Titanic child star still gets paid for role 25 years on – but stopped cashing in cheques

A bloke who starred in Titanic at the age of just five is still getting paid 25 years on – even though an admin error means he hasn’t cashed in any cheques for a while.

American actor Reece Thompson landed the part of ‘Irish little boy’ in James Cameron’s 1997 epic and while he doesn’t remember much of the filming, the job has paid quite nicely over the years.

In the Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet hit, Reece’s character tragically dies along with his mum and sister when – spoiler alert – the iceberg hits.

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Reece had just one line in the film but it struck a chord with devastated viewers as the third-class family anxiously waited for the gates to open so they could escape.

He asks his mum: “What are we doing, Mommy?”

She replies: “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 30 and working as a digital marketing director in Utah, USA, Reece says he receives a reminder of his hit Hollywood role in the form of a royalty cheque each year.

He did, however, admit that an oversight has meant he hasn’t seen any of that cash for a little while.

Speaking with 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.”

Reece also admitted he thinks the movie feels like a “dream” decades on but is grateful to his mum for putting him forward.

He previously told Business Insider : “It turned out to be one of the highest-grossing films in history, so it’s pretty bizarre in retrospect.

“My mom was like: ‘Let’s just do it. It’ll be cool. Even if the movie sucks, we’ll see it.’ Obviously, it ended up exploding, so that wasn’t a bad decision on her part, that’s for sure.”

He admitted that he struggled with his Irish accent.

Reece said: “If you listen to it, it doesn’t sound very Irish,” he said. “It just sounds soft-spoken. I remember trying to mimic what the speech coach was trying to do. That’s as close as I got.”

The actor was paid a set fee for his time on set, which came to a total of around £22,000.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk