We're "In Heaven" with Orlando Bloom!

He's this generation's movie mega-hunk that fans put on a pedestal and on countless bedroom walls. Orlando Bloom, whose latest role is that of a blacksmith turned military and political leader in Kingdom of Heaven, is, in our estimate, just a regular, friendly albeit gorgeous guy. By his own admission, he grows up and becomes a man in the new film. No elf-like, pale, boyish role this time. Director Ridley Scott says he cast Orlando as his hero because "I found that he was very interesting because of a very special kind of commitment and [he was] very strong ethically, very honest".

Picture a boy, whoops, man, and his dog. Orlando loves animals and brought along his black, lab-looking dog Sidi to our interview in Pasadena. Sidi is sweet, quiet, let me pet him and is obviously devoted to his "person". Also laid back in jeans, gray sweater over a white tee and a colorful charm necklace, the tanned actor sported a goatee for the "Pirates" sequels now shooting on the island of Dominica as we chatted about his character in "Heaven", eating goat meat, his feelings about relationships, his first big leading role, actors that inspire him, scenes left on the cutting room floor, his dog and Orlando's shock at his status in the film world.

TeenHollywood: Okay, great dog. Tell us his story.

Orlando: I rescued him in Morocco while I was shooting Kingdom of Heaven. He's kind of aloof with people, but he's a good dog. He'll probably just want to chill (he lies down). There you go. I rescued him pretty much within the first couple of months. He was a puppy eating camel shit out of a box and I saw him and I picked him up, and I said, 'Let's get him cleaned up and see what happens.' And then I ended up wanting him forever.

TeenHollywood: So he was a stray?

Orlando: He was in the arms of this old man the first time I saw him, and I thought, 'Oh, sweet.' This puppy that looked like he was three weeks old at that point, was being looked after by this old guy, and I said, 'Oh cool, he's got a home.' But then I came back three weeks later and there was a whole bunch of puppies running around, but he was just stumbling around, dusty and eating camel shit, and I was like, obviously the old guy, it wasn't his.

TeenHollywood: Good for you for adopting him! Can you talk about the charms on your necklace?

Orlando: My charms, this is my life on a string basically. Everywhere I've been I've either been given or found or acquired like a shell on the beach, whatever it may be, you'll see me in ten years time walking around like this (all bent over).

TeenHollywood: Could you talk about being involved in these big films? Does the huge scope of it make it harder to do your acting job?

Orlando: There was a great team of people that Ridley surrounds himself with, which I find all really helps to develop a character. Ultimately I'm a director's actor. I really follow the direction of my director, and when you're working with somebody like Ridley that's not hard to do. So I find it mostly of great use, particularly with something like Kingdom of Heaven, which is a historical epic where all of those costumes and swords, and everything, the whole look of the movie really does help draw you into that world.

TeenHollywood: You worked briefly with Ridley as a soldier in Black Hawk Down. How did you get involved in this project?

Orlando: Ridley threw me out of a helicopter on Black Hawk Down, and that was about it. I'd just finished shooting Troy, and I read this script on the plane and I was like 'Wow, this is an amazing script. This is a character who is completely opposite to any of the characters that I've played before'. At least completely opposite particularly to Paris, the cowardly younger brother.

TeenHollywood: Bailian is more a reluctant hero, right?

Orlando: Yes. He isn't a Gladiator-style hero. This is like a Sergio Leone spaghetti western, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly hero. He's very reluctant as a hero. It was a great opportunity [for me] to show another side. He's this man who has lost his wife, he's lost his child. He's just a common man. He's a blacksmith, he is a man of the people who's thrown into extraordinary circumstances. (At this point, Orlando gets wound up and basically tells us the whole movie and his character's motivations in it).

TeenHollywood: Did playing such a man change you?

Orlando: You can put somebody into a situation of extraordinary circumstances, and they can do things that they never thought they can do. It was like that for me, it really ran true. I'm five, six years out of drama school, and I feel like I'm in the first chapter of my career, and there's a whole load more to do and I've been blessed to have the opportunity to work on amazing projects. If you told me that at 27, when I started shooting, I'd be starring in a $140 million movie with Ridley Scott as the director, I would tell you, you were crazy. But I had an amazing experience making the movie and I worked so hard to try and be a man in this movie, as opposed to the boy that you see in Paris, and that meant putting on weight, lifting weights.

TeenHollywood: Did you have reservations about taking this role and being the lead?

Orlando: In truth, no, because I knew I was going to be in the hands of Ridley Scott. Also I was fortunate because I'd done other sword movies, I sort of felt like it was a period I was acquainted with. I had a certain understanding of what those sort of epics were. I'm a great observer and I'd seen the way Viggo carried himself on "Rings", I'd seen the way Brad carried himself on Troy, I'd seen the way Eric carried himself on Troy, I've had a lot of Johnny [Depp]. I've watched those guys, so yes it was intimidating that idea. It was the biggest set I've ever been on, but Ridley really made it much more of a personal experience, so I felt very lucky to have that as my first opportunity in a lead role.

TeenHollywood: The movie also teaches some great human lessons.

Orlando: I think that ultimately the message of the movie is one that, we are all equal on this earth as human beings, and we have been fighting for many, many thousands of years, whether it's for oil, over religion, over money, power, positioning, but we share this planet as one nation.

