Orlando Bloom Shut Down His Play to Tell Woman to ‘Put That Fucking iPad Away’
It’s kind of rude to use your mobile device during a movie. The theater is dark and that bright-ass light coming off your phone is distracting. I’m not willing to entertain any other opinions on this other than maybe that I’m being too soft and that people who use their phones during movies should be dragged into the street and shot.
If using a mobile phone in a movie theater is bad, using a mobile phone during a live theatre performance is worse. Chris Hemsworth can’t see you checking your phone every five minutes during Thor: Ragnarok because Taika Waititi couldn’t give a single dramatic moment space to breathe without punctuating the scene with a joke, but I digress. Actors in live theatre can see you on your phone and it can be distracting while they’re trying to perform.
Orlando Bloom wasn’t having it at a London performance of Killer Joe where a woman had her iPad out. Theatre critic Mark Shenton reported that at the performance he attended, Bloom stopped the play and told a woman “I need YOU to put [your] iPad AWAY NOW!” and then again stopped and said “Put that fucking iPad away now and I will wait”.
Eye-witness account from today’s matinee of @KillerJoePlay: #OrlandoBloom made two unscripted interventions: “I need YOU to put iPad AWAY NOW!” Then again a few mins later: “PUT that fucking IPad away now and I will wait”. pic.twitter.com/WZ4ybgKexJ
— Mark Shenton 💙 (@ShentonStage) July 26, 2018
Another theatre-goer reported that Bloom yelled at the woman in-character, so it’s entirely possible he didn’t actually lose his s**t on her, he is playing the titular character in Killer Joe, a contract killer in a Texas trailer park.
So at today’s matinee of @KillerJoePlay #OrlandoBloom shut down a lady filming on her iPad TWICE and he maintained character the entire time and that alone was worth a standing ovation. Also, if Killer Joe told me to put my iPad down he so wouldn’t need to tell me twice 😂
— Lauren ✌🏻 (@LaurenHulatt) July 26, 2018
It turns out the woman wasn’t being rude intentionally, she was using the iPad battery to run a portable fan. Apparently the theater wanted to really give theater-goers the feeling of being in a Texas trailer park by not being air conditioned.
I was sat behind and although it would have looked bad, in her defence she was only using it for her fan as the auditorium was roasting! #preshowpic pic.twitter.com/TAwSWLRT4b
— Harry Edwin (@harryedwinactor) July 26, 2018
Still, there are better ways to run a hand-held fan than with your iPad. Who even takes their iPad with them to a theater performance in the first place? The only reason I can think of is that terrorists might take over the theater and threaten to kill everyone unless someone lets them watch GLOW on Netflix right the f**k now. Outside of that scenario, there’s literally no reason you’d ever need to have an iPad with you in a theater.
