The 28-year-old Kent-born actor told a press conference in Japan: "First and foremost, it was great to do a film without a sword or a horse or suit armour.

Orlando Bloom, who has always wanted "to do a contemporary film" stars in the latest Cameron Crowe semi-autobiographical piece, Elizabethtown, in which he plays a young well-to-do man from Kentucky.

After he has fought as Elfish warrior Legolas in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and he brandished a rapier as swashbuckling Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean, Bloom was seen fighting marauding hordes in Jerusalem during the Crusades as Bailan in Ridley Scott's epic Kingdom of Heaven.

Orlando has recently called Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire) "one of the quintessential American directors". "He really has his hand on his heart and his finger on the pulse of America, and he tells a really soulful story," the actor added.

Elizabethtown sees Bloom as a young man who begins to know his family only after his father. His character embarks on an American love story with a fine woman played by Kirsten Dunst ("Spiderman").

The film is slated for release later this year.