The Rarely Known Details Of Orlando Bloom

Fans may think they know Orlando Bloom as the dashing pirate, or perhaps the mystical elf, but do they really know the man behind his larger-than-life onscreen roles? While viewers are offered a window into his life through his status as one of Hollywood's exceptional actors, there's a sense of just scratching the surface as to what the actor reveals about his personal life to the public. He's not out to prove to anyone anything about his talent or trajectory as an actor, choosing instead to take a step back from the movie scene in recent years to focus on his family. Still, whenever he gives the odd interview or supports his fiancée Katy Perry in her many endeavors, it seems we learn more and more about the "Lord of the Rings" star.

It's no secret that a little air of mystery can often make an individual more interesting, and Bloom is no different. While Perry may be an open book, the "Troy" star keeps his cards a bit closer to his chest, especially when it comes to his status as a mega-celebrity. "I got really good at hiding myself," he told Big Issue of adapting to becoming famous, adding, "Because I was really, painfully, trying to live without being just looked at the whole time."

However shy he may be, the actor hasn't completely avoided talking about some of the lesser-known aspects of his life and career. Here's a look at the rarely known details of Orlando Bloom.

Orlando Bloom struggled with reading and spelling at a young age, eventually finding out he was dyslexic when he was 7 years old. In an interview with the Child Mind Institute, the "Elizabethtown" actor revealed that he felt embarrassed by the diagnosis, despite having his mother's support each step of the way. "When my mother told me that I was dyslexic it was both a gift and a bit of a cross to bear, but she tried to make me feel like it was something special and I was going to be great with it," he said. "But it was something that I hid from other kids as best I could."

Bloom admitted that having dyslexia was a huge learning curve for him, one that often resulted in angry outbursts due to his frustration with reading and spelling. While he excelled in sports, being prone to distraction often resulted in a lack of focus in the classroom and a lot of self-doubt. "[Dyslexia] makes you feel stupid; you just don't feel smart," he explained. "Somewhere in me I knew that I was smart, I knew I wasn't thick, but I was just really struggling with spelling and writing, and it was holding me back."

As for his acting career, Bloom said that his learning disorder gave him a leg-up in auditions. "The gift of dyslexia was that I learned everything forward and backward, inside out, so I was fully prepared," he exclaimed.

You may think that Orlando Bloom never had to work a day in his life, given his dazzling good looks and his uber-rich lifestyle. But think again, as the "Romans" star admitted that before he became an actor, he had an interesting experience with an unusual job. Forget fast food or customer service, the actor found himself working with clay — and not the type for molding. Bloom worked on clay pigeon shooting sites, where guests would shoot at moving clay targets in the sky, an activity popular in some European countries.

"I was a clay [pigeon] trapper," the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star told Entertainment Weekly. "You know when you go shooting and the ceramic disks fly out and you shoot them? I was the guy who pulled the trap and let it go ... I always wanted to be the shooter." Bloom didn't exactly have fond memories of his position, however, telling the outlet it was his "worst job" to date. Humble beginnings, right?

Orlando Bloom's role as Legolas in the box-office blockbuster trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings," may have catapulted him to fame, but it took a serious toll on his body at the time. While he may look graceful shooting a bow and arrow on horseback as he gallops across rolling hills, the actor revealed that there was an incredible amount of physical exertion on his part during filming.

"When we were filming Lord of the Rings, I fell off a horse, got an x-ray, got told I broke a rib and that there was nothing they could do, and then I got back on the horse," he wrote on Instagram alongside several photos of him working with horses during filming. "It was painful but I'd been through worse," he recalled, explaining how he had broken his back in 1998 and doctors warned him he would never be able to walk again. Despite the ordeal, Bloom pushed through and kept filming, especially since there wasn't much doctors could do for his broken rib. "I went and had it checked out, and I was on set the next day, so it was fine, just part of the job," he said in an interview.

