The actor who played the little Irish boy in “Titanic” has opened up about his role – and the money he continues to receive for his small participation in the big film!
Anyone who appears in a film will receive money over the years from the so-called “residual income,” royalties generated from TV reruns or new releases in theaters or on DVD of the project. And if that one is Titanic, you can expect a bonus every year even if you only spoke one line of dialogue in over three hours of film!
Before Titanic would become one of the most famous films in history and become part of global pop culture, doubts remained about James Cameron’s ambitious – and very expensive – project. Although the director had already enjoyed success with Aliens and the first two Terminators, the budget, which at the time reached the unseemly amount of 200 million dollars, had left some convinced that Titanic was going to be a mega-flop.
Of course, you know the fate of the film: far from being a failure, the feature film surpassed everything and became one of the most important and profitable films of all time, a profitability that still benefits today the actor Reece Thompson who, even if he only played a very small role – yet very poignant – in the film, when he was only 5 years old, continues today to earn money thanks to his only line of dialogue spoken!
“What do we do, Mom?”, his character asks as his mother reads a story to him and his sister while the liner is sinking. Third class passengers, all three will eventually perish in the icy waters.
20th century Fox
Paid for life
At the time of Titanic, Reece Thompsonnow in his twenties, could have made a lot more money with less work in a commercial than he was offered, but he and his mother opted for this small role in this big movie. A decision that paid off incredibly well, because even 27 years later, the young man still receives money every year.
“It turned out to be one of the highest-grossing films in history“, said Reece Thompson in a 2018 interview with Business Insider.So it’s kind of weird in retrospect. My mom was like, ‘Let’s do it. It’ll be cool. Even if the movie sucks, we’ll go see it.’ Of course, it ended up being a big hit, so it wasn’t a bad decision on her part, that’s for sure!”
After receiving his salary for his hours of work on the set, the young actor also received an additional payment of around $30,000 due to the huge success of the film. A significant sum that his family is said to have invested mainly in his education.
Over the next few years, he thus received his annual residual payments, each worth a few thousand dollars, with peaks occurring in years when there were new developments in the home theater market, such as the first released on DVD or Blu-ray. The events linked to the 20th anniversary of the film also brought him some nice small sums.
However, over the years the checks have become smaller and, apart from these recent events, the annual amounts now vary between 100 and 250 dollars, an amount that Reece Thompson not looking forward to it, but it’s still good news for him when he gets the check.
“It’s weird because it’s not in the back of my mind anymore. It’s not like, ‘Oh, when am I going to get another Titanic check?’ When it does, it’s more like, ‘Oh, cool, another $100.’”
He also admitted that he didn’t recreate the Irish accent well: “If you listen to it, it doesn’t sound very Irish. It just sounds mellow. I remember trying to imitate what the vocal coach was trying to do. This is as close as I can get.”
“Talk to your mother!”
In 2022, actress Jenette Goldstein, who played his (Irish) on-screen mom, spoke to Cosmopolitan magazine about filming their heartbreaking scene.
“I’ll tell you one thing about the little boy [joué par] Reece Thompson: After we did the scene, he says to me, ‘So when are we doing the next scene?’ And I said, ‘Which one?’ And he said, ‘The one where we get on the boats and escape.’ Oh my God. I just said, ‘Um, talk to your mom!’”
His role in the hit 1997 film earned him his own IMDB page where his role is described as “the little Irish boy.” Today, Reece Thompson is based in Utah, USA and works at a ski and snowboard resort.
Titanic of James Cameron – starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as the star-crossed lovers – grossed $2.187 billion at the box office.
The film can be watched in streaming on Disney+.
