Orlando Bloom has said he was a “horrible person to be around” while losing 52 pounds in just three months for his role in Sean Ellis’s forthcoming boxing drama, The Cut.
The 48-year-old actor said the rapid weight-loss journey left him “exhausted” with “no energy or brain power” as he transformed for his role as a boxer training to win a career-altering championship title.“
Just mentally, physically, I was hangry,” Bloom told Rylan Clark and Josie Gibson during an interview on This Morning on Wednesday (27 August).
The actor revealed he was only eating tuna and cucumber leading up to the film’s production, which affected both his weight and his mood. “I wouldn’t recommend [it] to anyone at home,” he said.
Bloom was working with nutritionist Philip Goglia, who previously trained Christian Bale, who was checking the actor’s blood work as he “tiered” him down from three meals per day to one.
“Suddenly, all these foods were being taken away from me, and my protein powder was the last one,” Bloom said. “I was like, ‘No! Don’t take that one.’”
The Pirates of the Caribbean star said he suffered from “paranoia” and “intrusive thoughts” during the rapid weight-loss regime. “We’re supposed to eat and sleep and take care of ourselves,” he said.
“It’s really a commentary on the lengths a person will go to have that second shot. I think that’s so relatable.”
Bloom noted that, while professional athletes regularly cut weight during their training seasons, actors tend to take body transformations “to the extreme” over a far shorter period.
He added that he would often lay down to rest between takes on The Cut and do push-ups before cameras rolled to “look a little bit bulkier”.
The Cut is less about the fighting and more about Bloom’s character’s dramatic weight-loss regime, which sees him draining blood before his all-important weigh-in.
Director Ellis (Anthropoid) shot The Cut in reverse chronological order, meaning Bloom was actually bulking up during production so he could concentrate.
“It was going to be impossible for him to work while dieting. So, he came to us at his lightest, and then he started to eat,” the filmmaker said. “So that meant that we had to shoot the film [with] the ending first and the beginning of the movie at the end…And then it’s edited in reverse.”
Bloom rose to fame as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings franchise, reprising his role for The Hobbit films in 2013 and 2014. He further rose to fame as Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean series before landing roles in Troy and Kingdom of Heaven.
