Orlando Bloom’s Life on the Edge [VIDEO]

If there was a zombie apocalypse and we had essentially just the tools on the ground, I would hope to be near you.

I don't know if that would be...

No, no, no, you're pretty nice with it. I've seen you with almost every weapon.
You're pretty nice with it.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that.
I'll take it.

You could kill a few zombies.

You know, it is called acting as well.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

This is What Now? With Trevor Noah. No, no, no.
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You know, one of the weirdest things

about doing an introduction

when somebody's sitting next to you

is that you want to give an introduction

that's as honest as possible,

but also as effusive as possible

without making it seem like you're doing it. So just act like you're not here while I speak about you.
I'm not here. Yeah, I'm chatting to Orlando Bloom today, who is arguably one of the most recognizable faces in the world because he has been, I mean, the lead in some of the biggest movies that have shaped our lives, I was thinking about the other day.
And we're going to be chatting today on the podcast. Because today, he's embarking on a different journey where it's a different type of trilogy.
As epic, I would say, as Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. Only in this story, he could actually die.
He doesn't. Spoiler alert.
He's here. This is the great news yeah he's here close though came close yeah yeah came close but but spoiler alert he's here so uh orlando bloom welcome to the podcast thanks for having me man it's great to see you by the way when you when you cut the hair i just finished working in london um on this this movie and um we cut it for that so when you cut your hair for the project yeah.
This is probably why I'd never get into acting. Well, you've got beautiful hair.
You're like Samson. No, you've got beautiful hair.
I don't know if I would like the idea of me having to change my appearance for somebody else's. Also because it might be shit.
Which is sometimes as you get a little old, you go, oh, that could well though you need to embrace that shit look right no what i mean is like imagine imagine making something that's shit and i cut my hair right oh i've done so much of that i've done so much and you go forget just looking shit it's like the time that you put in yeah i attack everything like 110 i can tell i can tell i'm like fully loaded committed so if it doesn't work it's just a lot of egg on my face and a really bad hairdo what's the thing you regret doing the most to your body for a project well i don't know the answer to that quite yet but the thing that i just did that i did extreme for my body was a movie i just produced and starred in called the cut which um it's it's a boxing movie but kind of it focuses the fight is not the fight the fight is the battle to cut lose the weight cutting is cutting is it's terrible yes it's terrible and i'm i'm a boxer kind of having i'm a boxer coming out of retirement to have a last moment of a title fight. But what I had to do was transform my body in a major way.
And so I'm about, as I sit in front of you, I'm about 185, probably similar to you-ish. What is that in kilograms? In pounds.
I don't use fake numbers. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't work in kilograms.
Do you work in stone? Yeah, I used to work in stone. I still don't understand that.
But now I'm like, yeah, I don't understand stone either. Like the English, everything seems correct.
And then it's like, what do you weigh, stone? Stone? I know. 2024.
Why don't you feel like it was probably because they just had a bag of stones? Yeah, but it feels like that. Back in the day, medieval times, they had a bag of stones.
But it's weird for that to be now. Still.
Like literally in this day and age. Oh, there's a lot of things that are quite unusual about that.
You know, it's like, oh, the economy, the GDP, and you know, oh, yeah, the new Teslas, oh, yeah, electricity. How many stones does he weigh? Yeah, how many stones? So, but anyway, 185 pounds, I dropped to 152.
185 pounds. So I dropped 35, 30-ish pounds.
Okay, I think I know what that is. That's like 70-something, 80-something kilograms.
It was brutal. How long did that take you? I worked with a really great nutritionalist in Santa Monica.
He basically tethered me, he sort of teared me down on food. And so I started just stripping out carbs and basically was running mostly keto, if you've heard of that, you know, that kind of fat thing.
And then I ended up just eating tuna and cucumber was basically it. Not worth it.
And then what I did to make the last step, I actually had this hot Epsom salt bath, which is a technique that boxers use. I dropped 10 pounds in one night.
I had 25 pounds of Epsom salt in a boiling hot bath up to my neck. What does it do exactly? I've heard about this, but I don't understand what it does.
It's like osmosis of some of some sort i think it's like because i had to basically drink two liters of water afterwards i went to bed and i woke up and i stepped on the scale and i'd been on the scale like looking at my weight obsessively so the movie really is is about the complexities of you know the masculine as it looks at weight loss weight gain all of those things but yeah it was brutal okay but so so here's this is this may be the perfect segue to get into your new show um on peacock you you you've made this new show yeah maybe maybe why is the the most important question for me i mean not a bad question yeah like like you you already make movies right okay and you're living your life you're a dad you're a husband you how and why does orlando bloom decide to make a show that isn't it isn't like a cute easy show which is what i thought it was going to be when i first heard of it you know they're like oh this, oh, this is going to be, you're going to be skydiving and you're going to be,

you're going to be, you know, free diving and you're going to be climbing.

I was like, oh, this is adorable.

Yeah.

I want to see you do this.

Yeah.

And then I watched it.

I was like, this is, this is work.

This is horrible.

Yeah, it was a lot.

I sort of came up with this idea during COVID,

but it was, I was just feeling all the fear, you know,

around me all the time.

