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'Irish Little Boy' From 'Titanic' Reveals How Much He Still Earns From The Movie

'Irish Little Boy' From 'Titanic' Reveals How Much He Still Earns From The Movie

Reece Thompson was five years old when he appeared in 'Titanic' as the 'Irish Little Boy' and to this day it still earns him a bit of cash.

Mischa Pearlmen

Mischa Pearlmen

Yes, Titanic is an incredibly epic love story, but it's also just an epic story in its own right. After all, think how many other people were aboard the ship when it went down?

Even if it's centred around the tragic fates of Jack and Rose, you get some sense of the scale of the event with James Cameron's 1997 film, which featured a whole ship-full of people plunging into the sea when disaster struck.

Among them was the splendidly-named 'Irish little boy', the young third-class passenger who dies along with his mother and sister after the iceberg hits. (And if you're complaining about spoilers right now, stop - the film is more than two decades old. You should have seen it by now).

WATCH REECE'S APPEARANCE IN TITANIC:

Anyway, Reece Thompson was the actor who played that role. He's now 25, which should make you feel really, really old, and has revealed that he still gets residuals from the small speaking role he had in the movie.

It's not a lot, but neither is it an amount to be scoffed at. Overall, he earned about $30,000 (£21,000) from his appearance in the film, and while his quarterly residual cheques have become smaller as time has gone by, he still gets around $200 to $300 (£140-210) every year. Which really isn't bad beer money for something you did more than two decades ago.

Now the digital marketing director at Brian Head Resort, a skiing and snowboarding resort in Utah, Reece won a contest at the age of five and gained an agent as a result.

Reece in Titanic.
Paramount Pictures / 20th Century Fox

That agent offered his mother the choice between two roles for Reece - an appearance in a petrol station ad or a shot at a role in 'a major motion picture'.

She chose the movie, and given that it went on to become the second highest-grossing movie of all-time (behind Avatar) she chose wisely. Reece confirmed as much when speaking to Business Insider recently.

"It turned out to be one of the highest-grossing films in history, so it's pretty bizarre in retrospect," he said. "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."

While in the immediate years after the movie came out, his role was very much still in his mind, these days the residual cheques are more of a surprise than anything else.

"It's weird because it's not present in my mind anymore," he said. "It's not like, 'Oh, when am I going to get a new Titanic check?' When it happens, it's like, 'Oh, cool, an extra $100.'"

Hopefully he gives some of it to his mum each time. After all, it's all because of her that he's still getting them.

Featured Image Credit: Paramount Pictures / 20th Century Fox

Topics: TV and Film, titanic