Orlando Bloom is big on Buddhism, having practiced the religion for over three decades. The actor became Buddhist at just 16 years old after hearing an artist he was working with practice chanting while Bloom prepared for his exams. "I just said to him one day, 'What are you doing?'" the star admitted on the "Buddhability" podcast. "And he said, 'I'm chanting that you're going to do really well in your exams, and then you're going to have a really successful life.'" The actor quickly became interested in Buddhism and began to take up his own practice, eventually becoming a member of the SGI-USA, an organization made up of Soka Gakkai Buddhists, who follow the teachings of the Japanese Buddhist saint Nichiren.

The "Gran Turismo" actor expressed how he found his faith at the right time, especially since it helped him navigate his newfound fame after taking on his character Legolas in "The Lord of the Rings" franchise. Living without his parents in London and becoming a celebrity practically overnight wasn't easy for Bloom, but practicing Buddhism kept him grounded. "It enabled me to navigate those times in my life," he said, adding that despite having "plenty of distractions," his Buddhist practice taught him much-needed discipline while he adjusted to the limelight.

Bloom reminisced about his journey to Buddhism in 2023, posting a photo of himself alongside individuals from his Soka Gakkai International group. "I became a Buddhist member of the @sgiusa & UK 19 years ago today!" he captioned the Instagram photo. "I believe there is an art to living ... Thankfully, even when I misstep, my Buddhist practice keeps me on my right road."

Orlando Bloom's Buddhist faith goes hand in hand with his discipline for health and wellness. The actor is incredibly careful about what he puts into his body, and it shows. (But really, have you seen his ripped figure lately?) According to his interview with GQ, he's scratched gluten and most sweets, instead relying on lean protein and vegetables for fuel. "I try to eat a whole food diet as much as possible," he noted. "I try to avoid sugar, because I'm an addict to sugar. Once I start, I can't stop."

The actor also said he incorporates apple cider vinegar into his diet, which is known to aid in weight loss and decreasing blood sugar count. "Sometimes I'll have a shot of apple cider vinegar and it'll just switch my brain on almost. It feeds the microbiome in a way that helps me to focus," he explained.

As for his exercise routine, Bloom said he listens to his body and tries to factor that into his training plan. "I try to mix it up. So I walk a lot or I cycle. Or I try to get cardio at a low heart rate, and then try to get a high cardio heart rate a couple of times if I can," he shared, adding that he's strayed away from heavy weight lifting. "I'm thinking more, as I'm in my mid-forties, about longevity. How does my body feel and how do I enjoy this for the long term?"

Orlando Bloom puts his platform to good use. The father of two is incredibly passionate about giving back and even became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2009. The international non-profit organization works in 190 countries to provide children with equal opportunities and protect their rights.

The actor began working with UNICEF in 2007 and has since traveled to countries like Ukraine, Niger, Nepal, Jordan, and more, working with children who might be fleeing from poverty, inhumane living conditions, or war-struck areas. He has consistently been involved in the organization's many initiatives each year, including helping launch UNICEF's Child Alert on Severe Wasting program. In a video message, he urged countries with the capacity to give back to donate to combat malnutrition and inflation, which makes it increasingly harder for some children to have access to adequate food sources.

Bloom attended UNICEF's 75th-anniversary event in 2021 alongside his partner and fellow Goodwill Ambassador Katy Perry, revealing his gratitude for the non-profit. "I just feel incredibly privileged to work with UNICEF," he told the media at the event (via E! News). "It's been about more than 10 years and I've had the great opportunity, the great good fortune to go to some of the most challenging places in the world to see how UNICEF works in a community to really bring that community together and to make a huge impact in the lives of so many."

Orlando Bloom may seem fearless, especially if his past projects have any say in the matter. His daredevil stunts in his 2024 series, "Orlando Bloom: To the Edge," had him freediving to great depths and parachuting off cliffs, but, surprisingly, the father of two does have some things that he reportedly shies away from.

Reports have speculated that Bloom has "swinophobia," or a fear of pigs. The claim came after he had a tense run-in with one on the set of "Kingdom of Heaven," which premiered in 2005. Sources said that when a pig broke out on set, Bloom "ran like crazy" to escape it. But who could blame him? After he broke a rib on horseback, he probably didn't want to chance a boar fight. Rest assured, Bloom, there are plenty of other celebrities with weird phobias!