You know, we were all,

I think that was a really challenging time for the planet, for the world. I'm actually probably a wonderful time for the planet because we nobody was doing anything but for the for us humans on the planet it was a super challenging time i think we can all agree and i actually have had this buddhist practice since i'm 16 and i thought what i'd like to do is meet people like elders like wise people and people who a long time, because I think we're also afraid of dying because of this COVID disease and talk to them.
But the, but we didn't really get any bites on that. They were like, how about we just throw you out of a plane down to the bottom of the ocean and, you know, you can try climbing something.
And I was like, yeah, that works with my sort of, that works. That's the other thing that I would sort of probably.
Cause you're, you're, you're an adventure junkie. You know, I'm, I'm definitely, um, I definitely enjoy the thrills and the adrenaline and the high octane moments in life.
And I think part of that is probably down to being, you know, I was diagnosed dyslexic as a kid, but I'm also wasn't diagnosed ADD. There's loads of labels you can give people.
But like, you know i was diagnosed dyslexic as a kid but i'm also wasn't diagnosed add there's loads of labels you can give people yeah like you know i think like that definitely played into who i am and often you know when you're like when i was a kid when i was on stage i was terrified as a as a child performing on stage it's where i learned to perform was just at school theaters and stuff but i was never more focused i was never more present i was never more interesting than when i was absolutely shitting myself you like you didn't have time i can relate to this um as somebody who has adhd your your brain doesn't have the luxury of being distracted because you have to const it's life or death right right you know what i mean there's no like checking your texts there's no you know meandering if you're not in the moment did you did you feel that as a child like were you were you were you cognizant of that as a child or is it something that you now understand in hindsight do you know i only really in the last two years started to look at and this is even before the show i kind of that ADD was something that was definitely part of my life. When I actually had a conversation and I remember sitting down in an office with somebody and they gave me a list and I was like, I started going through the list.
It was just like tick the boxes. And I was like, and I just stopped ticking and I just looked and then I flipped over and I just looked and I went, okay, I don't need to.
It was you. Yeah.
I was like, this is everything. And then I was like, I don't want to take a pharmaceutical.
I flipped over and I just looked and I went okay I don't need to it was you yeah I was like this is everything and then I was like I don't want to take a pharmaceutical I'm English and I think America has you know got a lot of stuff that they do with pharmaceuticals you're not wrong I'll tell you that much so I was like I don't want to take an anthology like someone's going to get me um you didn't want to take like a stimulant I didn't want to take it and I'd been raw dogging it for so long that i was like listen this is my character guys you know love me or leave me but i think my partner was like okay you know like that doesn't work for somebody who's got ocd yeah because because what are some of the things you do so you you race motorbikes i saw you right you race around the track yeah right what do you have a bike right now i have i have more than one what do you what's your what's your go i saw i Ducati and the… Yeah. I'm not riding super fast.
I've got an Aprilia that's for a track. Oh, those are fun, though.
Yeah, it's fast. Those are nice.
I always love the way the engine… It's such a specific vibration. Vibration.
Yeah. I mean, that whole feeling.
I think that… Like, motorcycles… You know, I started riding motorcycles when I was a kid. I really… You know, I got my license when I was 16.
I rode a Vespa around town. and you know i started riding motorcycles when i was a kid i really um you know i had i got my my license when i was 16 i rode a vespa around town and you know i was a cool kid and you know then i rode a motorbike in london which town is canterbury happily on the wall i feel like london london is the london would have been yeah like london uk everyone in the uk is the least vespa town i can think like i ride bicycles everywhere i go in the world right just to get around love london i'm terrified yes yes there's more i remember even seeing the stats once and it's like it's one of the most dangerous places to ride bicycles in it is because you're i'm sure your drivers in the uk they have like a they're almost angry at you for being on a bicycle and passing them in the traffic do you know what i mean there's like a yeah it's like yeah yeah it's true it's true you're getting ahead of us there's like a massive it's like it's sort of a race which actually i've i think i've i inherited a bit of that in my driving style which is like like aggressive and it's you're racing through the streets i mean i'm people hate being in the car with me they think i'm dangerous but i think i'm super focused

but i am it is like i'm racing everybody so it's like i'm like okay i need to just take a chill bill um because i think there's a lot to learn from that as well right a bit of grace a bit of grace i'm considering more i'm i'm fascinated by this did it for those who know nothing about the show,

you essentially choose three,

I don't even know if you'd call them sports because they're all extreme.

Yeah, I guess they're sports.

They're extreme sports.

They're extreme sports.

I don't know.

It just feels death defying to me,

you know, because you have,

do they call it wingsuit flying?

Yeah, wingsuiting.

Wingsuiting.

Wingsuiting, yeah.

