All lanky limbs at 1.8m, with chocolate eyes and dark-brown mohawk - "a fin effect", he calls it - Orlando Bloom was hardly recognisable as platinum-locked elf warrior Legolas in The Lord Of The Rings. Three gruelling months of battle training was no sweat for the surfer, snowboarder and skydiver, who says he has a passion for "things that give me an adrenaline kick."

The one hitch? "I'm rather accident-prone," says Bloom, who broke a rib during filming, adding it to the broken back, nose, both legs, arm, wrist, finger, toe and thrice-cracked skull he's endured in his 25 years. Born and raised in Canterbury, England, the Levi's-loving, twice-tattooed Black Hawk Down star is single and, better yet, in Australia, filming Ned Kelly (in Victoria) with Heath Ledger. Though he plans to see the sights when not on-set, female fans shouldn't get their hopes up. "Now, my only relationship is with work," he said in February. Such is life.