Orlando Bloom Shares How He Got Through “Dark Time” After Near-Death Experience

Orlando Bloom is reflecting on his recovery process and mental health journey following a devastating fall in the late ’90s. See how the actor said he was able to get through a “dark time.”

Orlando Bloom’s nearly-fatal fall changed everything.

The actor—who has opened up in the past about his devastating experience—suffered from an accident in 1998 when as he was climbing up a rooftop terrace with friends, the drainpipe he was scaling collapsed. Orlando, who then just 19 years old, fell several floors from a window, breaking his vertebrae in the process.

For World Mental Health Day, the Pirates of the Caribbean star reflected on the state of his mental health during that difficult time.

“I was very fortunate to survive the fall because my spinal cord was still intact,” the UNICEF Goodwill ambassador shared in an Oct. 10 Instagram video focused on mental health. “And when I was in the hospital, I was told for the first four days that I may never walk again. That was really the beginning of what was a long and painful journey for me into recognizing and understanding some of the patterns that had been in my life that led to me having numerous accidents.”

Despite the initial prognosis, Orlando was able to leave the hospital on crutches after 12 days, but his journey to healing—both physically and mentally—was just beginning. “I would say the months after the fall were quite a dark time,” he continued. “As somebody who’s sort of always been very active in my life, it felt restrictive all of a sudden and I was in a lot of pain.”

And his recovery process from there on out wasn’t just about his physical being. “I would say that for me, the injury created time and space for me to look at my life, recognize what was good and great in my life,” the Lord of the Rings actor recalled. “And the fact that I had this recovery and then build that into the way I live my life.”

That said, the journey isn’t always easy.

He noted, “Mental health is particularly challenging because it’s unseen. There is always an opportunity for you to transform the pain, whether it be physical or mental, into the good, great fortune of your life.”

As for his advice for others when it comes to the topic of mental health today? Aside from personal reflection, the actor explained that simple check-ins could be a possible way for others to open up during difficult times.

“It’s so important to reach out to people, to talk to people, to find somebody,” Orlando shared. “In order to create the possibility for communication that leads to transformation and change.”