Yeah, you have wingsuiting where you're basically like a giant squirrel. you jump out of a plane and then you hope for the best yeah and then you do um you do diving but free diving free diving no tanks no nothing yeah essentially like yeah you might just die coming back up to the surface feels like it um and then you have uh rock climbing but like all of these kind of them yeah talk me through this moment so you're a dad right right you you are currently with someone i am when you say to them hey you know what i'm gonna go do i'm gonna go learn how to jump out of a plane and i'm gonna do this in two weeks i'm gonna get my jumping license yeah my skydiving license you know the one that normally takes months yeah i'm going to do that in in a week yeah i'm going to get qualified yeah and then i'm going to start wingsuiting which i don't think anyone done before no i don't think i don't i've never to find out i've never heard of anybody do you think i could get a do you think somebody said to me the other day maybe you could go for like one of those uh guinness book of records for like the quickest to uh to a you might you might actually have it because how many jumps did you do in one day for instance there's in the first episode we just see you go jump for jump for jump for jump for jump how many do you think you did like the first day was at least five i think and then you know i mean the the time the accelerated time frame i mean the thing is is that what's crazy about that is that every increment everything that you change technically with the gear where there's a different shoot like we started with one shoot it's a beginner's shoot then you change to another shoot which has a totally different feeling under canopy right the canopy is the shoot all of these different things come into play and you're like and you're and you're and my brain is moving trying to keep up with things that I'm learning.
And it's a pretty straightforward thing. When you jump out of a plane, one to release your shoot.
If that doesn't work to, you release the shoot that didn't work. And three, you're like, I forgotten what it is.
It's one, one to release the shoot. It's pretty straightforward.
You see, let me tell you now in the uh in the uh calm space that we we're recording a podcast it's pretty simple and i've forgotten it there are three moves is this why you need to do it you need to be like one out the back is the shoot okay two to release it if it that didn't work for whatever reason and then three is on the other side yeah three to open the second shoot so you have two shoots if the first shoot doesn't open in it's a it's like a one in a thousand chance yeah that the shoot doesn't open that's right we're watching you jump yeah on the seventh jump i think if i remember correctly oh my god i've given i'm getting pts just thinking about it on the seventh jump your shoot doesn't open yeah what like opens and a weird. So it opened actually, which is not as insane as if it hadn't opened, which would have been, I'd have been thinking in seconds.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the protocol is one, two, doesn't work.
One, two, I'm going. So I was like, right, baby, here we go.
One, two. And then I was like, one, the other chute fell away and I was into free fall again and then two and then I felt the canopy came out and I was like I was just like oh you don't even realize how terrifying this is until you see the look on the face of the guy who was driving by can you believe we got that you land by the side of the road and there's some good like just some good samaritan yeah who drives up and you love that you saw his face he he was like how are you alive because all he saw was somebody falling out the sky parachute not working parachute snap and then a parachute land in the field yeah in that moment did your did your life flash like Like people always talk about what happened in that moment to you? Is it fear? Is it adrenaline? Is it practice? Is it? You know what's really interesting, actually, Trevor, is I think what I learned most is that these kind of wild people who do these wild things, they aren't experts in this little area.
Like people have asked me if i've done any of these things subsequently and the truth is i haven't not because i haven't wanted to but because i think it's a lifestyle choice these people are experts they are they were the family they are the people that taught me how to how to navigate and it's protocol it's like everything you depend on is like it it's like there's a protocol. You follow that.
So long as you're good with your maker. Yeah.
You know? Otherwise. But you know what I found? That's actually one of the things I found like really fascinating about the show is there's this paradox.
You know when you think of extreme sports? Yeah. You think of all the people who are doing everything to risk their lives yeah and the one thing i noticed when watching your show was these people have more discipline yeah than we have when like driving on the highway that's like you know the same way you'll go i'm gonna look at my phone that's right let me check a few texts that's right or did i put my seatbelt no the people who do extreme sports are the most disciplined people yeah because they they acknowledge the fact that at any moment it can end and it lights out and then ironically in life we're running around like people cross the street yeah we cross the street we don't even pay attention you know do you do you think that changed something in you at any point like did it make you even if it lasted for a few weeks was there was there a part of you that was a little more meticulous now huge i mean it was it was huge for me in that respect because it it like i like to think that when i i'm i overly prepare partly because of dyslexia or whatever else when i when i'm preparing to go into a into a movie or a character of some sort but this was like okay this is life stuff this is these are these are tools for life like and confidence like it gave me a certain sense of like oh man i i did that i can do this this isn't and i think wait even at this stage in your life yeah because i would assume that you feel accomplished all the time no i mean that could be not really i mean i feel like i think you know so young to have had so much great good fortune and to come out the gate but not really knowing you know my ass from my elbow and just like i mean that's not true i trained i went to i always do this to myself but somehow yeah i think you know i think it's i think it's only really getting interesting for me now in some ways in this i don't know how you're you're you're you're a few years younger than me right you're like where you're like i'm like 47 oh i just turned 40 so there you go right so it's like yeah so it's but my but my journey was you know as much as you you went to school and you and you studied there's a strange curse I'll think about for people who experienced the pinnacle.
And I mean the absolute pinnacle of success. Yeah.
Like think about it. You come out of drama school.
It was what? Your last week? Two days before I finished, yeah. There you go.
That I heard. But I mean, yeah.
And then you get Lord of the Rings. Yeah, I mean, I've been auditioning for months, but yeah.
Yeah, but this is what, but they give you, no, they give you the announcements. They go, all right, Lord of the Rings, it's on.
Even at that point, people knew that this was going to be one of the biggest films ever made because it was based on one of the biggest books ever. It was massive, massive, massive, massive.
The cost, the everything, the budgets. But in a strange way, it's almost like dreaming of being a mountain climber and then your first mountain is ever and then you know then you go on to do pirates of the caribbean and it's like oh your second mountain is kilimanjaro right i i often wonder like how you keep yourself motivated yeah or even stimulated yeah when those are your first piece yeah like what's like how what's that been like in life it's been a real uh it's been a it's a it's been a lot about evolving i think i think that there was a period where i was just it just never ended i was either on a on a set or i was doing publicity for a movie if you think that there were three rings so i was for three years i was releasing a huge movie with law of the rings and there were like three hobbits two of which i did and then there were like troy and kingdom all these giant i just hit the juggernaut of all these epic style movies right i think i had just gotten kind of like um i'd lost a i love what I do and I think I just love what I do.
And I had all of this amazing opportunity.

