Orlando Bloom Has Blanked ‘Troy’ Out of His Mind Because ‘I Didn’t Want to Play That Character’: It Was ‘Against Everything I Felt in My Being’
09.05.2024 - 16:05
/ variety.com
Zack Sharf Digital News Director Orlando Bloom has fond memories of making movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Lord of the Rings,” but Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 historical epic “Troy” is a different story. During an interview for Variety’s “Know Their Lines” video series, Bloom blanked on one of the lines said by his “Troy” character Paris (he thought it must be from “Kingdom of Heaven” or “Lord of the Rings”) and admitted that he has mostly blocked the movie out of his mind. “Oh my god, ‘Troy.’ Wow.
I think I just blanked that movie out of my brain by the way,” Bloom said. “So many people love that movie, but for me playing that character was just like [slits throat]. Am I allowed to say all of these things? I didn’t want to do the movie.
I didn’t want to play this character.” “The movie was great. It was Brad [Pitt]. It was Eric [Bana] and Peter O’Toole,” Bloom added.
“But how am I going to play this character? It was completely against everything I felt in my being. At one point it says Paris crawls along the floor having been beaten by somebody and holds his brother’s leg. I was like, ‘I’m not going to be able to do this.’ One of my agents at the time said, ‘But that’s the moment that will make it!’ And I completely fell for that line of a agent.
I think that’s why I blanked that from my mind.” “Troy” opened in summer 2004 and grossed nearly $500 million at the worldwide box office. Loosely based on Homer’s “Iliad,” the film featured a sprawling cast that included Bloom, Pitt, Bana, O’Toole, Diane Kruger, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Brendan Gleeson and more. Bloom’s character, Paris, is the Prince of Troy whose affair with Queen Helen (Kruger) ignites the Trojan War.