Orlando Bloom nearly fell to his death had he not been able to execute an emergency landing while skydiving. The actor was filming his adventure series, "Orlando Bloom: To the Edge," when he realized during a skydive that a toggle on his parachute had stopped working.

He recounted the harrowing experience on an episode of "Late Night with Seth Meyers" saying, "I jump out, I'm coming down and I pull on the shoot ...  And it wasn't working," he recalled. "So I look up and there's like, it's been caught in a line, right? And I'm going, 'Oh, I'm not going to be able to land this.'" Bloom relied on his safety training beforehand, ultimately cutting one of his parachutes free and allowing a safe landing.

The show featured Bloom like viewers had never seen him before, free diving to 102 feet, falling from the sky, and rock climbing, as he learned to face his fears. But it wasn't the first time Bloom had come close to the death. The actor revealed in a UNICEF video that he suffered a terrible accident at just 19 years old when broke his back after falling from a three-story window.

"I was very fortunate to survive the fall because my spinal cord was still just intact. And when I was in hospital, I was told for the first four days that I may never walk again," he recalled. Bloom surprised his doctors when he left the hospital just 12 days later, but it wasn't an easy road in the months that followed. "I would say the months after the fall were quite a dark time," he admitted. The accident gave him a new perspective on life, however, forever changing his mental outlook. "The injury created time and space for me to look at my life, recognize what was good and great in my life ... and then build that into the way that I lived my life," he expressed.

It wasn't exactly a teenage dream when Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom crossed paths for the first time, but the pair eventually found their fireworks. In an interview on the "What Now?" podcast with Trevor Noah, the actor admitted that it wasn't Perry's career or star power that attracted her to him in the first place.

"I think one of the things that I fell in love with Katy was ... she hates when I say this, so I have to word it carefully, but her music was everywhere, right?" He clarified, "When I came up, it was just on every radio station, but I wasn't conscious of ... [it] wasn't what I was listening to." Instead, the actor said he fell in love with the woman underneath all the colorful costumes and changing hairstyles. "But, I fell in love with Katheryn, this girl from Santa Barbara." The actor also touched on his fiancée's less fortunate upbringing, where her parents often did their best to make ends meet. "And by the way, [her] parents, pastors, living on food stamps," he added.

Perry and Bloom first met at a Golden Globes party in January 2016 and went on to become Instagram official a few months later. Though they weathered a brief split in 2017, they reunited a year later and have since gotten engaged and welcomed their daughter, Daisy, in 2020.

Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry made headlines in 2023 after they were named in a lawsuit over their shared Montecito residence. The $15 million property, which the couple bought in 2020, came into question after former homeowner Carl Westcott alleged in documents obtained by USA Today that he was of "unsound mind" when he made the decision to sell to the celebrities.

Westcott originally attempted to cancel the deal after he discovered he made the transaction after taking pain pills following a surgery. Bloom and Perry refused to concede, however, leading Westcott to sue the pair's business manager.

Perry's team countersued over the ordeal, and the singer ultimately won the case (and official ownership of the home) in 2024. The celebrity couple have since happily moved into their Montecito pad along with their young daughter Daisy, after they both sold their previous properties in Beverly Hills.

Orlando Bloom went to great lengths to transform for his role in the 2024 film, "The Cut." The father of two took on the role of boxer desperate to make a big weight cut in order to compete for his last opportunity to win a title. Bloom underwent a rigorous weight loss program to prepare for the movie, ultimately losing over 50 pounds ahead of filming.

"I basically tiered down the food over a three-month period until just before filming, [when] I was at my lightest. I dropped 52 pounds, and I was about 185 when I started," he told Variety, adding that he ate things like tuna and cucumber during the process. The actor revealed that the grueling preparation involved more mind strength than anything else. "I was more surprised about the mental aspect of [it], like the sleep deprivation, and not the depleted calories," Bloom shared. "There's a lot going on in your brain ... living in that headspace for a while was very challenging."

"The Cut" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and it wasn't for the faint of heart. Bloom's fiancée, Katy Perry, barely got through watching the movie, which includes scenes of Bloom draining his own blood and even masturbating in an attempt to drop weight. "She watched it and was like, 'I need a stiff drink,'" Bloom told People.