And I think. i'd lost a i love what i do and i think i i just love what i do and i i'd had all of this amazing opportunity and i think a little bit like that kind of tolkien quote of it like where bilbo says he felt like a piece of toast that was spread a little thin you know i just did i just did i just had lost i'd lost a sense of who i was and where i was because it with with all of the those huge movies came all of this attention that I didn't really know what to do with and it was you know there was always people following me and you know I couldn't go anywhere in the world and I like to be in the world I like to go to places you know it's like I like to be amongst people and I like to ask people I'm curious about people yeah so I was suddenly like you know not able to do those things it's why i picked up motorcycling again actually because i could actually get to one place without being the helmet right you know the helmet can i tell you i one of my favorite things when when riding my friends used to ask me this they go like why do you like riding so much you know when i used to ride back in the day and i said one of my favorite things about riding a motorbike is you don't exist it's just the helmet and i found it was one of the few instances where there literally was no race there was no gender there was no where you find there were and all motorcyclists we have like a camaraderie about us we all know what's happening we all know that we got life in our heads every time we get on the bike it's this interesting connection that you have but but that anonymity is also a special thing.
Yeah. And I had, you know, a child with my ex now and I was very present for him.
And then when we separated, I was sort of, I was living kind of like, you know, and not really working. And then I sort of went on a bit of a journey at that time.
And I did a a lot of stuff with led hamilton i was living in malibu and i did this crazy swim training with him and then i was sort of like flying on motorcycles on tracks learning a few kind of i was doing a lot of adrenaline things i was really pushing my edges like trying to do you think you were trying to feel what do you what do you think i think i was trying to feel because i was numb and i was probably depressed and didn't really know that I was depressed because I had everything. I had attained everything and everyone looked at me like I had everything.
And I was like, you know. But then it felt like, you know, I remember Alec Baldwin telling me on this movie set when we worked on Elizabethtown.
He said, they'll give you the keys to the executive bathroom. Take the keys.
I was like, what does that mean? He was like, if you don't, there's a key right behind you. I was like, okay, bro.
What does that mean? It means you can go into like the studio and you can go into the executive bathroom instead of going where everyone else goes to the bathroom. You know, that's a big deal.
Anyway, I don't know. But I think the analogy is if you don't take the key, if you don't keep making the most of that moment, there will be a bunch of guys who are ready to go.
And they're going to take that. Yeah, but can I tell you? Yeah.
So I'm torn on this idea. I agree.
I'm torn on this idea. I feel like one of the worst things we've done in the world today.
And, you know, part of it is a byproduct of capitalism. Part of it is like the competitive nature of like, you know, it exists more in America, but it's not like it's not a quote unquote bad America thing.
It just it happens in many places. I think we threaten people who dare to take a break or try to find balance in their lives by telling them that if they do, there's other people who are going to take what they're taking for granted when they're not taking it for granted do you know do you know what i'm saying that happens but in this instance i think even like an energy wise like i think i had personally shut down oh energetically i had closed shop i was like i was just like i'm toast right now and i energetically didn't know which way to go that's a scary place to be and it created in me i think a very deep sense of you know uh like what what was my next all of these things that have been so mapped out yeah and i didn't have the work-life balance right so you know that was part of the problem and i always think i was working you know that old adage are you working to live or living to work kind of thing and you know definitely so at the time of doing the show as well it's like how do i just how do i grow how do i i'm all about evolving yeah trying to grow trying to be you know i've had as you said i had a pretty unique experience so how do i stay kind of creatively involved i mean i basically now for the last few years i've done movies that probably there's considering what how many people saw the first half of my career virtually nobody's seen the second half as you know the second chapter it's a it's really it's like it's artisanal it's it's like it's like but you know what i think i was missing before i got cast in lord of the rings my agent in london had called me and said the rsc is interested in you coming to work you know coming to be in rep and work with the rsc and i was like well hey baby i've landed this is it because in england it was like you go to theater yes maybe

you get a bit of telly and then you go and do a movie right and i was like well let's go what are

we waiting for let's go i'm ready you know pull me let's go you know but she she never she never

let on a thing by the way about you know the about what was happening with rings and i was like

