Twenty years after "Titanic" broke box office records, the actor who played the little Irish boy in "Titanic" talks about his role in the famous film.
's Reece Thompson, now in his 20s, spoke to Business Insider UK about the film, how he struggled to learn his Irish accent, and how much he still earns from the rest of the money.
Thompson, who was only 5 years old at the time, appeared in three scenes and had a line.
If his mother had chosen to cast him in a gas station commercial - another acting job at the time, he might never have been remembered.
Thompson told Business Insider: "It was one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, so it's weird looking back now. My mom said, 'Let's just do it. It's going to be cool. Even if this movie sucks, we Gonna watch it too.' "
"Obviously, it ended up going viral, so it wasn't a bad decision on her part, that's for sure."
You may remember that poignant little actor, Thompson and his screen My mother was telling them bedtime stories when my sister was sinking.
As third class passengers, all three would end up dying in the icy water.
Just last month, actress Janet Goldstein, who plays the Irish mom, spoke to Cosmopolitan about filming the heartbreaking scene.
"I'm going to tell you one thing about Reece Thompson's little boy: After we filmed this scene, he asked me: 'When are we filming the next scene?'"
"I asked: 'Where One?' he said, 'the one we got on the boat and escaped.' Oh my god. I was like 'you're going to talk to your mom'"
in this 1997 hit The character has given him his own IMDB page, where his character is described as a "little Irish boy".
Today, Reese Thompson works at a ski and snowboard resort in Utah, USA.
James Cameron 's "Titanic" grossed $2.187 billion, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet played a pair of hapless lovers.
Thompson revealed that he still gets a check or two in the mail for his performance in the film. After the
film came out, he ended up making about $30,000 and still got the balance, which was in the thousands of dollars in the years following the film's release.
Today, that's about $200 to $300 a year. The balance of
depends on the actor's contract and is paid after the film is released on DVD or videotape.
"It's weird because it doesn't exist in my mind anymore," he said. "It's not like, 'Oh, when will I get a new check for Titanic?' It's just that when it happens, it's like, 'Oh cool, another $100.'"
He also Admit he didn't get the Irish accent right. "If you listen closely, it doesn't sound like an Irish accent,"
he told Business Insider.
"It just sounded softly. I remember trying to imitate a speech coach. Close result."
