Ciné Live : While performing your characters,  did you find you had something in common with them?

Orlando Bloom : Honestly, I think I’m the opposite of Legolas! He is introverted, doesn’t speak much, weighs his gesture… I’m the complete opposite. I do speak, move. Playing an Elf means you have to put a lot of your personality on the back burner, hiding your human nature. Elves are perfect beings, supernatural. If you try to put a little bit of yourself in them, you risk making them look too human and as a result, to damage their credibility in the context of the LoTR.

CL : Many actors and technicians of the trilogy compare Peter Jackson with a Hobbit. Do you think the same?

OB : Peter Jackson gave me a passion for the acting profession. Before the LoTR I didn’t have much experience. He taught me all. For example, that shooting a movie is a really complex venture. Also, that it brings a lot of pleasure. And moreover it pays well! (laughs)

CL : If you all liked Peter Jackson, is that the case for New Zealand?  A country halfway around the world which forced you into a long exile…

OB :  Well yes, I shed a few tears too when I heard the clapperboard for the last time. Then, I understood that we’d have to leave New Zealand, to leave this filming on which I have grown, evolved. Just like Elijah, I was very young when I joined the LoTR. That’s why this human and professional experience, as well as New Zealand, have changed us.

CL : Now you met fame with the LoTR, how do you feel?

OB : Paparazzi are doing their job, but that’s no reason for me to give in. I have my privacy and I like it. Though I understand people read tabloids, I want to keep myself from the exposure they provoke. As for fans, I’m happy to have some, even if some of them don’t necessarily see that between the actor and the character he plays, there’s a big difference.