from the I'm ready you know pull me let's go you know but she she never she never let on a thing by the way about you know about what was happening with rings and I was like probably ADD still just going out on all these auditions which I get pulled out for I think I auditioned on tape for Baz Luhrmann like five or six times for Moulin Rouge and I kind of just did all of these and I would go up for all sorts of auditions and it was like that's a skill as well that's a muscle right to learn how to be in a room and audition yeah so i was like not thinking about anything and then she gave me that call about rings so i was like wait what but i often think i wonder what my life would have been like because in a way i missed this part of my career you know so i went back and did romeo and juliet on broadway i went back and did a play on the west end i went back to a couple of times i feel like in a way this the things that I've been doing in the last few years you know I did this crazy movie called they renamed it Retaliation it was originally Romans I got these they dropped during COVID I got these crazy reviews I got some of the best reviews of my career actually it was wild it was like beautiful it was nobody it was literally the thing I think one of the reporters just to say said Orlando Bloom must be really gutted right now because he's just done some of his best work and nobody's going to see this movie. Oh, man.
It was like, I was like, great. Do you think it filled something in you that you didn't know you needed filled because? Filling.
I think I'm filling. I think it's a tank where it's like, look, I think, you know, we're all on this journey, right? We're all in our own fields, in our own respective fields.
We've all got goals that we maybe look to. And when you've had so many met at such a young age, then you're like, I need to, I kind of was going back to basics.
I was like, okay, what, how am I going to, I need to kind of do this. I skipped a step.
You know what I mean? I skipped the theater. I skipped the small independent movies, but there was something I felt was missing.
So I've sort of been building that part of my life and career because i think i you know hopefully i'll have you know it'll it'll only kind of keep getting better as my home you know what i mean and i want to i want to fill the gaps in the foundation that i felt were maybe missing and even if that's true or not so that's kind of what i've been doing and it's been there's been a few roll of the dice and some of them have worked, some of them haven't. But, you know, I love every time I stand on a set.
I always think like, where would I rather be? And unless it's with family and my kids or something, even I'm just like, it's just, I'm in my happy place there. We're going to continue this conversation right after this short break.
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Thanks to Amazon, healthcare just got less painful. one of the more interesting parts of the show is learning that you, essentially, did you break your back or did you, what did you do to it? Yeah, I fell three floors and I crushed T12.
I need to understand what happened because obviously you allude to it and then we see the pictures of you in the hospital. And essentially there's a moment doctors said hey you're never going to walk again yeah so explain to me what happened where were you how do you fall three floors because they just say that in passing he fell three floors and i was like how where do you fall three floors i don't know how that's possible so i was in my second year at drama school i just finished like we'd had this five-a-side soccer match with the other drama schools we'd gone to a pub i had you you wait? Did you win or lose? I need the details.
Anytime there's a football match, I need to know. I can't imagine that we won.
We weren't the winning side. Okay, got it, got it.
I probably blanked that out. I'd gone to a pub with everyone afterwards, had a Sunday roast of maybe one pint.
Not like I was a big drinker. I've never been a big drinker.
And i went over to these these friends house in in chepstow villas in in in notting hill and i uh they just moved in these these two girlfriends of mine and they'd they'd had this fourth floor apartment and this the stairwell that went up to the flat had a landing below their fourth floor apartment and the door they said oh we can't get that door open but there's a roof terrace for us to use. And we're going to put plants and stuff.

And I was like, oh, it just needs to be kicked in from the outside.

So anyway, I was like, you'll have to get that.

And then we walked into the apartment.

I was like, wow, this is such a great apartment.

I looked at the window.

This is the ADD impulsiveness.

This is 100% what that is. I'm seeing it now.

I looked out the window.

I was like, oh, wow.

I looked to the surface.

I said, oh, wow, there's the roof terrace.

And I kid you, the roof terrace is probably from this chair to where, you know, a a half to the left and i'm like oh i could just jump i could jump that that's no problem but then instead i saw this piece of metal running down the wall which was not a drain pipe that you could hold on to it was a piece of metal like coming out the wall like like this and i was like oh well if i just pinch it like this i'll grab hold of it like this you've watched movies across clearly. And I'll shimmy across.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Somehow I was like, I'll pull it and just pull across.
And I got out of the window, held onto this thing. And of course, there's nothing for my feet.
And I just fell. And I landed on a, from a floor floor window on a first floor balcony that had, you know, in England, they have those.
So the railings are going around with those like, you know, spearheads. Oh, with like the spikes.
The spearheads. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the, an old washing machine.

And I landed like plumb between the middle of it.

And I was like, I think out for a couple of minutes.

My best friend who's actually in the show.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He was like, Gibbo, Gibbo.

I was like, and I was out.

And then I kind of remember coming around and I was like, I think my first thought was,

who's going to play Orsino in Twelfth Night?

Because I was having a really good time playing Orsino.

I was like, I'm not going to be doing that. And I was like, I can wiggle my toes, but nothing else.
And I was obviously in shock. And your body, I think, when you, you know, the pain came later.
But essentially, London is amazing. This is why I'll pay taxes for the rest of my life, wherever I am.
But I'm like, specific because like there was nobody in that first floor flat I was on the balcony they got so they ended up getting a fireman winching him in he kicked open the doors to somebody's house destroying their doors no doubt they opened and got the special services in so they called this the Royal Stamble Orthopedic Hospital and they said they'd just got a hospital flu so they were taking no more inpatients there was like no more but they were like we have a 20 year old kid may never walk again unless you take him and they were like so they took me at walking pace in an ambulance my parents were in the car a car behind following like with police escorts took five hours to get from paddington to north london to this other hospital so that i would be able to be seen and treated at this you know much better hospital um that could handle my case and so when i got in it was like yeah for four days they were like yeah yeah that's were you were you present when they were saying were they saying this to you yeah i was i was i was present. I was in a lot of pain.
I basically had almost severed my spinal cord, but I hadn't quite. So I like, I remember this sensation.
They had a cage over my legs. Cause if I touched my legs, it was like razor blades coming up under the skin or like electricity.
It was crazy. The nerves had gone.
There was this wonderful nurse actually, who she used to come in at night and move my legs, move my body.

Because she was like, I don't even know where she came from.

This is the NHS care stuff.

You know, amazing.

Amazing.

But so I'm in this hospital.

I'm looking at the bed opposite me.

And there's a guy with a cage, one of these.

They call it a halo.

It's a cage.

Young 18-year-old guy jumped into a lake. He used to be in the army army his parents were just weeping by his bed because he was never going to walk again and there was a guy to my left who'd fallen off a ladder and broken his back and he was wearing this plastic cast and he turned to us and he looked and we were chatting and i was just getting used to looking at like the ceilings and thinking oh i could get used to looking at ceilings i suppose i mean you know they're kind of interesting it's a different perspective right he said he knocked on his chest and he goes if you get one

of these mate you're going to be good and i was like what he goes this this this so the surgeon came first they were like you're not walking and they said we're going to do an mri because you're physically able to move you to the mri and they were like hanging on by thread. So we're going to try opening your spine.

