Orlando Bloom reveals why he turned down hosting Saturday Night Live

Orlando Bloom is opening up about why he’s never hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live.

When the Carnival Row star was a guest on The Howard Stern Show earlier this week, he was asked why he turned down a hosting gig for SNL in the past.

“I was really insecure at the time,” Bloom said, noting that it wasn’t a fear of the kinds of sketches that would be written for him that held him back. “I was just like, partly my dyslexia, partly like that window of time where I couldn’t even … think straight and see the wood through the trees. I would love to [host] Saturday Night Live now.”

When Howard Stern noted that a big part of SNL is reading [off of cue cards] which would be tough for anyone with dyslexia, Bloom agreed.

Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images
Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images

“You’ve got to read and then also … I didn’t have perspective,” Bloom said, noting that his life was also just too crazy when he was offered a hosting gig around the time of the third Pirates of the Caribbean film. “It’s like you’re in a burning car. When you’re in our business, you get into this burning car … and it’s like … you’re in the car and you’re like, ‘Wow, look at this, they love it.’ Then you go, ‘F— it’s hot. How the f— … I’ve got to get out of this burning car.’ The reality is you have to be able to get into the burning car, know that you’re getting into a burning car, put the suit on, have all this gel so you don’t get hot and burned. ‘Yeah, I’m driving this burning car!’ Then you have to get out of the burning car, make sure you’ve got a support team to make sure that you’re safe and happy. Then you go, ‘Ok, cool, I’ll get back into the burning car when I do.'”

Bloom explained that he’s gained some perspective since then. “You only really live and enjoy this life, this craziness that we’re doing if you can, related to what’s really happening in your life and the everyday things that make you happy,” he told Stern. “And if you completely disassociate from those things, then you’re lost, in my mind.”

“I was in a burning car and I just didn’t know how to get out and I couldn’t do Saturday Night Live,” Bloom explained. But if he were to get that call now? “Oh, in a heartbeat,” he said. “I’d love to.”

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