By his own admission, Orlando Bloom is in love.
You could say he's found a little bit of heaven on earth. No, we're not talking about a reunion with Kate Bosworth, his on-again/off-again girlfriend of the past three years. On that front, Bloom, 28, insists he's "happily single. I'm a long way from marriage. I'm not even in a serious relationship."
No, the new love of Orlando's life is Sidi, the Bedouin dog he rescued from a street in Morocco where he was filming his Crusades epic Kingdom Of Heaven last year.
Sidi joined Bloom for the actor's interviews for Ridley Scott's drama about the siege of Jerusalem in 1187 known as The Battle of Hattin. "I found him on a street one day and took him home with me," he says. "I intended on giving him to some kind of animal shelter or something but, three weeks down the line, I was in love.
"He travels with me everywhere now. His name means 'friend' and that's definitely what he has become."
Sidi is just one memory Bloom treasures from filming Kingdom Of Heaven in which he plays Balian of Ibelin, a blacksmith who eventually commanded the troops inside Jerusalem against an onslaught by the Muslim warlord Saladin (Ghassan Massoud).
"I had no intention of doing another sword movie so soon after Lord Of The Rings, Troy and Pirates Of The Caribbean -- but then this script came from Ridley," Bloom recalls.
"He is one of our top directors. I'm in a learning process and this was a chance to learn under a true master."
Bloom also realized that with Balian he would be playing "the polar opposite of Paris from Troy.
"Paris was a coward. Balian may be a reluctant hero, but he is a true hero."
Balian also offered Bloom the opportunity "to become a man on screen. All my other roles have emphasized youth."
He points out that in Kingdom Of Heaven, he is physically bigger than he has ever been. "I put on 20 pounds of muscle. I ate six meals a day and did a lot of weight training. I wanted to fill out those costumes. I wanted to look capable of handling those swords and that armour."
The weight and muscles have come off and Bloom is again sporting his slight, pre-Kingdom physique. Though he has made 10 films in the past five years and is currently filming the two sequels to his 2003 hit Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl, Bloom insists he is a true novice.
"I am at the beginning of my career. It feels as if I am still at drama school," he says. "I literally went from drama classes to filming The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. So I feel as if I'm in the first chapter of my career."
Bloom calls himself a director's actor. "By that I mean I fulfil myself through my directors. I want them to know I am clay in their hands. I am up for anything they ask of me."
Still, he says he also learns much from his co-stars. "On Pirates, I had Johnny Depp as a role model. The humility and grace with which he goes about his art is inspiring.
"You never see Johnny throwing a hissy fit and he is so unbelievably creative and daring."
And you'd think Depp could impart some lessons on how to be a heartthrob. But it's very much to Bloom's chagrin that he's attained similar pin-up status.
When he was in Spain filming scenes for Kingdom Of Heaven, the streets would be lined with young female fans hoping to catch a glimpse of him each morning. The Spanish press reported the country hadn't experienced such mania since the heyday of The Beatles. "Yes, there were girls on the street and, yes, they were screaming outside my hotel," Bloom admits, "but only because a big Hollywood movie was being shot in their town."
The experience was still daunting and something Bloom had witnessed from the sidelines on Troy.
"Brad (Pitt) was the guy on Troy. Nobody cared about me, but Brad warned me to watch out. And it happened as he predicted."
Bloom concedes, "It's the price you pay for being allowed to do what you love doing and it's a small price." He's encouraged by the fact "fans are fickle. I'll be replaced by someone else very soon. If you're going to survive in this business, it has to be about your work and not your celebrity."
So what's his survival plan? "You learn to adjust," he says. "You learn how to go about life in as normal a way as possible and you never read those celebrity magazines. They can't be a part of your life."
And right now, his life is filled with his work. Bloom will be filming his Pirates movies for the better part of this year and then he hopes to find a stage play to star in in London. "I went to drama school to be a stage actor but I went straight into film," he says.
"My home is in London so it would be great to spend six months doing a play and being able to enjoy my place instead of being somewhere on location making a movie."
In less than six years, Bloom has achieved the kind of career success he didn't dare dream of.
"There's lots more to life," he insists. "I want to achieve a similar level of happiness and contentment in my personal life and I definitely want a family at some point."
Until then, it's just Orlando and Sidi and his millions of adoring female fans.
BLOOMING STAR
How big has Kingdom of Heaven's Orlando Bloom gotten? Take a look at his recent flicks and their box-office grosses ...
BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001)
Role: P.F.C. Blackburn
Gross: $108.6 million
We say: A humble start for Bloom as he disappears early in the film when his young American soldier falls out of a helicopter. Still, he got to meet Kingdom Of Heaven director Ridley Scott, who helmed this gritty war flick, too.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2001-'03)
Role: Legolas the Elf
Gross: $1.06 billion (collectively)
We say: Bloom attained exalted geek heartthrob status with this blockbuster nerd trilogy. Which can be a double-edged Morgul blade -- still, we think he's got a little more talent than, say, Mark Hamill. Which reminds us that, yes, Mark, we'll have fries with that.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (2003)
Role: Will Turner
Gross: $305.4 million
We say: Hot on the heels of LOTR came this unexpected blockbuster. Not only was Bloom's name became synonymous with boffo box office, he got to snog Keira Knightley, too. Damn ye scurvy- ridden gums, Bloomy!
TROY (2004)
Role: Cowardly Paris
Gross: $133.3 million
We say: When is making more than $130 million a disappointment? When it's this costly and turgid sword and sandals epic. Perhaps things would have been different had David Schwimmer been cast as Achilles in lieu of Brad Pitt. Alas, we shall never know.
TOTAL BOX OFFICE: $1.607 BILLION
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