We will pin and plate above this one crushed vertebrae and the two below that are fractured.

But we will put a structure around it, a titanium structure, so that you can move.

And then we'll see what happens.

And basically, I finally got this plastic cast. And I mean, I was 20.
So admittedly, youth was on my side. Yeah, but still, youth and then, as you said, your maker slash your ancestors, slash whatever you want to call it.
Angels, whatever you want to call it. Amen.
That clearly changes how you see the world. And it changes how you see life.
Yeah. When now climbing it was interesting of of all the of all the sports you were participating in the first time you looked uncomfortable to me was when you had to climb so jumping out of an airplane you were like all right tell me the rules how does this go there's even a point where you come in really hot one of your parachute landings i thought you're gonna break your legs and you were And you were just like, ha ha, did you guys see that? Did I scare you? Ha ha ha.
And you just carry on. You really just carry on.
The first time where it just felt like a little bit of your swag disappeared was when you had to climb. There's two things I wanted to know about that.
One, what did you learn about getting over your fears or your traumas in that experience and in that moment and did you and then

the second one is how did you how did you put that much trust in people who you never really met yeah never spent any time with right but fundamentally had to believe yeah had your best interest at heart Yeah, overcoming the fear was um was a sort of i've had this sort of unique trust in life since i'm very young and it's not really any rhyme or reason for it but i just mentally went to that place which i think you do when you're when it's game time when you're like this is it i'm on the most challenging thing the fearful thing about that by the way was was for me was with parts of my dyslexia and other things was like these knots learning learning to tie the knots and these and when you're gonna move these things yeah it's just like the loop goes that way and if you go the other way then it's wrong and then it's like and if you go the wrong way so that was, I just had to commit to the process and be as present to it as possible and trust that this was something that was meant for me and that I'm on this journey and I'm committing to it. So I'm going to go like I do 110%, you know, and I'm going to go into it.
And the really hard part was the second part to your question, which was trusting and meeting Mo for the first time. And he was an adaptive climber who was climbed since she's a child with one hand, born with one hand.
So her spirit and her confidence and the twinkle in her eyes was really kind of leading me forward. And I was like, look, if she can do this and she's telling me i can do this i can do this but i was i i had terrible potty mouth on that shot they beeped me about a million times because i was so i was there were points where muscles in my back and in my body that i didn't even hadn't yeah everyone says when you climb you learn parts of your body you never knew you had and you know i knew if i fell i was going to fall on a rope so in some ways it didn't have the same abs abject terror of standing on the edge of something but the climbing was just it was so challenging to overcome at one point i'm climbing this in this video bit and i completely i've had i chant now i'm your enge kyo since i'm a kid and this woman goes so what do you do i breathe and she goes well because my head was so spinning it was like i chant now i'm your enge kyo and i'm like and then suddenly i was like okay i'm doing it i can do it you know what i mean it's like my magic kind of tape if you like and so i'm like just like chanting my way through which is like basically just saying i'm grateful i'm grateful i'm grateful yeah you know i don't know if my read was correct but when i was watching the show i felt i felt like i learned a lot more about you as a person you reveal parts of yourself that are forcefully drawn out by the the severity of the situation right you know so so when when you when you're wingsuiting and you're skydiving, you're getting, you know, accredited in the space of a week, I see a side of you that is like you really push yourself.
I couldn't help but wonder where you get that from. You have like such a, it's like, are you hard on yourself? Yeah to i don't want to i don't want to ever look back and think i didn't suck the marrow right because i feel like i feel like there's there's there's like i would always take the the harder path right because i would get something from that you know and i think that that's what the show represented for me taking the hardest path possible to confront this fear at a time where i felt so much fear and it's just that like for me i'm i'm super privileged you know i'm super blessed i've had this insane life what is it going to take for me to be out of that to it took this insanity hopefully the takeaway is let's step outside of whatever it is is our comfort zone so that we can and and and trust and engage and be curious and learn and sort of try to that was you know that's what i'm that's me right trying to do that stuff that's just you know and and i think the hardness is like, it's, it's probably just an ancestral thing.
And like, you know, I think partly having so many remarkable experiences so early, like I, my whole life played out on giant movies that everyone watches, had watched, and I was just still learning, you know, like I look at some of my peers and, you know, like some of my friends who are in the business who started in the disney club you know what i mean yeah so like acting was like second nature to them they're like all directors now or like you know they're like literally they started at 12 and they're in the dis so they they have timing they have comedy they have dance they have everything that they i was like i was doing school plays you know playing the pirates of penzance and the police officer i didn't even play the pirate i played the fuck you know i played the character you know and i was like you know i went to the national youth theater and i didn't get the lead roles i was like the spear carrier and by the way chewy chew it i'm not shouldn't chew it tell who was like he played othello right and he was like i was like on stage with him when he was doing and he was like chewing the scenery oh my god yes he's just like chewing the scenery we were all looked up to him and he was just like crushing it as a fellow. I've never seen an animal on stage like it as a kid where he's just dominating.
And I'm like, so I'm like with my spear. And the guy was like, just pipe down with the spear, Orlando.
You're not like, do you know what I mean? I'm like, you know, it was like that. So I'm learning everything, but like in these tiny bits of moments.
So then I'm suddenly 18 or 20 and i'm going off and i'm i mean it was the most amazing education and thankfully peter jackson and and fran his partner and that whole team in new zealand were just like and ian mckell and in home you know christopher lee vigo mortensen was my was my mentor basically he didn't even know it i used to sit next to him and just like absorb his and that guy there's there's a guy who's committed. There's a guy who knows, like there's a guy who's an artist.
I think I felt like maybe it was like, people would like to say, and people probably think or said it was a layup. They don't know the work that went into it before.
So in a way, it's like, they don't know the amount of auditions I went through. This makes a lot of sense.
I left home at 16 to move to London on my own, to hustle like a crazy person, to get into drama school, fail the first time, second time, get in. Then to get myself through drama school, to work on the weekends, folding clothes, to sell, you know, to get, you know what I mean? It's like.
There's a beautiful phrase. A friend said it to me once.
She said, she was actually on the podcast a few episodes ago um for my birthday but she was saying she i love this line she said um she said overnight success does happen overnight but the preparation leading up to that point takes a lifetime yeah and i think that's sort of what you're speaking to i i was i was because it's zero to everything i was i was probably eight or six and i used to sit in the school gym and imagine that I was Superman flying in to get my girlfriend or something. It was like I had like fantasies of playing like the full guy, right? Lee Majors, I used to watch that.
Or, you know, like it was things like Dallas and LA Law. I was very like, you know, watching TV of American, the American style.
You know what I mean? Like it was all of that that led to the and i think breaking my back you know i think if anything i remember going back to drama school and i sat in this circle of friends and it was all like everybody had to speak about what they were going to do and we all had to speak about what the other what we how we saw the other person right so everybody said like what are they when we come out of drama school you know we talked about and everybody went around and we were like oh this is what maya does she's this amazing italian actress yeah who i i love and adore still and and and you're sort of imbuing all of these people with like your dead dreams beautiful i like it was really special and people said wonderful thing even though i'd broken my back and they were like and and people who i didn't even think liked me honestly and they were saying these wonderful things about about what they thought i could i was capable of and it was as if i didn't know that it's a very weird thing you you mentioned this earlier i think there's there is a disconnect which is probably why i keep going back to yeah no this makes sense building it out you know what i mean and i'm good with that it's like i work i just work you know it's like just keep showing up i think tom hank said that right it's like something will give and it's like in a weird way i like that though so the other thing i learned was you one of the parts of the show that's i mean in time it probably takes no time in the show but it has i think some of the most gravitas in the show it's it's the moments where you're talking to katie yeah yeah and it's it's beautiful because it showed me something about the two of you that is very difficult for people to understand until you see it yeah and it's that you seem to be pursuing a life of purpose a a life of of peace and also strangely enough like a life of normalcy yeah which is strange because like katie perry one of the biggest pop stars that's ever lived orlando bloom one of the biggest actors that's ever been you know like the movies not really the blockbuster you name it trilogy after trilogy but it's there's this strange thing where it seems like the two of you have found a connection that exists in peace and normalcy like and i could be wrong you could just be like no no i think one

