Jason Isaacs and Orlando Bloom were guests on the show in January 2002 to promote

JV: My first guests have a CV between them that
includes everything from Lord Of the Rings to The Patriot, and of course Casualty. They’re storming on to our screens this weekend in Black Hawk Down. Please welcome Jason Isaacs and Orlando Bloom!

(Audience cheers as they come on and Jason pretends to trip down the steps.)
(As they sit down they both wave {Our boy looks so cute when he does this} Jason looks at Johnny’s desk…)

JV: What? What are you looking at?

Jason: There’s nothing behind there. It’s not finished is it?

JV: I’ve got a gygacounter under there.

Jason: Who’s that small woman down there? What’s she doing?…Sorry.

JV: Who? Sung Yi?

Jason: Yes. (laughs)

JV: Easy Sung…Now you’ve just flown in for the premiere of Black Hawk Down, which is big hype. Now I’ve seen the trailers for this in the cinema. Has anyone here seen the trailers?

(audience mumbles “yeah”)

JV: Just say “yes”

Jason: So you’ve not seen the film then obviously. Just the trailers?

JV: Well, I find it puts me in a better position to ask you questions if I’m in a position of ignorance.

(audience laughs)

JV: But I’ve seen these trailers and it looks dramatic and extraordinary. What’s it all about?

Jason: It’s about the night in 1993, October 1993, when one hundred American soldiers went into Mogadishu to try and take out this guy who had been slaughtering UN peacekeepers and they got trapped in a…actually Osama Bin Laden now claims responsibility for this…hornets nest of tens of thousands of men, and they fought their way out, and eighteen of them died, and seventy were injured, and it’s a…depending on where you stand, it’s either regarded as one of the most heroic evenings the American army have spent, or a terrible debacle, and Ridley Scott’s shot it…

Orlando: The guys on the ground were heroes though, weren’t they…

Jason: Yeah

Orlando: I mean, we were playing the guys on the ground…

Jason: Yeah…it’s about heroism, it’s about two hours long, and it’s about to open on Friday.

(audience laughs)

JV: So amongst other things, it’s not a comedy. (To Jason) Who do you play?

Jason: I play Captain Mike Steele, who is the commander of these Rangers on the ground.

JV: Is that a made up name?

Jason: (laughs)

It’s a real name, actually he’s a real bloke…

JV: No, you can’t have “Mike Steele” (deep voice)

(audience laughs)

Jason: He’s in Bosnia now actually. I don’t know if you’re watching Mike, but sorry for everything and er…

Orlando: What does that mean? (laughs)

Jason: Everybody we spoke to, coz he wasn’t there…I said “I’m playing Mike Steele” and they’d go... “You’re playing Mike Steele?”...
{Jason pulls this face, and looks and sounds like a real tough guy when he does this accent. It's really funny!}

I said “Yeah”,...they said “Mike Steele’s six foot seven tall, he’s three hundred pounds!” ...I go,

“I know, I heard that, it’s just that I’m wondering if there’s anything else useful you can tell me” ....and they go “We called him the white rhino!” ...and I’d say “Why then?” ...and they said “Well, he walked around naked everywhere, he loved his body. He used to take meetings sitting there with a fan on his balls!”

(audience laughs)

Orlando: Jason really method acted with this one.

Jason: And I’d say, “Is there anything else you can tell me?” “He used to take his teeth out for battle.”

JV: So, Mike Steele sits there naked with a fan on his ‘nads.

Orlando: You really didn’t want to go inside Jason’s trailer, do you know what I mean?

Jason: So I went bald, and I thought that would somehow encapsulate all those things.

JV: Ok…and who do you play Orlando?

Orlando: I play Private First Class Blackburn and I fall from the helicopter. It’s kind of the beginning of the end really.

JV: Do you die early?

Orlando: It’s not really a death, he doesn’t die actually, he’s still alive today and he’s working as a police officer.

Jason: Orlando trained for a week to do…what…show them…

(Orlando and then Jason mime falling and call out “aaaaahhhh”) {This is so cute and funny!}

Orlando: That was the ongoing joke. Everyone was going, “You don’t need the gun, forget about it, you’re falling from the helicopter. It was a bit frustrating to say the least.

