Troy star Orlando Bloom candidly reflects on his experience filming the 2004 film. Directed by Wolfgang Peterson, Troy chronicles the infamous sacking of the titular city by the Greeks in 1250 BCE. The film, which stars Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Brian Cox, Eric Bana, and Sean Bean, features Bloom in the role of Paris, the Prince of Troy and younger brother to Bana’s Hector.

In a recent interview for Variety‘s “Know Their Lines” video series, Bloom struggles to identify one of his character’s lines from Troy, ultimately revealing that he doesn’t look back at his time in the movie fondly. According to the actor, he just couldn’t relate to the character he was playing. Check out Bloom’s full comment below:

“Oh my god, ‘Troy.’ Wow. I think I just blanked that movie out of my brain by the way. So many people love that movie, but for me playing that character was just like [slits throat]. Am I allowed to say all of these things? I didn’t want to do the movie. I didn’t want to play this character.

The movie was great. It was Brad [Pitt]. It was Eric [Bana] and Peter O’Toole. But how am I going to play this character? It was completely against everything I felt in my being.

At one point it says Paris crawls along the floor having been beaten by somebody and holds his brother’s leg. I was like, ‘I’m not going to be able to do this.’ One of my agents at the time said, ‘But that’s the moment that will make it!’ And I completely fell for that line of a agent. I think that’s why I blanked that from my mind.

Orlando Bloom’s Troy Comments Explained

Paris Isn’t The Ideal Movie Star Role

Paris is far from a typical hero character in a historical epic. He has the physical attributes of a hero, but he is ultimately a character with a great deal of weakness. Throughout the film, Paris is naive and impulsive, and, as Bloom explains, there’s one scene in which he crawls away from what is supposed to be a one-on-one duel to the death in order to cower at Hector’s feet. Paris is also essentially responsible for the Trojan War with his kidnapping of Helen in a bold act of love.

Paris may end up getting a hero moment at the end of Troy when he kills Achilles, but the character is probably best remembered for all of his moments of weakness and his poor decisions.

While some actors would revel in the opportunity to play such a flawed character, Bloom was clearly being positioned as a strong leading man in the early 2000s. He rose to fame with his role as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and, just before Troy, he also played Will Turner in the first Pirates of the Caribbean. Both Legolas and Turner are strong, traditional Hollywood heroes, and they set the actor up for these types of roles moving forward.

Paris is perhaps an example of why some big Hollywood actors are reported to have clauses in their contracts preventing them from losing a fight. Paris may end up getting a hero moment at the end of Troy when he kills Achilles, but the character is probably best remembered for all of his moments of weakness and his poor decisions. For an actor like Bloom during the early 2000s, the role is really the opposite of how he was being positioned in Hollywood.

Was Troy Worth The Struggle For Orlando Bloom?

The Movie Failed To Make A Lasting Impact

While playing Paris in Troy may have been a challenge for Bloom and not a project he particularly enjoyed, it could certainly be worth it if the movie had a measurably positive impact on his career. The reviews for Troy, however, were mixed at best, with critics mostly agreeing there’s little substance beneath all the movie’s spectacle. As a result, the film currently has a lackluster score of 53% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The mixed reception to Troy and the box office underperformance of Kingdom of Heaven, which Bloom stars in the year after, might actually explain why the actor’s biggest hits in the years afterward are almost exclusively Pirates of the Caribbean and The Hobbit sequels.

Despite a less-than-stellar reception, Troy was a box office hit. The movie grossed close to $500 million worldwide, with the spectacle and star power of figures like Pitt, Bana, and Bloom evidently a draw. Despite this, however, the movie hasn’t really lived on in popular culture. Gladiator, for example, another sword-and-sandal-type movie, made a little less than Troy at the box office, but it has clearly stood the test of time far more effectively and is looked back upon with more reverence.

Title
Rotten Tomatoes Critics’ Score
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Budget (estimated)
Box Office

Gladiator (2000)
80%
87%

Troy (2004)
53%
73%
$175 million
$497.4 million

Speaking to Gladiator‘s enduring popularity, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 is due out later this year.

It’s unclear if Troy‘s box office success opened any doors for Bloom, but the actor was already a recognizable star at the time due to his roles in The Lord of the Rings and the first Pirates of the Caribbean. The mixed reception to Troy and the box office underperformance of Kingdom of Heaven, which Bloom stars in the year after, might actually explain why the actor’s biggest hits in the years afterward are almost exclusively Pirates of the Caribbean and The Hobbit sequels. In any case, he is clearly content to leave Troy in the rearview mirror.

Orlando Bloom’s Post-Troy Movie Career Explained

It’s Been A Mixed Bag

Other than his return as Will in three Pirates of the Caribbean sequels and as Legolas in the latter two Hobbit films, Bloom’s post-Troy career hasn’t seen the actor find great success with non-franchise titles. The original movies he does take on tend not to make much of an impact and are generally poorly reviewed. Unlocked, Retaliation, and S.M.A.R.T. Chase, for example, aren’t movies that really made much of a mark.

Things are looking up for Bloom, however. In 2019, he starred in The Outpost, a well-reviewed war drama, and he also had a starring role in Prime Video’s Carnival Row, which ran for two seasons. Last summer, he starred in Gran Turismo opposite David Harbour, a film that earned mostly positive reviews and was a modest box office success. It remains to be seen what Bloom will do next, but he evidently won’t be taking on any more roles quite like Paris in Troy.