of the things that i fell in love with with katie was like i didn't really um she hates when i say

this so i have to word it carefully but um her music was everywhere right when i came up it was

just on every radio station but i wasn't conscious of like i wasn't what i was listening to but like

i fell in love with this with katherine this girl from santa barbara you know and by the way parents

Let's go. wasn't conscious of like i wasn't what i was listening to but like i fell in love with this with katherine this girl from santa barbara you know and by the way parents pastors living on food stamps yeah we're not talking glamorous right montecito like or it's the side of santa barbara no one knows yeah this side no one knows and we both understand i think we both meet each other with understanding where we came from what we worked to do what we had to do to get to where we got to and she definitely demands that i evolve right and i feel i do the same for her and that makes for fireworks pardon the pun, but it also makes for a lot of fun and a lot of growth.

And, you know, I wouldn't change it for anything, even when sometimes it feels like, how do we do this? Because we've got these two giant careers and lives and hers is even, you know, there's even, it's like a universe sometimes. but I think I just keep coming back to her and trying to like hold her hand and walk it back to

the... Hers is even, you know, there's even, it's like a universe sometimes.
But I think I just keep coming back to her and trying to like hold her hand and walk her back to the sand pit and be like, yeah, but this is, we're just going to build a sandcastle, you know.

And she loves to do that too.

She's like, oh yeah, the sandcastle.

Or the ride of the bike, you know, the little moments that that and she's a master at helping to

you know do create the help help to keep building those moments you know so i try to i try to hold a space big enough i try to be big enough i think even you could even say in the show it was like me proving to myself that i was man enough big enough whatever capable enough because part of it was i learned to be capable in that show in life in a way that like and it's like see i could do it yeah mom i could do it yeah see this babe i could do it you know if you thought i couldn't i drive too fast look at this you know what i mean um but in a way you know that's me that's my journey that's my journey of evolution to like constantly remind myself that you know of the things that you know because i sometimes i forget i mean maybe but but it seems like she never forgets that that's what i mean is so powerful and i hope i hope people watch the show even if it's just for that moment and that reason yeah every time you do something amazing in the show and it's amazing not just because you've done it but because of the time frame that you've done in, you seem to be surprised and you seem grateful and you seem happy.

She seems like it was a confirmation of something she always believed about

you.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

There's always a moment where,

and she either says it or she intimates,

she almost has a vibe of like,

all right,

now come home.

Yeah,

yeah,

yeah,

you jumped,

you did it.

