WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2002

 Sunday Times (Ireland)

ORLANDO BLOOM

"Elves are cool man," says Orlando Bloom. As well he might, for, from being an obscure Brit. actor, he's now familiar to millions in the shape of the handsome elf Legolas, a member of the Fellowship in the Lord of The Rings.

If you thought elves were unlovable green and brown creatures, think again. Tolkien's elves are a noble race, whose most remarkable physical characteristic feature is long blond hair. And you couldn't get a cooler elf than Bloom: he has exquisite good looks- neat, flawless features and almost black eyes. It is no surprise that a crop of adoring fan sites dedicated to his physical perfections is erupting on the web. "I am slightly amazed people are interested in me," he says. But I love talking about it."

Brought up in Canterbury, Bloom left for London at 16 and won a National Youth Theatre scholarship to do a play at the Tricycle theatre in North London, which won him an agent. This led to jobs on Casualty and London's Burning, and he went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

It is hard to imagine a role that would suit him as well as Legolas, Bloom is the embodiment of the modern hippie: he doesn't read magazines or watch television and, despite his sudden riches, he is in no hurry to become a homeowner. When he does though he will have a studio to sculpt in. "It is important to exercise different creative areas of your brain. It balances you."

Over chai latte with Soya milk and no sugar-"I try to avoid doing dairy."- He pulls down his Marc Jacobs trousers to reveal a star tattoo. And it's not his only one. On his arm is an authentic Tolkien rune spelling 'nine', the number of the fellowship, in Elvish. All the actors in the Fellowship bear this mark, a symbol of the extraordinarily unifying experience of working on Tolkien's fantasy.

"I miss it madly," says Bloom. In New Zealand the actors grew close, going surfing, fishing or on road trips during their spare time. "We sampled everything the country has to offer. The weirdest things to throw yourself off are to be found in New Zealand."

Like any self-respecting hippie he is vague about the future. His next screen incarnations are "little moments" in Ridley Scott's action picture Black Hawk Down about the disastrous US attack on a Somali warlord in 1993, and a part in Lullaby of Clubland, set in the drug soaked reaches of London's Asian underworld. After that he's not saying more than that LOTR has opened a lot of doors. But considering how ambitious and hard-working Bloom is, he is almost certainly scheduled up to his beautiful eyeballs.