| Cosmo Girl december 2002 Hey Orlando!I read that, like your character in Black Hawk Down, you broke your back. It's pretty inspiring you still went on to achieve your dreams. What happened? It happened when i was 20. I was climbing out of a window and down a drainpipe trying to get onto my friend's roof terrace. I fell down three floors. I was told i may not walk again but they operated and i walked out of the hospital in 12 days-which was a bit of a miracle. It was one of the most profound things to happen to me. To have time to contemplate your life and make something positive out of the expericence. It changed the way i approach everthing in life. Hi Orlando!Do you worry about your safety when your doing extreme sports? i love anything dangerous. Anything dangerous, you can count me in!And yeah,you'd have thought my accident would have put me off. I did look whether it would be a safe thing for me to do,and its OK. I love sports like bungee jumping and snowboarding and they'd be hard to give up! You said you're accident prone. How many bones have you broken? I've broken both my legs, my wrist,my nose and all sorts of things,but breaking your back is a different thing. I didnt think i was going to get through that one. I was told i was going to be in a wheelchair-fr four days they thought i'd never walk again. What were you like as a teen? I was a rebel. i still am!I'm a rebel without a cause!I'm not excessive though,except with danger. I'm an adrenaline junkie. That's why i love snowboarding,skydiving,surfing,bungee-jumping and motorbikes! What was the most fun part of making the Lord of the rings? New Zealand(where they filmed the LOTR trilogy)was great fun because its one of the best place in the world for all the sports i enjoy. I did a few bungee jumps,in fact i did five in a row at one point!I also did a little skydiving,snowboarding and fishing. I just had the best time. Orlando,it seems you have been doing a load of films lately.What do you do when you have time to relax? In New Zealand i got into surfing. I felt we needed to do somehting outside the movie to kepp us all sane. So i was like,"Lets get motorbikes!" and the guys werent into that at all. They were like,"There's no need to kill ourselves while we're working on this".So one day i just said to billy boyd(who plays Pippin Took)"Lets buy surf boards".We walked onto the beach with these brand new,sparkling boards,freshly waxed and in our new little wetsuits-the other surfers were looking at us like we were idiots!And the water was freezing. But we ended up being quite good and then the others bought boards-Elijah(wood),Sean(Astin) Dom(Monaghan). Even Viggo(Mortenson,aka Aragorn)had a board. I heard you all has tatoos done after fimling LOTR. Is this true? Yeah,we did. The whole fellowship got tatoos.There were nine in the fellowship,so we got nine tatoos in elvish which were designed by Alan Lee who did the illustrations for the books. Mine is under my forearm,under my wrist. Everyone got involved even Ian McKellen Who plays Gandalf. There was a real camaraderie to it. What was the worst thing about making lord of ther ings? The sandflies.They're probally the nastiest of insects.Their bite is bad and it lasts for ages-horrible!But thakfully there was loads of insect repellant on hand. Hey Orlando!i just have to say you are the cutest thing in the world. I want to know how your'e keeping your feet on the gornud,despite your new-found fame? I try not to take myself to seriously. I feel quite priveliged to be able to be an actor. I still find it unbeleivable i'm being paid to do something i love. Whats the best thing about your job? The travellling.You get to go all over the world and experience different cultures,and you're taken care of.WEs hot Black Hawk Down in Morrocco,which was amazing.I had a great time exploring morroco. Whats your nest movie The Calcium Kid about? It's a british movie,it's a comedy and i play a guy who's a milkman by day and an amateur boxer by night.It should be out sometime next year.It's all about finding the right where where i'm going to be inspired to do good work. Was the Amercian accent in Black Hawk Down a problem for you? I had a voice coach on set because i wasnt the only Brit.It wasnt as hard as i thought it would be.But hey,if you seen the movie let me know whta you think! Orlando,you're not going to be leaving the uK for holywood are you? Iplan to spend time in LA in the not so-distant future because it will be useful to be there whent the movie is released.But London is my home and will always be my home! |