CNN —Imagine if Orlando Bloom was seen on the big screen serenading Nicole Kidman in “Moulin Rouge!” in 2001 instead of Ewan McGregor.
It was a real possibility according to Bloom, who told Howard Stern in a resurfaced 2019 interview that he actually auditioned for the iconic role of Christian in director Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-winning film six times.
“I thought that was going to be the one that was going to go my way just before ‘Lord of the Rings,’” Bloom said, adding that the “Moulin” audition was “around the same sort of time” as his “Rings” audition.
Bloom told Stern that the “Moulin Rouge!” filmmakers were originally planning to cast unknown actors, saying, “obviously, I’d have been the unknown” given that he had only a few professional acting credits under his belt at the time.
Regardless of the low payday for the original “Rings” trilogy, Bloom knew the value of how it impacted his career, and told Stern that the role of Legolas was “the greatest gift of my life.”