Orlando Bloom Opens Up About Child Abuse In The Entertainment Industry

Abuse in Hollywood is on the top of everyone's minds. As each day passes, it seems another person comes forward with a damning accusation against a once-popular director, producer, or actor. The allegations include sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape; all of them are disturbing and haunting.

Orlando Bloom's latest film, Romans, couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. The story, The Hollywood Reporter writes, is about a man who was abused as a child. Throughout his life, he became destructive as he tried, however unsuccessfully, to cope with what happened to him at such a young age. But, in adulthood, he finds himself once again confronted by the man who assaulted him and is forced to make a decision, once and for all, about how his abuser would impact his life.

Though the assault depicted in the film is committed by a priest in a Catholic church, Bloom recognised that Hollywood, too, has been an epicentre for disgraceful encounters while he was promoting the film in Italy, according to THR. Just recently, actor Anthony Rapp accused Kevin Spacey of assaulting him when he was 14; before that, Corey Feldman started a campaign with the intention of revealing child predators in the entertainment industry.

According to THR, Bloom said that he sincerely hopes that Romans "will give men who have experienced sexual abuse a safe place or a feeling of being able to relate."

"I think that this has been going on for a very long time and it's obviously an incredibly sensitive subject," he said. "I think that it's a shakedown. It's a time of real revelation and a lot of people are being revealed for who they’ve been and what they are and society is now standing up. It's time."

Bloom also acknowledged that now, potentially more than ever, abuse is "something that society is no longer willing to accept," but that parents need to be diligent in speaking with their children.

"You have to be attentive and aware and pick up on signs and signals from your child," Bloom, the father of a six-year-old son, said. "That's the responsibility of a parent."

No child should ever have to experience the trauma that comes with sexual or physical abuse. According to RAINN, one in 9 girls and one in 53 boys will be sexually abused by an adult by the time they turn 18. These survivors will be four times more likely to experience PTSD later in life than their peers who weren't sexually abused. The likelihood that survivors exhibit drug abuse symptoms also increases.