Orlando Bloom says he only got into acting because of the women - and not the money.

The 26-year-old British actor had to overcome obstacles like dyslexia and an accident that nearly paralysed him.

He said: "Basically, I'm acting because of the women. I don't care much about the money. Frankly, if I get the chance to kiss someone in a film, they wouldn't need to pay me at all."

Orlando, from Canterbury, Kent, has starred in the three Lord of the Rings films, Pirates Of The Caribbean and Black Hawk Down.

He said he's wanted to act since he was a young boy. "I've wanted to be an actor since primary school when I realised all those characters I saw on TV were actors - and that they could be anything.

"I thought: "If I'm an actor I can be a fighter pilot or a stuntman like the Fall Guy." I had all sorts of mad ideas."

In 1998, when he was completing a three-year course at the Guildhall School Of Music & Drama, he came close to ending his career before it had even got under way, reports the Daily Mirror.

"I went round to a mate's house in West London - it had a flat on the top floor but the door had warped and needed kicking open from the outside.

"There was a roof terrace on the landing below so, without even looking down, I thought I could jump across. But instead, I fell three floors, landed on a piece of metal and broke my back.

"I was told I might not walk again. So I contemplated that for four days until they operated. Luckily, I walked out of the hospital in about 12 days. But that changed my life. It changed everything. It was the biggest test of my life," he said.

Source: Press Release