Orlando Bloom Reveals He Didn‘t Want To Play Troy Role: “I Didn’t Want To Do The Movie

Orlando Bloom has enjoyed a successful film career, yet there’s one particular role he would rather not recall. In a candid moment during Variety’s “Know Their Lines” series, the 47-year-old actor revealed his reluctance about playing the character of Paris in the 2004 blockbuster “Troy.” Despite its success at the box office, fetching nearly $500 million globally, Orlando struggled with his character, going as far as to mimic slitting his throat when discussing the role.

During the interview, Orlando expressed his discomfort with the character’s actions, particularly a scene where Paris, defeated and desperate, clings to his brother’s leg. He admitted to Variety, “I didn’t want to do the movie.”

“I didn’t want to play this character. The movie was great — it was Brad and it was Eric and it was Peter O’Toole. And I was like, ‘How am I gonna play this character?’ It was completely against everything I felt in my being,” he added.

The English actor also humorously recalled forgetting a line from Troy during the game segment of the interview, guessing it was from other films he starred in like Kingdom of Heaven or The Lord of the Rings. Realizing it was actually his dialogue from Troy, Orlando remarked, “I think I just blanked that movie out of my brain.”

Brad Pitt, who played Achilles in the film, shared his own revelations about Troy, marking it as a turning point in his career. In a 2019 interview with The New York Times Magazine, Brad disclosed his initial disappointment with the film. He explained that he ended up in it due to contractual obligations after pulling out of another project. 

“I had to do Troy because — I guess I can say all this now — I pulled out of another movie and then had to do something for the studio. So I was put in Troy. It wasn’t painful, but I realized that the way that movie was being told was not how I wanted it to be. I made my own mistakes in it,” he shared.

Reflecting on the impact that Troy had on his career, Brad mentioned it spurred a significant change in his approach to selecting roles. “So about that time I made a decision that I was only going to invest in quality stories, for lack of a better term. It was a distinct shift that led to the next decade of films,” he elaborated.

Both actors, renowned for their extensive and diverse filmographies, encountered pivotal moments in their careers through their participation in Troy. For Orlando, it was a role that challenged his artistic sensibilities, while for Brad, it catalyzed a reevaluation of his career choices.