Orlando Bloom is grateful. Grateful that he gets to keep making movies, grateful that women think he’s hot, grateful that he can wear stick-on facial hair. He’s also grateful that we asked him questions, grateful that we recorded his answers and grateful that we’re putting them down on paper. Don’t thank Orlando Bloom for giving this interview. He thanks you.

Kingdom of Heaven is the first leading role for this Lord of the Ring. As Balian, a blacksmith turned leader of Jerusalem, he wears chainmail, clanks swords and learns from the Jedi master himself, Qui-Gon Jinn. We met up with Bloom during a press junket for this Ridley Scott-directed film and couldn’t help but wonder: Where was all the Hollywood pretension and egocentric posturing?

The Wave: What would you go on a crusade for today?
Orlando Bloom: Happiness, humanity. I would go on a crusade for humanity. If life isn’t about human beings and living in harmony, then I don’t know what it’s about. And I think as Balian does: He fights for the people, he fights to protect the people and it doesn’t matter what color you are. It doesn’t matter what religion you are, it doesn’t matter what your beliefs are, what sex you are, what sexuality you are. We’re all equal in the eyes of your god, whoever that may be.

TW: What was it like fighting a Jedi?
OB: It was an honor. Let me tell you: Liam Neeson inspired me beyond belief, and I felt very blessed to have him be my father and lead me through the first act of that movie. He so graciously guided me in that role and he’s a remarkable actor and a very dear man. I was very fortunate. I think I’ve been lucky in my career to work with the actors that I’ve worked with because I’ve learned so much from all of them, and ultimately the integrity of all of them has been remarkable.

TW: Is it nice to finally grow up and play a man, not all these little action boys?
OB: I feel like I’m definitely turning chapters, but I don’t feel like it’s been that long. I mean, it’s been five or six years since I left drama school, and I feel like I’ve been so fortunate to get to the position that I’m in now. I’ve worked on so many huge movies, but I certainly wanted to take this role into the realm of being more of a man. I put on 15-20 pounds to physically be bigger. With my makeup artist, Paul Engelen, we went for different levels on the beard at different times to create that masculine, real man of that period. Yes, definitely.

TW: Why are you always wearing funny costumes in your movies?
OB: I have done historical movies, yes. And I have done movies that are costume movies. I think a lot of that comes from the fact that I trained for three years at a drama school where I studied Brecht, I studied Shakespeare, I studied Chekhov. So I think in a way I lean towards those historical pieces as something that I’ve been educated in.

TW: After Lord of the Rings, were you worried you’d only get elf roles?
OB: No, not at all. Of course, Legolas was an incredible character for my first movie. In a way, I was very lucky that I didn’t have too much to do or say because it might have messed it up being straight out of drama school. Still, I feel like I’m in the first chapter of my life really, as an actor in my career. I’ve still got mistakes to make and lessons to learn. But I was very happy to lose the blonde wig and have my own look.

TW: How do you feel about teenage girls calling you a hottie?
OB: A friend of mine once said to me, and I’ll never forget this, he said, “There will always be the new boy band. There will always be the new hot young guy, because there will always be young girls who want to pin their hopes and dreams on this ideal of somebody who is in the public eye.” If that’s where you find yourself, that’s where you find yourself. If teenage girls relate to me as that, I guess I’m a lucky boy.