?It?s ridiculous, the roles I?ve played,? Orlando Bloom says. ?I?m definitely having a ball, man.? The 26-year-old sounds relaxed and upbeat over the phone, with the blissed-out demeanor of someone cruising down the freeway in a 1968 Mustang with a surfboard in the back and the wind in his hair. Which is exactly what he is doing: Bloom and his Lord of the Rings costar Billy Boyd are en route to L.A.?s Ventura Beach, ready for waves.

Bloom, who hails from Canterbury, England, seems to be perpetually in a good mood. (In a phone interview six months ago, he sounded equally giddy while making a fish dinner in his kitchen.) Today, he marvels at his career joyride, from playing a sharpshooter elf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy to a rookie soldier in Black Hawk Down to a gallant adventurer in this summer?s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. ?It?s a pirate movie, dude. It?s pretty straightforward,? Bloom says.