He wasn’t off to Mordor, but Orlando Bloom had set out on some new adventures.
He stepped out of his comfort zone in ‘Orlando Bloom: To the Edge’, a three-part adventure docuseries in which the actor tries his hand at freediving, rock climbing, and even wing suiting.
Bloom is no stranger to a thrill, having done every risky venture New Zealand has to offer during his original visits, but revealed that undertaking this show was a little different.
The idea came from Covid, a period of time where the fear was “palpable” and everyone on the planet was facing a challenging time.
“I was like, well, what am I gonna do when I come out of this?” he recounted to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking.
Bloom's original idea featured the ‘blue zones’, areas of the world where people are claimed to live longer than average, and he wanted to look at how people live longer and prosper.
“None of the studios were interested in me doing that,” he said with a laugh.
“They said how about we throw you out of a plane, or see how deep you can swim, or you know, climb this mountain top. This peak, rather. So that’s where we ended.”
Extreme sports take an extreme amount of work and effort, and it was this knowledge that gave Bloom the confidence to try his hand at some of these skills.
“I don't think I had anticipated taking my life in my own hands in quite the way,” Bloom told Hosking.
“There’s nothing like feeling like your life is in your hands to sort of sharpen the, sharpen the old brain waves, as it were.”
To get a skydiving certification you have to complete 25 jumps but jump number seven was by far Bloom’s most eventful, starting off with learning about the Queen’s death right before hopping on the plane.
It was his first jump without a radio, he was jumping solo, and his right toggle locked. So, on his first solo jump sans radio, Bloom had to cut away the canopy and pull the reserve parachute.
“And by the way, at seven jumps I’m like anything, any kind of tiny change is like, tweaking me.”
“I got to the bottom, and this is all on the show, you see it, I’m like screaming with like, ‘Was that a joke? Was that a test?’”
While the show was a terrifying, crazy effort, Bloom said that it was one of the most rewarding experiences he’s done and although there is potential for more episodes, he doesn’t want to go too far.
“I’m really not trying to kill myself. I don’t want to compete with how far I can go before I really go over the edge, you know what I mean?” he said with a laugh.
“To the Edge, not over the edge, thank you very much.”
‘Orlando Bloom: To the Edge’ aired Tuesday on Bravo, you can catch up on ThreeNow.
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