When thinking about celebrities people often forget that they are normal people with regular problems. Orlando Bloom reminded us of that fact this week when he announced, during a talk at the Child Mind Institute with Dr. Harold Koplewicz., that he has dyslexia
Bloom said: “It’s still an ongoing struggle. I have more trouble studying scripts and memorizing lines than most other actors.”
Many other celebrities also admit to struggling with dyslexia, such as Tom Cruise and Henry Winkler.
Cruise had trouble passing his pilots test because of the disability. He said that he was frustrated because while filming Top Gun he had the chance to make his dreams come true, but just couldn’t do it. He eventually passed the test in 1994.
Henry Winkler, Fonzie from Happy Days, went undiagnosed with dyslexia until he was 31. After being diagnosed, he said “for the first time, I understood I wasn’t stupid.” Because of this, Winkler wrote a series of books, Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever, about the hilarious adventures of a fourth-grader with dyslexia.
Other famous dyslexics include Whoopi Goldberg, Albert Einstein, and Walt Disney.