Child actor who still gets paid for Titanic 25 years later admits he's stopped cashing in cheques
A man who played a minor role in Titanic around 25 years ago has revealed he was still receiving cheques for the part, but hasn’t had one in a while because he has moved house and not updated his address.
Reece Thompson played the role of an Irish third-class passenger in James Cameron's epic drama when he was only five years old, and – spoiler alert – things don’t end well for him and his family.
Come on, you’ve had over two decades to watch the film, and you already know – or you should – that the f***ing ship sinks in the end.
Advert
One of the most tragic shots in the film shows the ship filling with water as Reece’s character, his sister, and his mother are seen lying in their cabin waiting to die because they couldn’t get into a lifeboat.
It’s only a small role, but it’s really stayed with people over the years, to the extent that Reece still gets trotted out to talk about his experience.
Before that, he had one line, asking his on-screen mother: “What are we doing, Mommy?”
She responded: “We’re just waiting, dear. When they finish putting first-class people in the boats, they’ll be starting with us, and we’ll want to be ready, right?”
Now working as a digital marketing director in Utah, Reece is regularly reminded of his role when he receives a royalty cheque for his performance.
Asked about that on Australia’s Network 10, he said: “Yeah, I still do [receive royalty cheques], it’s true.
“But I haven’t updated my address in several years, honestly since the last time I got interviewed for this.
“So, I haven’t seen them [the cheques] in a few years.
“I’m just assuming that they are still coming.”
As to the regular interest in his life, he explained: “It’s interesting, I’d say my family and I mostly just think that it’s interesting that people are still finding it interesting.
“My wife and I mostly just get a kick out of comments.
“They are mostly just interesting to read, but – yeah – it feels like a dream it was so long ago.
“Any number of different things [are said], honestly, some of the comments I just can’t believe that it’s happening 25 years later.
“Now people are beginning to associate my face with it, whereas before it was a random fact about me, it’s kind of weird.”
By now, you’ve probably noticed that Reece is not Irish.
In fact, he claims that he didn’t even know what an Irish accent was before delivering his one line in the movie, or even that he was going to have a speaking part.
He continued: “Honestly, it was probably that I just looked Irish enough for a casting director that I got the job.
“I had an agent, so I guess that was kind of how it initially got started.
“My mom did tell me that before they cast me they hadn’t decided who was going to get the line, so I think it was kind of up in the air who was actually going to get to say that in the movie.
“I didn’t know what an Irish accent was at all, didn’t have any appreciation of it, so I just did as best as I could with what they gave me.”
Well, no doubt he’s glad they did, and if he decides to update his address he might start getting those royalty cheques once again.
Topics: TV and Film, Money, Celebrity, Weird
Tom Wood