Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom split: ‘Other woman’ Condola Rashad sets record straight IT IS not surprising Condola Rashad found it easy, as an actor, to fall in love with her onstage Romeo, Hollywood hunk Orlando Bloom. The duo starred as the doomed lovers in Romeo and Juliet’s much-hyped return to New York’s Broadway stages after a 36-year absence. So when rumours swept around the world that the 27-year-old and Bloom, 37, were also dating offstage, Rashad took it as a compliment to their convincing acting.Unfortunately Rashad received some nasty emails from fans who blamed her for the breakup between superstar model, Queensland-bred Miranda Kerr, and Bloom, who was performing in his Broadway debut. “How we dealt with the rumour was to treat it as a positive thing because it meant at the very least we were doing our job because our love looked so real on stage,’’ says Rashad, who had a boyfriend at the time of last year’s five-month Broadway season. “It was a crazy time. It was a silly rumour and not true. I received so much hate-mail from people saying I was a home-wrecker. I felt for Orlando. I can only imagine what he was going through. I first met Miranda because he and Miranda came to a show I was in. I saw her a few times and she was always super sweet.’’ Australian fans have the chance to see the Broadway production with a film of the Romeo and Juliet stage show opening around Queensland from next Saturday.Rashad was one of several actors short-listed for a nerve-racking final reading with Bloom, star of films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series and The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, playing elf Legolas. “We clicked straight away,” Rashad says. “I found him quite charming and he sensed I was relaxed enough to work with him and I made him laugh. Readings are scary, but I feel more nervous for single auditions. Once you go for a chemistry read you know the director is liking what you are doing so you know a chemistry read is either going to work or not. So I just let go and have fun, which takes the pressure off.’’ Starring with Bloom had particular resonance for Rashad, who nominates The Lord of the Rings trilogy among her favourite movies. She has watched the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, more than 50 times and is drawn to the fantasy element. “I’ve been in awe of the film from when I was 14 years old and then to play opposite one of the stars of The Lord of the Rings is a surreal thing,’’ she says. “I love the movie so much I can talk along with the dialogue.’’ Rashad’s mother is Tony-award winning actor Phylicia Rashad, who played Bill Cosby’s wife Clair Huxtable in ’80s sitcom The Cosby Show. Her aunt is choreographer and actor Debbie Allen, who developed Freeze Frame for last year’s Brisbane Festival, while Rashad has already received two Tony nominations. This production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by director David Leveaux features an African-American cast as the Capulet family including the richly voiced Chuck Cooper as Lord Capulet. Rashad only recently revealed that she received hate-mail about being a black Juliet. “One person said Juliet was a white elf and I was a black monkey and I should go back to the zoo,’’ she says. “We still have a long way to go about educating people because there’s a lot of ignorance out there. It inspired me to work hard because my dad always says the best revenge is success.’’Rashad drew on Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet film (1996) for edgy inspiration and there is a touch of the film in the play’s setting, which features Bloom arriving on a motorbike. “Shakespeare only writes the truth so what happens as an actor is that you are forced to face certain parts of yourself, to put a mirror to yourself,’’ she says. “You can’t help but become a better actor because you have to go to deep emotional places.’’ Rashad says growing up with a famous mother has not made a difference to her career. “I still have to work as hard as everyone else to get a role. I don’t rest on anything and I’m proud of my lineage,’’ she says. Rashad is currently filming a TV pilot Hieroglyph based on Egyptian mythology with a fantasy twist. It also stars John Rhys-Davies, who played dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings. “I’ve unofficially made it my goal to star alongside every member of the Lord of the Rings fellowship,’’ she jokes. Romeo and Juliet opens next Saturday at Dendy Portside, Police Barracks, Noosa 5, Toowoomba Strand and Pacific Fair cinemas
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 19:43:25 +0000
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