Orlando Bloom
We've seen him as a monster-slaying elf in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and a sword-wielding buccaneer in three "Pirates of the Caribbean" films. Now, Orlando Bloom is not only making his Broadway debut, but also taking on his first Shakespearean role, in "Romeo and Juliet."
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
As a teenager, Orlando learned that his biological father was not Harry Saul Bloom, but a close family friend. "It does sound like it's right out of Shakespeare, doesn't it?" said correspondent Rita Braver.
"It does, it does," Bloom said. "And it was quite a surprise. Colin Stone, who I'm very, very close to, has always been a part of my life. I consider myself to have two fathers, you know?"
An issue that Bloom had to confront early is his dyslexia.
"I always felt like I probably had to work twice as hard as everyone else to get about the same distance as a kid at school," he told Braver. "But I think that that gave me character, and taught me a lot about hard work and what it took to get somewhere."
Bloom learned two days before his graduation from drama school that he had been cast in the Tolkien trilogy. "Happy graduation, indeed!" he told Braver. "It was ridiculous. I remember the first time I got the call, I was standing in my flat in London. And for about a week, I called my agent three or four times a day to say, 'Is it real? Really? They haven't changed their mind? Have they changed their mind yet? Are you sure? Is this really happening?'"
When Rita Braver asked Bloom what he liked about his character, Bloom replied, "What's not to like? I mean, he's immortal. He comes in and saves the day. It was just a lot of fun, honestly. And to be a part of [Tolkien's] stories, I think, is what's so magical.
"All of the characters involved in those stories have a very clearly depicted role. And I think, to Pete's credit, he really understood what those characters were and what they needed, and what moments they had. And so he knew that I was, like, the Action Elf, you know? I come in, pout, shoot a bow and arrow, save the day, say a couple of words and I'm off, you know?"
"To be honest, I would never have known. I could never have known," Orlando Bloom replied. "I remember getting off the plane and going through the Weta Workshop and seeing thousands of Uruk-Hai and Orc costumes hanging on rails and thinking, 'This is gonna be big.'"
"But it could've been a big flop."
"And I wouldn't have known, you know? I had no expectation. The joy I think for everyone on that movie was there was just all this hope and energy and pure creative flow, and no expectation of anything. Just, I think, a lot of sincere hope and energy, which was wonderful."
"There was a real dreamlike quality to that first movie," Bloom said. "'Cause Johnny was creating that character, and it was sort of all unfolding before our eyes."
Bloom said that in the script, Depp's character of Captain Jack Sparrow read "like a straight sort of hero.
"I was like, 'Wow, these two - how's that gonna work?' And when Johnny rocked up on set and just did Jack Sparrow, it was like, 'Okay, well, I know what I gotta do. I'll be the straight guy.'"
Rita Braver asked Orlando Bloom, "Were those movies as fun to make as they look like?"
"They were, yeah, they absolutely were," he replied. "Particularly the first movie, [which] was a movie that nobody had any idea. Nobody wanted to touch a pirate movie, 'cause they were like the kiss of death, I think, in Hollywood at the time. And I was doing a film with Heath Ledger and Geoffrey Rush in Australia called 'Ned Kelly.' And Geoffrey was signed up to play Barbossa. He said to me, 'You should read this 'cause I think it's gonna be really good.' And I did. It was based on the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which sounded a bit hokey, to be honest. And I think probably a lot of people kinda sidestepped it, thinking that it might be a bit hokey. And I read it and I thought the role was fantastic."
Bloom and Kerr, an Australian who began modeling at age 13 and who became recognizable for her work with Maybelline, Victoria's Secret and Balenciaga, were married in 2010.
Bloom recently announced his split from Kerr, with whom he has a child, three-year-old Flynn.
"It's been very challenging in many ways," Bloom told Braver. "You know, I love Miranda, and she loves me. We both adore and love our son. We both recognize and realize that we're going to be in each other's lives for the rest of our lives, raising our son. . . . But when you have two people who are incredibly busy and who are both very visible in the world, I think it can be challenging to keep that schedule and that kind of life in the same track, you know?"
The "Rings" trilogy, said Bloom, "was a remarkable experience, you know? Pete really gave me my start in my career and in life with that opportunity. So when he called to say, 'We're thinking we could probably squeeze Leggy into 'The Hobbit,' I was like, 'Tell me when you want me there.'"
When Braver suggested that there might be a romantic interest for his character in the new film, Bloom demurred. "It's something of a romantic interest," he replied. "I mean, romance and elves don't really, kind of ... it's [clears throat]."
At age 36, Bloom is now returning to the stage, playing one of Shakespeare's most famous roles. "Yes, my mum did liken it to me climbing Mount Everest for my first climb out the gate," Bloom laughed.
Of his stage entrance on a motorcycle, Bloom said he'd arrived for his first meeting with the play's director, David Leveaux, on a motorbike. "I think that must've stuck in his mind," he told Braver. "Because he gave me a call two months prior to us going into rehearsal, and he said, 'I've had this idea. What do you think about arriving on stage on a motorbike?' And I was like, 'Well, if you think so.' I mean, I just didn't want it to seem like a gimmick. But actually, for me as Orlando, it plays really well. And I think for the character it works.
"What I've come to realize is a Broadway audience loves to welcome their leading characters onto the stage. And so in a way, [this] kind of did that quite gracefully ... I take the helmet off, and hopefully a moment of appreciation, and then we get on with the play, you know?"
Bloom told Braver that he'd had the opportunity to perform the balcony scene in Los Angeles, and the experience "just kind of tweaked me about getting back into doing some theatre. I trained at drama school in London under Patsy Rodenburg [Head of Voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama]. It really felt like it was time to pick up that thread again."
"To have the dialogue of William Shakespeare on the stage in Broadway in 2013 to me is amazing," said Bloom. "This play was written by William Shakespeare for his youth generation, [so] when we brought this production to Broadway, I said to David [Leveaux], 'This has to be a Broadway production that is for the youth generation of New York City.' And I really think that that's what David has done. He's edited and simplified it to a place where it's very accessible to an audience, and they're getting a fresh take on a classic love story."
Bloom joked that, given his success with trilogies, "We've actually changed the ending of 'Romeo and Juliet' so that there can be a sequel!"
For more info:
"Romeo and Juliet" (Official Broadway production site)
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" (Official site; Opens December 13)
"The Lord of the Rings" (Official site)
"Pirates of the Caribbean" (Official site)
Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan