purchased a couple of ridiculously expensive wactches in my time just because I love them. My grandfather was a watch guy. Well, he wasn't a 'watch guy' but he had these watches and when I would visit him and hang out with him -- he had two, one was like a dressy watch and one was a lucky watch. I just got so fascinated by the intricate movements inside them, I love watches!...[Mine] are not all accurate but that's what gives them charm.

Q: So, if we were to go to your house right now and look at your DVD collection, what are some of the titles we'd see on your shelf?

OB: Like, The Hustler, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, My Left Foot, The Boxer -- pretty much anything that Daniel Day-Lewis has done.

Q: Now that you've done three films with Johnny how do you categorize your relationship with him?

OB: We kiss and cuddle...no tongues, though. [laughter]

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opens July 7th