For two of the world’s biggest celebrities, Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry have managed to cultivate a surprisingly grounded, nurturing relationship away from the spotlight. In a new interview, the actor opened up about how he found peace and purpose with the pop superstar by simply appreciating the humble “California gurl” beneath her larger-than-life persona.
Appearing on the “What Now? with Trevor Noah” podcast, Bloom reflected on the down-to-earth bond he’s forged with Perry despite their stratospheric fame. While her ubiquitous music was inescapable during their initial courtship years ago, the British star says he actually fell for the real person behind the pop anthems.
“I think one of the things that I fell in love with Katy was…She hates when I say this, so I have to word it carefully, but her music was everywhere, right?” Bloom shared. “When I came up it was just on every radio station, but I wasn’t conscious of, (it) wasn’t what I was listening to. But I fell in love with Katheryn, this girl from Santa Barbara.”
As Bloom tells it, getting to know the unvarnished woman behind the winking onstage persona of “Katy Perry” was a revelatory experience. Despite her ginormous success and reputation as a massively popular artist with whimsical aesthetics, Perry has never lost touch with her humble roots and working-class upbringing.
The actor says it’s that “where we came from” humility and drive to overcome adversity that he most connects with in his partner. “She had parents (who were) pastors living on food stamps,” he explained. “We’re not talking about glamorous Montecito. It’s the side (of Santa Barbara) that no one knows.”
For both entertainers, achieving superstardom meant clawing their way up from very modest beginnings through sheer force of will. That has forged an unbreakable commonality in their approaches to life and respective crafts, something that has only strengthened their nearly decade-long, on-and-off relationship.
“(We have) that shared humility of where we came from, what we worked to do, what we had to do to get to where we got to,” said Bloom. It’s that mutual understanding of the daily hustle required for their level of success that provides perspective amidst the glitz and glamor. For them, the “glamorous Montecito” trappings of fame will never overshadow the grit and determination that truly defines their journeys together.
Of course, Bloom acknowledges that juggling his “Pirates of the Caribbean” film career and Perry’s stratospheric music dominance as one of the best-selling artists of all time is no easy feat. He likened her accomplishments to “a universe” in terms of scope and intensity, one that can occasionally get lost in the gravity of its own success.
“I wouldn’t change it for anything, even when sometimes it feels like, ‘How do we do this?’ Because we’ve got these two giant careers and lives, and hers is like a universe sometimes,” Bloom admitted.
But that’s where having a devoted, low-key partner to provide balance becomes so invaluable. While the world knows Perry as a purposefully over-the-top, candy-coated pop icon, Bloom has the unique perspective of being able to “hold her hand and walk her back to the sand pit and be like, we’re just going to build a sandcastle.”
Rather than feeding into the lucrative spectacle, he tries to remind her of the simple joy at the core of their relationship – two generous creative souls bonding over something as pure and childlike as constructing sandcastles along the shoreline. It’s a grounding ritual Bloom uses to counteract the dizzying frenzy Perry’s career can sometimes become.
“She definitely demands that I evolve, and I feel I do the same for her. And that makes for fireworks, pardon the pun,” Bloom said, making a sly nod to Perry’s seminal smash “Firework.”
“But it also makes for a lot of fun and a lot of growth.”
In many ways, Bloom and Perry’s decade-spanning romance has been defined by that duality – the explosive professional highlights contrasted with an understated, nurturing personal connection. It’s no surprise the couple ended a temporary “sober pact” a few years back, realizing deprivation only breeds more tension rather than respite.
These days, the actor and pop star instead prefer to let loose together within the cozy confines of their partnership, be it sipping wine over festive Zoom calls or belting out favorite Disney tunes with their two-year-old daughter Daisy.
There’s an ease and contentment to Bloom’s musings on their relationship, almost reminiscent of an elderly couple waxing nostalgic about a long, satisfying union. But the truth is that the pair’s well of passion still runs quite deep. Their ability to lean into life’s simple pleasures while also wholeheartedly supporting each other’s megawatt ambitions is the secret sauce keeping the fairy tale alive.
“We’ve been able to really kind of create boundaries and find peace,” Bloom explained of their harmonious work-life balance. And yet, even that domestic tranquility requires constant recalibrating and nurturing as their respective demands continuously shift.
For a celebrity pair often caricatured as the ultimate glamor couple, there’s refreshing humility and romantic pragmatism in Bloom’s “sandcastle” philosophy of cherishing every opportunity to recharge together away from the klieg lights.
Of course, fans would expect nothing less from the affable British heartthrob. In the decade since rising to global fame as the dashing Will Turner in the “Pirates” films, Bloom has been refreshingly forthright about the difficulties of maintaining perspective and authenticity while living life in the public eye.
His approach as a father raising Daisy and as a partner to Perry seems to be the embodiment of those values, voraciously devouring even mundane “sandcastle” moments to stay centered when the professional kaleidoscope threatens to swallow them whole.
Bloom even copped to his girlfriend’s displeasure at being described as just a “California gurl” in their relationship, acknowledging her resistance to being summarized in such reductive terms. But Bloom makes clear he means it as the ultimate compliment, harkening back to the core humanity and drive Perry demonstrated from such a young age.
Theirs is a romantic pairing of creative equals who never lost sight of where they came from, even as their collaborative sandcastles gave way to soaring skyscrapers and gilded artistic empires. The image of Bloom playfully tugging his wife’s hand away from the whirlwind and back towards those nostalgic, simple pleasures is both illuminating and endearing.
Few couples, celebrity or otherwise, can so transparently detail the constant push-and-pull between wild success and finding peace within life’s smallest, most grounding moments. Yet Bloom presents just that – the bittersweet cycles of a love affair perpetually navigating the calm and the storm.
For the dashing actor and his “California gurl,” it’s all about respecting the fireworks while cherishing the hand-holding, the “sandcastle” moments that first sparked their romance. And after over a decade of evolution, there’s no sign their unique spark is burning out anytime soon.