TeenHollywood: Is that a theme that resonates for you personally?

Orlando: Yes. It was interesting being at the U2 concert last night, and Bono, who is one of the most inspirational men I think alive, had the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights, run down the screen and the opening chapter was, We are all equal, color, race, sexuality, religion, we are all equal in the eyes of your God, whoever that may be, and in the eyes of your fellow man, it's a brotherhood. It was so inspirational to be sitting there, listening to that music and have that message be the message of the movie. Ultimately, all that really matters is the person standing next to you and their happiness, and if they're happy then I can tell you that you will be. And you just think, 'Wow.'

TeenHollywood: How did you prepare for the physical demands of the role?

Orlando: I ate a lot of goat because that's what they have in Morocco. They tell you it's lamb, but I can tell you I didn't see many lambs grazing in the deserts of Morocco, and I saw a lot of goats [we laugh]. But I ate a lot of chicken, fish, meat. I ate and I lifted and I trained with a sword. I worked with a blacksmith. We had a four hour movie here, that was edited down to about two hours because it's like Ridley said, he doesn't want a summer audience to have that 'bum-numb' feeling, of like, 'Okay, this may be great, but my bum is beginning to ache,' so it got edited down and trimmed down to a more streamlined version of the script that we shot. But I'm so proud to be a part of it.

TeenHollywood: Are there scenes missing that you'd like to see in the film?

Orlando: There are things missing that I think you will see in a director's cut version that will probably be out in DVD, a super-duper edition that will probably run 3 hours. There's definitely that and, yes, there are things that I think will really help to clear up some of the questions that you may have when you see the movie. But ultimately, I think the movie stands strong, and I think when you see the extended version you'll really understand.

TeenHollywood: Bailian is kind of stoic in the beginning.

Orlando: I played a very strong hard note in the first act of this movie, of a man who says nothing. That was as written. He does very little, even though he's the focal point moving the story forward. As you will see in the extended cut, you really emotionally connect to the pain that he feels at the loss of his wife. There were scenes which couldn't obviously make it, because you'd be in the movie for four hours. We set the tone for who this man is but, nevertheless, I think it still works, and it's made clear by the fantastic performances by Liam Neeson and David Thewlis and all those great, talented actors. But there are things that you'll see in the extended footage, which I'm looking forward to seeing myself.

TeenHollywood: Your character was a real person. Did you feel the need to go back and research more about him?

Orlando: Yes, it's a fictitious character up until the point where he gets to Jerusalem, because he existed. He lived at the time and he did defend Jerusalem, but in order to make a movie about this character, they created that history of him and the wife. I certainly looked at books.

TeenHollywood: It sounds like you can't believe your good luck to a degree, leading this movie star life just 6 years out of drama school. Can you talk a little bit about where your head's at these days?

Orlando: Yeah, I feel very, very, very fortunate to be doing what I'm doing, and ultimately I try not to let the praise or criticism of a lot of other people sway the decisions that I make each day, based on the work that I do, or the choices that I make. I'm not big on the internet, I don't read any of those magazines that pop up, and I just try to keep it very low key, and just keep doing what I'm doing, keep it about the work, and make it about other people as well, so it's not all about you.

TeenHollywood: Does it make it hard to maintain a relationship?

Orlando: Yeah, it's made it very difficult, that's always a challenge. You just have a very honest relationship. You have a very honest dialogue, and if you need time apart, you need time apart, if you need to see each other, you do. You have an open conversation about what it is you need from one person and what it is they need from you.

TeenHollywood: Did Kate come to visit you on set by any chance?

Orlando: On this movie? Yeah, yeah. And she's an amazing actress and an amazing woman, and we're very close. She will always be a part of my life.

TeenHollywood: You have done a number of these big epics back to back. Have you ever looked at doing a smaller, two person film?

Orlando: That's what's out at the end of the year, Elizabethtown. I'm starring opposite Kirsten Dunst in a sort of quirky, offbeat, romantic comedy, the way only he knows how to do it – Cameron Crowe is a phenomenal director. He directed me in my first contemporary leading role, with an American accent, and I also shot a movie just before Kingdom of Heaven, with a first time director, who's 24, called Haven, and that's still in post-production.

TeenHollywood: Will you throw in the occasional epic?

Orlando: I feel like I'm in the first chapter of my life and my career as an actor, and I think there will be a new chapter for me which maybe won't involve so many swords. I've certainly covered a lot of those epic type movies. I'm working on "Pirates" now however, so that will be epic.

TeenHollywood: You seem to be pretty laid back. Is it difficult handling all the fame and "sex-symbol" hype?

Orlando: I don't really let that be a part of my consciousness. I don't make decisions based on anything other than my instinct, and wanting to do good work, and wanting to entertain people as an actor, and wanting to enjoy my life and be happy and feel fulfilled creatively. A friend of mine said to me, when I said to him, 'This is a little bit weird with all the hysterical fan thing happening,' and he said, 'Dude, just chill and enjoy.' There will always be the Beatles, there will always be a new boy band and a new young actor, because there will always be young girls, young guys, whoever, who want to pin their hopes and dreams on somebody, so it's a small window, enjoy it while it's there. Don't take it seriously and move on.

At which point, he had to wake Sidi up, and 'move on' to a photo shoot.

Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.