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Orlando Bloom said he was originally going to turn down Pirates of Caribbean, until his future co-star Geoffrey Rush convinced him otherwise
Orlando Bloom wasn’t sure about Pirates of the Caribbean until his Ned Kelly co-star Geoffrey Rush convinced him to give it a chance
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If it wasn’t for Geoffrey Rush, the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise would be unrecognizable. I’m not talking about Rush’s role as Captain Barbossa, I’m talking about his role in convincing Orlando Bloom to star in the first movie. While Pirates of the Caribbean turned out to be a high-grossing film franchise, Bloom had misgivings about signing on for the first film.
“A pirate movie based on a Disney ride didn’t seem to be like the thing at that moment,” Bloom recalls during a panel at Fan Expo Dallas. “I got a call about that movie when I was in Australia, working with Geoffrey Rush at the time and an amazing actor, Heath Ledger, who tragically passed. Amazing man. We were doing this movie Ned Kelly, and I was Joe Byrne to his Ned Kelly. Heath was just amazing.”
“It was a brooding Australian kind of boys in the outback movie. And I was like, ‘A pirate movie after this doesn’t seem to make sense. Why would I do that?.’ And I remember, Geoffrey to this day would be like, ‘You still owe me 10%.’ Because he was like, ‘You need to do this movie. You would be great in it.’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’ And then I think somewhere in that moment Johnny [Depp] signed up, and I was just like, ‘Yeah.’ Just to be on set and watch one of my icons and idols doing what he does was an honor.”
Considering how the franchise took off, I would say things worked out well for Bloom. If Geoffrey Rush ever offers you career advice, sit up and pay attention.
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