Orlando Bloom, who first received widespread acclaim for his work in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Pirates of the Caribbean, plays the recklessly charming Prince Paris in Warner Bros.’ colossal epic adventure Troy, which also stars Brad Pitt and Eric Bana.

“For me, the draw in terms of Paris was that he’s the antihero,” says Bloom. “Paris is not like any character I’ve played. He’s the second son to Priam, and he’s lived a very sheltered life. He’s been nurtured and hasn’t had to think about the responsibilities of becoming a warrior or king. Although he’s in an environment that is a hugely political, dangerous world, his own world is very simple -- until he basically creates a war because of his lust and his love for one woman. Two countries collide, which leads him to lose everything he knows, and he does all of this for love.”

What fascinates you about the Paris character?

That the war is caused by the selfishness of this young man. That was the interesting thing about the role. He has this arc where he goes from being young and irresponsible to growing old very quickly through the loss of all these lives. The experience really does age him dramatically. By the end of the movie, he’s much more responsible.

Did you know the story of The Iliad before this?

Not much. Obviously, I did some homework. I bought The Iliad on CD actually so I could listen to it, because reading it takes a lot of focus. It is an incredible story.

It’s like the story of stories, the history of stories, and so working on it, there’s quite a lot of pressure. You feel the responsibility of trying to make it believable and real and live up to the expectations that people have.

Is it just a coincidence that you’re in all these massive movies like Troy, The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean?

To be honest, I do like doing these big movies. I feel quite at home on a big set now, which I think is a very fortunate position to be in. But this just happened to be around and I met Wolfgang (Petersen, the director) and we got on. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to work on epic-style films, films that to me feel like they’ll stand the test of time. I’ve been in the right place at the right time.

You seem to be in the right place a lot of the time.

No, not necessarily. But I would say that I’m a lucky guy in that I’m having a fortunate career. But I think I put the legwork in at quite a young age in terms of trying to make sure I was in the right place. I moved to London to go to drama school when I was 16, so I kind of geared myself up at a young age to put myself in the right arena to become an actor and get work. I think the biggest compliment for me was just getting work.

Do you play in a lot of period films?

I love to dress up. I love to get into character through costume and period. It’s great and, like I said, I feel really lucky to have worked on the films that I have worked on because I feel like they have that weight about them.

Is it easy to stay grounded now that you’re a star?

No, but I do my best. I see my family and friends as much as possible and I just don’t think about it too much. I just try and get on with things. I’m still trying to figure it all out, to be honest. It’s great, though. I’m living most actors’ dreams. I’m getting to work in movies and do the whole thing and it’s amazing because I love the work. There’s a lot of fluff that goes on around the making of films, raising money and all the rest of it, that enables me to do my job and I’m beginning to understand that you have to be involved with that, even though it’s hard to do. But I’m doing what I love.