Do you have a nickname?
Not really, no. But there's a nickname that's been picked up on the Internet, which is Orli. My mum tells me a lot of stuff that goes on — she's on the Internet all the time. But I'm never really in one place long enough to catch up with everything that's happening. So this is a good opportunity for me to say, "Thank you very much, everybody who is working on the Internet for me." I really do appreciate it!

Where did you grow up?
Canterbury, in Kent — which is about an hour south of London. I had a nice childhood — good friends, good family, and a nice upbringing. I grew up in a big house with lots of land around it, so we used to play in the garden. We'd go out and dress up as all these different characters. We'd wear old army clothes or funny hats or whatever.

Did you and your sister Samantha play together?
We fought a lot as kids. We're just starting to get along a lot better now that we're older. She did get me into clothes at a young age, though. She used to dress me and she'd get stuff from thrift shops. I had loafers and cowboy boots and cowboy shirts and, like, preppie-like check shirts.

What were you like as a kid?
I was more creative than academic. I'd rather be out playing in the fields with my friends than sitting in school. I think one of my school reports was, "Orlando is a really sweet kid, but he's always looking out the window or in the hamster cage." It was only when I went to drama school that I really started to appreciate education. I learned about the great playwrights and great poets, and that really sparked my imagination.

What kind of stuff do you enjoy doing now?
I love to hang out with my friends. I like going for walks, walking my dog. I like going on road trips. I love to travel. I did some mad sports in New Zealand [where they filmed The Lord of the Rings] like bungee jumping — it's not really dangerous, but it's pretty scary. I did a sky dive in New Zealand, too — that was pretty freaky.

Did the other cast members get involved in the extreme sports?
When we arrived [in New Zealand], I used to say to Elijah, Dom, and Billy, "Let's go fly by wire. Let's go bungee jumping. Let's go buy mountain bikes and go mountain biking, or motor bikes and go motocross." And they'd be like, "You've got to be crazy! We're going to kill ourselves doing those sports." Then I came one day [and] said, "Let's go surfing. Let's just go out and buy a surfboard and go surfing." And Billy was into it — eventually everyone else got into it. I like to do things as a group, but I think I'm more of a leader than a follower.

Sounds like you're bit of a daredevil.
Ever since I saw Jaws, I have this terrible idea that a shark's going to whip up and nip me away. I was surfing in New Zealand and a fin flipped over while I was doing a moonlight surf. I freaked out, and then a seal's head popped out of the water — a cute seal! But for a minute there, I was totally terrified.

What's in your CD player right now?
I'm listening to the new Beck album, Jurassic 5, Ben Harper. And I always listen to Jeff Buckley.

Where do you live now?
I don't really live anywhere at the moment. I'm kind of floating. My mum's storing some of my stuff in Canterbury, but I'm going to buy a place in London as soon as I get the opportunity. I'd like to buy a place here [L.A.] as well, because I seem to spend quite a lot of time here.

Are you good at doing different kinds of accents?
When I'm working on a character, I like to spend hours working on the dialect or whatever it may be the character requires. When I was doing the Nick Kelly [for the movie The Kelly Gang], I spoke in [an] Irish [accent] pretty much the whole time.

What kind of role would you like to play that you haven't tackled yet?
I like the idea of playing an all-American boy. I think it'd be interesting.