JV: But you went on this whole boot camp you all had to go to? And you (indicating Jason) obviously had to go.

Jason: They put me in charge, the boys, the American military. They don’t really understand Hollywood, they said “You’re playing Mike Steele? All right, you’re in charge of the actors, make sure they turn up on time” and we were going “I don’t think you understand how it works, you know?”

JV: But why did he (pointing to Orlando) have to go to the boot camp?

Jason:…Because, he’s a very pretty boy and you know it’s all men there…

(audience laughs)

Jason: I don’t know if you’ve seen Lord of the Rings, but if you’ve seen Lord of the Rings, you’ve seen him in his Dani Behr wig (blonde tv presenter)

JV: He was the Lord of the Rings

Jason: He cheers up a whole evening I can tell you.

Orlando: (laughing)

It’s true. They really wanted me there, what can I say?

JV

“Deliverance” voice) You’ve got a pretty mouth boy.

(Orlando hums “Duelling Banjos”)

JV: But they trained for a long time. Let’s see if that training paid off…
(CLIPS from BHD shown)
(afterwards audience applauds, Jason tries to speak but then waits for audience to finish)

Jason: That's everybody... ...That’s pretty much the entire cast except us really, isn’t it?

Orlando: Yeah, yeah, although you wouldn’t know that.

Jason: We’re in it though…

JV: You know what? That just looked like a laugh. All the stuff you get to use…it’s a good laugh doing that, isn’t it?

Jason: I know this is a comedy show and everything, but we were standing next to the guys who were recreating this night where their best friends were blown apart, and they did these things that you or I would never do. Like when the helicopter gets shot down, their first thought was “Get me to the helicopter”, whereas you or I would think “Get me the f*** out of here, something’s gone horribly wrong”…you know…

JV: I wouldn’t, I want to be down there wasting some muthas!

(audience laughs)

Jason: (looking a little uncomfortable) It was a very serious job. There wasn’t a lot of laughing on set, I mean the first…when we were actually doing the things…I don’t know about you…(looking at Orlando)…when they’re standing there with guns in their hands…

Orlando: You didn’t have to recreate very much either because when you see the helicopters and the guns going off, there were helicopters and there were guns going off, and everyone was like…there wasn’t a lot of acting, it was more like reacting.

Jason: All the soldiers have said it’s the most accurate recreation of war that there’s ever been on film coz it’s not what Hollywood was advising really…

JV: I’ve gotta tell you they do say that a lot after war films

Jason: No, but these are the guys…

JV: No, I’ve heard that, seriously…

Orlando: No, but they were really aware of that in boot camp. They were very aware of that, and it was all about muzzle management wasn’t it?

JV: Muzzle management!

(audience laughs)
Jason: (to Orlando, laughing) I can’t believe you said that!

Orlando: That was a joke, it was a joke. That’s what we liked to call it.

Jason: The first time I had to do any shooting, Ridley said to me

(fabulous Ridley Scott impression!)…”Right, you’re gonna come round the street , right, walk down the street, and all sh**’s gonna break loose, buildings are gonna come down, cars are gonna blow up, and people shooting at you, so just get to the end, right, and do your lines.” …I said “Can I have something a bit more specific than that please?”…and he said “No you’ll be alright.”
I came round the street and everything just blew up like mad, like World War Three. I was going down the street like Norman Wisdom on speed, you know, and I got to the end, and I was like (pretending to fire gun) bang, bang bang and doing my lines… {See Meryl's captures for this bit }

JV: You were loving it!

Jason: And he said “Cut”…and I said “Ridley, I’d really like to do that again.”

Orlando: The gun jammed (laughs)

Jason: The magazine fell out of my gun, I was going “Bang! Bang!” with no bullets in the thing, and er…

Orlando: and he didn’t let off any rounds!

Jason: And he said “No, you were good, you looked scared.”…and I said “Yeah, but the bloke I’m playing is much more butch than me, I was terrified!”

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