It must be an interesting experience to go from a mostly unknown person to a global superstar. It happens to actors, but rarely as quickly as it happened to somebody like Orlando Bloom. Recently, the Pirates of the Caribbean actor spoke about a moment where he realized just how famous he really was. He was in a store buying pasta sometime after the first Lord of the Rings movie had been released when he was approached by a woman in the strangest way. According to Bloom...
The first time that happened to me where I was recognized by somebody, yeah it was when I was like 23 or 22 or something. But I was walking through a supermarket, and I'd done some press and stuff... And this woman came up behind me and [LOTR] had only just released and she whispered into my ear, 'Are you my elf?'
Nevermind how bizarre it is for a woman to begin a conversation by whispering in somebody's ear, how exactly does one answer a question like that? There's no nice or polite way to do it. Things are going to be weird. Of course, Bloom's apparent response may have been the only way to handle it, play it off as a joke.
I was like, 'No, I'm your garden gnome?'
Orlando Bloom told the story as a guest on The Graham Norton Show as part of his promotion of his return to one of the franchises that turned him into that global celebrity, Pirates of the Caribbeans: Dead Men Tell No Tales. The actor played Will Turner in the series around the same time he was playing Legolas in The Lord of the Rings and between the two he became one of the biggest actors in the world. The two franchises have grossed billions of dollars between them.
Following the success that he had at such a young age, Orlando Bloom has admitted that he spent his thirties struggling as the movies he made did not result in the same connection to the audience that he had previously. It appears that this desire to get that back may have a lot to do with his decisions to reprise his role as Legolas in the Hobbit films as well as his return to Pirates of the Caribbean later this month.
The plot of the new film will see a grown up son of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann looking for his father, who has taken on the mantle of Davy Jones. Meanwhile, Captain Jack Sparrow has a problem of his own as a ship of ghost sailors have it out for him. Early reviews of the new movie have been quite positive, implying that Bloom's return may be one of the things missing from the previous installment. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tells no Tales sails into theaters May 26. Check out everything we know about the film here.
