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Orlando is Blooming Marvelous


Released in the UK shortly before Christmas, The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug, is proving to be another box office smash for New Zealand film director Peter Jackson. However, although much of the film was shot on location in New Zealand – and not Middle Earth! – some of its biggest fans are far closer to home, right here in Kent.


Jane Shotliff explains why.


ORLANDO Jonathan Blanchard Bloom, born in Canterbury 37 years ago this January, has much to thank his mother for.


Never dreaming of the way his career would lead him


to fame and not inconsiderable fortune Sonia Copeland Bloom, who still lives in Canterbury, encouraged both Orlando and his elder sister Samantha to participate in the speech, art and drama classes of the annual Kent Music and Drama Festival, which ignited their passion for acting. Orlando attended Canterbury St


Edmund’s School, where he made a name for himself in his performances in school plays, but left at the age of 16 to follow a two-year A level course in drama, photography and sculpture at Hampstead Fine Arts College. A BAFTA scholarship ensued and he then


was awarded a place at the National Youth Theatre. Two seasons later, he earned a further scholarship this time to train at the British American Drama Academy. He began acting professionally with television roles in episodes of Casualty and Midsomer Murders, and subsequently made his film debut in Wilde (1997), playing opposite Stephen Fry.


4 Mid Kent Living


Still aged just 20, Orlando obtained place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Sister Sam followed some years later and now teaches


acting to children in London. On the day he graduated, clutching his BA (Hons) in


Drama, Orlando heard he had been picked by Peter Jackson to play a role in the forthcoming Lord of the Rings trilogy. “Even at school, I was an enormous fan of the Tolkien


books so this was an incredibly exciting breakthrough for me for which I must thank a lucky star – as well as my casting agents who put forward my photograph without me knowing,” remembers Orlando. As the trilogy swept up worldwide success and eleven


Oscars, with Orlando in the role of Legolas, his future as a film actor was set on a rocket course upwards. He picked up Empire Magazine’s coveted


Best Debut Award for his role as Legolas in the Best Newcomer in the SFX Awards; and Best Actor of 2003, awarded by the Rolling Stone Magazine. In 2005, he won the European Film Academy’s Best European Actor, Jameson People’s choice, for his lead part as Balian in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, elected out of a dazzling collection of other actors, including Daniel Craig. He later joined fellow heartthrob Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean series


and has consequently appeared in four of the world’s top 50 movies, voted for by the British film fans more than any other home-grown actor. His last major film was Zulu, a portrayal of South African gang culture, for which he received a standing


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