OH, ORLANDO
The actor talks Pirates, Katy Perry and those paddleboarding pics.
Are we going to talk about my penis?” asks Orlando Bloom, letting out an almighty laugh. He’s referring to an episode in August 2016, when he was photographed paddleboarding naked in Sardinia with his then-girlfriend Katy Perry. The paparazzi images went viral. Did the hysteria surrounding his penis surprise him? “Yes, it was extremely surprising,” he says. “I wouldn’t have put myself in that position if I’d thought it would happen.” I wonder how the 40-year-old actor and tabloid regular (who has starred in two of Hollywood’s biggest franchises, The Lord Of The Rings and Pirates Of The
Caribbean) would think he was safe from a long-distance lens. “I have a good radar,” he says. “We’d been completely alone for five days. Nothing around us. So I had a moment of feeling free.” Had it been a woman exposed by the press there would have been outrage. Is it a case of double standards? “I didn’t take it that deep. What can I tell you? Note to self: you’re never free!”
Today, Bloom is back at the seaside, fully dressed. Seated on a couch at an alfresco bar in Malibu, he looks out towards the ocean, talking slowly and carefully. As he reclines, a small tattoo of an orange sun on his stomach peeks out from under his shirt. Joking aside, the photos alarmed Bloom. He prefers to keep his life private; his former home in Hollywood was burgled in 2009 by the gang whose exploits were portrayed in Sofia Coppola’s 2013 film The Bling Ring. Inevitably, however, there was wider interest in the more recent news that he and Perry had split after a year together. She suggested in a tweet that their parting had been blameless: “U can still b friends & love ur former partners! No one’s a victim or a villain, get a life y’all!”
As for evidence that he can handle a break-up in the public eye, Bloom points to his relationship with Miranda Kerr. The pair married in 2010, had their son Flynn, and divorced in 2013 (they now both live in LA and Kerr recently remarried). “With Miranda, there was a sense that I don’t want my son to go back through the internet where people have made up lies [about us],” he says. “Miranda and I have a remarkable relationship. We co-parent really well.” Of Perry, without mentioning her name, he says, “We’re friends. It’s good. We’re all grown up. She’s someone who’s very visible, but I don’t think anybody cares what I’m up to. Nor should they. It’s between us. It’s better to set an example for kids and show [breakups] don’t have to be about hate.”
Bloom doesn’t shrink away from shaping their post-split narrative – around the time of the break-up, he posted a video to Instagram of “the dogs” (his dog Mighty and her pooch Nugget). The British star is new to social media, having avoided it for years. “I think the times are changing,” he says. “My mum kept an article from the mid-noughties that said this kid had been googled more than anyone on the planet for four years in a row.” He pauses. “And it was me!” He apologises, concerned he sounds like a “knob”. “I’m not a millennial. They live their lives through their phones. What happens to my son? How is he going to have a real relationship if it’s all happening on his phone? Disconnecting is important.”
Now Bloom is older, he’s trying to make sense of the passing of time. He says he wants to have more
“I HAD SO MUCH SUCCESS IN MY TWENTIES – MOST OF MY THIRTIES WAS SPENT FIGURING OUT WHICH WAY WAS UP”
children, at the right time. As for his career, graduating from pin-up to an actor with longevity is no easy feat. But while some stars feel threatened by their advancing years, he feels liberated. “I’m excited about the prospect of the next 10 years. Actors do their most interesting stuff between 40 and 50. Fuck – I hope that’s the case for me!”
This year, Bloom has returned for the fifth instalment of Pirates Of The Caribbean, will play lead roles in Romans and SMART Chase, and stars alongside Noomi Rapace in the thriller Unlocked. When asked what he looks for in a role, he struggles. “I had so much [success] in my twenties – most of my thirties was [spent] figuring out which way was up. It came from that connection kids felt with [The Lord Of
The Rings’] Legolas, or [Pirates Of The Caribbean’s] Will Turner. I’m looking for that thing again.”
Age has changed Bloom, and it’s his concerns for Flynn’s future that have led him to charity work. Since 2007, he’s been involved with UNICEF, visiting children in some of the world’s poorest countries. In February he visited Niger, where he worked with families who had escaped the violence of the militant group Boko Haram. “We live in Disneyland,” he says, looking out to the waves again. “In Niger, children are living in grass huts on the side of the road. They see their parents having their throats slit. It’s beyond our comprehension. There’s a Buddhist quote that has been in my life for years, and I’m going to butcher it: there will be peace in the world when we have an understanding of what it means to make all mothers happy.”
Bloom has practised Buddhism for years. It helped him cope with his sudden rise to stardom, a process he describes as like getting inside a burning car. “You see these victims all around you: 15 minutes of fame, a Youtube sensation, whatever it may be. They don’t realise what it takes. What you want to do is learn how to suit up and get out of that burning car with grace, ease and integrity.”