CELEB REAL-LIFE: ORLANDO BLOOM - Bliss Magazine

Bloomin' fit is how we'd describe Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom. Nicknames Orli at school, the 24-year-old (who's single, yeah!) was born in Canterbury, but moved to London at 16 to become an actor, appearing in TV's Casualty and London's Burning. He then turned his hand to a bit of theatre (Shakespeare, sweetie) before eventually landing the role of Legolas Greenleaf, alongside Elijah Wood in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Soon after, her starred in war movie Black Hawk Down, with Josh Hartnett and Ewan McGregor. Proving that acting can be a hazardous profession, Orlando ended up breaking a rib when he fell off a horse while filming Lord of the Rings. In fact, he freely admits to being a bit of an accident-prone lad: "I've broken my back, my ribs, my nose, both my legs, my arm, my wrist, a finger and a toe and cracked my skull three times!" he says. Yikes! But four years ago, a horrific fall almost ruined his life. Better get on with the interview before he does himself another mischief!

DOWN THE DRAIN

"When I was 20, something happened to me that changed the way I approach everything in life. Some friends had a roof terrace on the landing below their apartment and I was trying to get onto it by climbing out down a drainpipe. "I wasn't really thinking, I was young and I kind of figured that I could do anything. But the drainpipe gave way and I fell three floors. There was no alcohol involved. In a way, if there had been, it would have almost made it acceptable as you think: What fool would do that otherwise?"

OUT OF ACTION

"In hospital, I was told that I was going to be in a wheelchair and for four days they thought I'd never walk again. I tried not to think about it too much, I didn't want it to become reality in my mind. I was also in a lot of pain, so I was drifting in and out of conciousness and was on heavy drugs like morphine. "At first I couldn't move my legs and they didn't know how sever the damage was. But once they did a neuroscan (a brain scan) they assessed that I'd crushed my vertebrae and bruised my spinal cord. "No-one thought I was going to get through the accident, but I knew I had to stay positive. It paid off, because 12 days later I walked out of the hospital. It was something of a miracle. "You'd have thought the accident would have put me off soing anything dangerous but I love sports like bungee jumping and snowboarding and they'd be hard to give up. "What's funny, is that the injury hasn't hindered me at all. My character Legolas is one of the most physical characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, along with Aragorn (actor Viggo Mortensen). In the second and third film, I'm on horseback, fighting and running around all over the place."

MIRACLE MAN

"In another film, Black Hawk Down, my character falls from a helicopter and breaks his back, maybe the fact that I've done that in real life helped me get the part! I went to boot camp to prepare for the role and I was fine, although I did pop my knee out of its socket. I hope that my injury won't prevent me from doing an action movie like The Matrix. It hasn't yet. "I think the accident has made me appreciate things more. I try not to take myself too serioucly and I feel quite privileged to have become and actor. I still find it unbelievable that I'm being paid to do something that I love. It's like being a footballer. "I've tried to make my accident one of the positive things that's happened to me. Although I still get the odd twang of pain, its massively changed my life, so it's kind of cool."