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Orlando Bloom’s nude scenes in Retaliation are ‘required’ to explore trauma of sexual abuse

Orlando Bloom hopes fans can look beyond the nudity in his new movie Retaliation and understand the lasting trauma of childhood sexual abuse.

The 43-year-old actor appears as Malky, an adult victim of childhood sexual abuse who confronts the horrors of his past, in the movie, which premiered at the 2017 Edinburgh International Film Festival as Romans and is now available digitally and on demand in the U.S. under its new title.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, however, Orlando insisted the scenes were “really just what was required,” adding, “I didn’t think about the nudity aspect. I just thought about what was required in the moment to get the job done.”

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“We talked about the shots and the nudity aspect and how it served the character and the truth of the moment,” the Carnival Row star shared. “I was focused more on that and obviously, I put a lot of trust in the directors, who were new and young, and had the greatest sincerity. They knew the writer very well, and their approach to the material was with real sensitivity and care. So, I felt I was serving the moment more than I was thinking about the fact that there was nudity.”

Orlando continued: “With the sex, you see very clear how damaged Malky is, and how his damage plays out in the relationships in his life, particularly with women. His fear of intimacy, his fear of closeness, the animalistic way with which he approaches sex, and the shame around that, it’s all very palpable in the script.

“It’s very clear to me what was required, and then a lot of what I had gleaned from different organisations that I spoke to about male sexual abuse, it was reading up around it and researching around it. You can understand how and why people do things the way they do.”

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