I knew you were going to do it.

Now come down.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it,

it really is.

It really is stunning.

Don't go anywhere. Cause we we got more what now after this i could talk to you forever about this but you know unfortunately time is time yeah that's right some people say you're gonna come jump with me then jump where we'll jump out of a plane together let's do that i'll get you with luke you'll love it confront some of those fears have you done it before maybe you've done it before i haven't done it before let's do it let's go jump out of a plane so here's the thing here's the thing um orlando i i come from an african family and there's one thing i've promised myself and my family that they won't all they'll need to do if they ever god forbid have to come to my funeral all they'll have to do is cry okay they won't have to ask questions they won't have to justify why i'm there or how i'm there they will just they'll just get to cry and go trevor's now god willing none of them will ever be coming to my funeral because they're older than me.
What would be your fear then?

What would be the one that you would do?

No, not all of them.

But it's not like my, what I mean by it's not my fear is I don't have a fear of jumping out of a plane.

Right.

I just think.

You don't have a desire either.

Exactly.

So I think of it this way. I think in life, we have a limited amount of luck and we have a limited amount of i don't believe this magical life force thing i think that's my brain oh really it's endless this is what happens if you break your back and then you walk i mean after that you go like i can probably do it again you know no and then it's great it's great for you um but yeah i don't know i i look i'm not saying i won't ever do it right you know i i bungee jumped oh yeah well there you go now that's I've done that's an intense feeling it's safer than skydiving but it is more terrifying yes it is it's terrifying it is terrifying and I never want to do it again I don't need to do it again I love it I hated it I hated all I hated jumping I hated waiting to jump I hated falling in South Africa at the time it was the highest jump It's just terrifying And then there's a moment Where you're just hanging upside down This is all that's happening Blood rushing to your head And you think Why did I do this? And then it feels like Your feet are slipping out And then you get to the top And they're like Huh? Huh? How's that? I'm like no I'm good thanks It felt like I jumped off a bridge Do you know what I mean There was nothing that changed in me Like I Because let me put it this way I believe as Trevor I can jump off a bridge if I need to I believe this So nothing changed after that I didn't walk away from it going You see I can jump off a bridge I knew I could If I need to I will jump off of a bridge Right But I'm not I hope I don't need to Right let you go, I'll ask you the question.
I'll ask everyone who comes on the podcast. And thank you again for joining me.
Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate the time, the conversation.
I love it. You being candid.
Love what you're doing here. What now? What does Orlando seek to do now? Because, again, you have sort of done the same thing that you did with Lord of the Rings and Pirates.
This is another trilogy is a personal trilogy right right right where do you want to see yourself going from here three visions if i can make good on this promise that i made to myself that that for my career right yeah like if i can make good on this promise then i'll be able to use what i've been doing there to to support my work like which unicef which i've done for like 20 years, which I find like to be the most rewarding thing in my life outside of my family. Right.
If I keep moving those three around. So it's just, it's a quite- Family, not in any specific order, but family.
It's like if my career's going, if I keep just showing up for my career and it keeps working, then it gives me a greater platform to keep working onicef which is really something that i think they do amazing work and then you know and then my family will be taken care of and that's the most important thing interesting and so it's a trifecta it's a trifecta that just keeps working it's like okay keep doing this do this and you know and then then you're good you know what i mean and and you know i think simplify honestly like i'm you know i think i'm i'm'm seven years older than you and I think it's like I've got, oh, fuck, I just need to, like who wants to sift through this stuff when I'm gone? You know what I mean? Like get rid of it. You know what I mean? Like I'm like, but it's so valuable, is it? Does anyone really know? But, you know, just think, the over my attachment to things and just simplify so that you can just.
The one thing my mom did say to me is he who travels light travels far. I don't know where I missed that lesson because I keep saying it.
And I did not travel light. But I like to think I travel far and mostly in my head.
So I'm just, you know, slowly preparing for death. Damn.
I mean, that is both, you know, I recently meditated with some monks. Yeah.
And it's funny because, you know, you practice Buddhism. Yeah.
That is one of the fundamental principles is understanding that it is all fleeting. Yeah.
Understanding that it is all temporary. Yeah.
But having more appreciation for it because of that it's like we keep we you know some of us just keep focused on this life it's like like let's i'm thinking about the next life you know what i mean i'm like not this life let me just don't fuck it up i've already been given some plate i've been dealt some pretty nice hand yeah don't eff it up but like let's build for the next one so when you drop in next time you've like you've done enough to be able to go okay am i good here do you want me back you know what i mean in a way you know what i mean like in my brain i'm like did i did i get flying colors last time around enough to bring me back you know what i mean so yeah what seeds you plant today to enjoy the forest tomorrow essentially yeah correct and um but even if a lifetimes i always say i used to say to katie you know like we're doing lifetimes baby like you're here and we're doing lifetimes it's not this one so let's you know it's like we're doing life i think everything is i think we're all interconnected you know so yeah well i like that Well, thank you. I like that.
Thanks, man. Thank you for this lifetime, for this moment.
And yes, to the next one. Yeah.
I'm glad you're alive. Thanks, dude.
Appreciate you. We'll do this again.
Another time. We will, definitely.
Love it. Oh, Trevor.
You're sweet, man. What Now with Trevor Noah

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The show is executive produced by Trevor Noah,

Ben Winston, Sanaz Yamin, and Jody Avigan.

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Thank you so much for listening.

Join me next Thursday for another episode of What Now?