How Sam Bloom Found Her Purpose
When Sam Bloom learned that Oscar-nominated actor Naomi Watts was going to play her in the movie, Penguin Bloom, she sent her the one thing she knew would help Naomi get into her head: her diary.
It wasn’t like most diaries, full of hopeful scribblings. Instead, her words were written after she had a terrible accident in Thailand in 2013, where she was holidaying with her husband, Cameron, and three young sons. A rotted railing on a balcony guard at her Thai hotel, gave way while she was leaning against it and she fell six metres onto tiles below. Her skull was fractured, her brain bled and worst of all, her spine was shattered. She lost all movement from the chest down.
And so, her diary was filled with awful thoughts. “I used to write a lot of things down and no-one had ever seen it, well, no-one except Bradley [Trevor Greive, who co-wrote her memoir, Sam Bloom: Heartache & Birdsong and is the movie’s executive producer] and my kayak coach Gaye [who helped Sam win two Oceania KL1 paracanoe championships]. And Naomi. It was just so that she could get into my head and understand how I was feeling. It was very repetitive: ‘I hate this and I hate that’, and lots of swearing and [how] I wish I had died. And there was a lot of guilt. I was worried about the boys and I didn’t feel like the same mum. I felt like a bad wife, a bad friend because I pushed a lot of people away.
“I think it really helped Naomi to get into the character, and to know how I was feeling, which she portrayed so well. She had this look – that’s all she needed – this look where you could just tell she felt so ripped off and so sad.”
Penguin Bloom, based on the 2016 bestselling book of the same name, tells the tale of an injured magpie that Sam’s son rescues soon after her accident and brings home to nurse. Although Sam is initially reluctant to have it around her, the bird helps her to slightly shift focus from herself and become more attuned to everything around her. And while Sam says that “animals are really healing … there’s just some energy about them”, this is not so much a movie about Penguin the magpie as it is about family, about resilience, about taking steps forward when all one wants to do is close out the world.
It’s no wonder that Sam – who has become the Australian and World Para Surfing champion, in addition to her successes with paracanoeing – gets flooded with messages on Instagram, many from people who’ve experienced trauma and are hoping for some inspiration. She tries to help, but mainly it helps her.
“I love that people reach out to me and we have a chat. If I’m having a bad day, I can vent to them because they get it. And it’s not always spinal cord injuries [they write about] – it can be absolutely anything. The other day I got this message from a girl who was telling me she wants to end her life. She read our book and it inspired her and gave her some hope, so it felt worthwhile.”
“I didn’t want it to be Hollywoody at all. I said I wanted it to be real and authentic. And honest. And they honoured that, which I’m so stoked about.”
Sometimes, however, she turns to her husband and asks, “What on earth do I say? What do I write to this mother whose daughter is 16 and sustained a spinal cord injury and wants to know how to get some sunshine back in her heart?”
When she learnt that her story would be turned into a movie, Sam wanted to ensure that it wasn’t a distorted version. “I didn’t want it to be Hollywoody at all. I said I wanted it to be real and authentic. And honest. And they honoured that, which I’m so stoked about.” She was thrilled that Naomi Watts portrayed her. “She is an extraordinary actress, but she’s also so down to earth and real. I had total faith in her.”
The filmmakers used the Bloom’s actual home on Sydney’s northern beaches – which they re-decorated and re-painted – and some of Sam’s clothes were used as Naomi’s wardrobe. “Poor Naomi, I just wear boy shorts and T-shirts.” Did the filming process make her feel exposed? “No. I’ve always been pretty honest about the accident and just keep it real.”
In fact, parts of the film were so real that they were hard for her to watch. “There was this one scene, when the kids were sick. They were calling out to Cam and not me – that really happened. And I just remember I was yelling out [from my bed] to Cam, going, ‘What’s happening? What’s going on?’ And I just remember lying there crying and feeling so guilty, because it was my job to get up for the kids if they were sick and they needed me. I felt like it had been taken away from me.”
Penguin Bloom isn’t about what Sam can’t do, but rather who she can no longer be. “I would always say that the real me died in Thailand, and then a different person came back. [Before the accident] I was super-happy and active and everything was great. And then after the accident I was just so sad, to be honest. It was soul-destroying. So I always say, I wasn’t the same mum.”
That’s not to say that life didn’t improve, eventually. “It’s gotten better, easier. I’m kind of used to it. I’ll never accept being in a wheelchair but I’ve been so fortunate. I’ve had so much amazing support and I got into adaptive surfing, which has been so much fun. I train every day and I’ve got an amazing personal trainer that I work with five, six days a week. I just try and keep busy. And I’m so lucky – I get to watch the boys grow up.”
While Sam doesn’t always have advice for others at the ready, she says there is a way to get out of a hole that threatens to bury you. “I always tell people to find something you love doing and that gives you purpose. And appreciate the small things in life, which are the things I miss the most: just being able to jump out of bed and run down to the beach or being able to walk through the bush. Don’t put your dreams on hold, because you never know what’s around the corner.”
Words_ Rachelle Unreich
Photos_ Supplied/Cameron Bloom