Orlando Bloom Details Near-Death Experience With Faulty Parachute

Orlando Bloom on Supporting His Kids If They Follow in His Thrill-Seeking Footsteps (Exclusive)
ET

The actor is shocked to still be alive after filming his extreme adventure show.

Orlando Bloom wasn't afraid of heights, but he might be now.

During an appearance on Wednesday's Late Night With Seth Meyers, Bloom discussed the skydiving incident he had while filming his new show, Orlando Bloom: To the Edge, and the time he broke his back after falling from a window.

Bloom's three-part adventure show features him participating in death-defying activities like free rock climbing and skydiving. For the latter, the Pirates of the Caribbean star was afraid for his life.

"The whole thing was like a pressure cooker," he said. "I'm amazed I'm still alive."

The clip showed Bloom, 47, wingsuiting about five miles over the ocean before landing on Pismo Beach in California.

"It gets my heart racing every time," he said after watching the video. "I have to say, I'm like, 'I can't believe I did that.'"

But not everything ran smoothly.

"There's another clip where I just, like, eat it," Bloom laughed. "And then I get up and I go, 'Did I have you worried then?'"

However, on Bloom’s seventh jump, his right toggle stopped working.

"I jump out, I'm coming down and I pull on the shoot… And it wasn't working," he explained. "So I look up and there’s like, it’s been caught in a line, right? And I'm going, 'I'm not going to be able to land this.'"

Following protocol, he cut one of his parachutes free, which allowed his second parachute to open, and him to land safely.

"There's a guy in the middle of the field, and he thought there was going to be a body out there," Bloom said of going to retrieve the parachute, now more grateful to be alive.

Meanwhile, Bloom's fiancé, Katy Perry, supports his crazy stunts.

"In a world of AI/deepfakin/green-screenin/vfxing/stunt doublin etc etc my hero baby daddy @orlandobloom does it all and FOR REAL," she captioned an Instagram joint carousel post featuring video clips of the show and photos of her and Bloom. "If you haven't seen #OnTheEdge on @peacock yet, buckle up and grab a ginger ale (like I did!) and stream it now…"

That being said, though, the American Idol judge would be much more impressed if Bloom simply kept the house tidy.

"(also honey check slide 9, CAN YOU PLEASE PUT YOUR SOCKS AWAY IN THE RIGHT PLACE FOR ONCE AND THEN FINALLY I WILL BE IMPRESSED I DONT NEED YOU TO CLIMB MOUNT EVEREST OK)," she added.

This isn't the first time Perry, 39, has addressed Bloom directly about not needing to push himself to impress her.

"I can't stop him, and I just want to let him know, 'Honey, I'm impressed and I'm proud of you,'" she told ET last month, looking straight at the camera. "I'm so impressed with you. Please don't ever do this again. If that was all to impress me, you did it. Now stop." 

Although Perry is proud of Bloom, that doesn't stop her from worrying about his safety.

"Every time he called me I was just thanking God," Perry told ET of the time period where Bloom was filming. "At the end of the day he gives me a call when they're shooting those things. It was like, 'There it is! It's his number.'"

Nevertheless, Bloom is thankful for Perry’s support.

"It's so encouraging… we're both, I think, cheerleaders for each other," Bloom told ET of Perry ahead of the release of his show. "She definitely pushes me to be the best version of myself and we both hold each other accountable as best we can."

But skydiving wasn't the first time the actor has tested his limits. Bloom recalled another life-threatening situation he experienced long before the show -- a near-fatal fall. When he was 19, he broke his back after an attempt to jump across a roof terrace. He fell three floors onto a balcony with iron railings.

However, these risk-taking scenarios won't impact how he tells his children, Daisy and Flynn, to take chances.

"Obviously, I wouldn't encourage anyone to go and do this stuff," he said. "But like, 'What's the version of you pushing?'"

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