'Titanic' Child Star Says Kate Winslet Was Kept Away From Kids, for the Funniest Reason
Sounds like Rose wasn't always ladylike on the "Titanic" set.
Reece P. Thompson III, now 25, played the "Little Irish Boy" in the 1997 film. You'll remember him in a couple of scenes, including that truly heartbreaking one where his mother reads him and his sister a bedtime story as the ship goes down.
Cosmopolitan talked to Thompson, who now works as a digital marketing director at a ski resort in Utah. He said, once people find out he was in "Titanic," they usually want to know how much money he made ("I want to say around $30,000") and if he got to meet stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
Well, he did get to meet Leo. But not Kate.
"I didn't meet Kate Winslet. Apparently — I'm sure she's a wonderful, sweet person — but apparently they had to keep her separate from the kids because she swore a lot. My mom met her and said that she was nice, but I never did."
Bollocks!
That sounds so Kate Winslet, though. She was 21-years-old when filming the role that would earn her an Oscar nomination. Working in those tight clothes, with the notoriously tough James Cameron, we'd probably do a lot of cursing, too.
Leo had his own issues with Cameron, as Thompson shared. One of his other scenes as the young boy was walking down a hall on the ship while everyone's arriving, including Fabrizio (Danny Nucci) and Jack Dawson (DiCaprio). Cosmo asked what he remembered about that, and here's his response:
"My mom told me about this: We did that one countless times and it was because James Cameron was getting incredibly frustrated that Leonardo couldn't walk down the hallway and say his lines at the same time."
Thompson said he wasn't on set nearly as much as Leo, but they shared the same makeup room on the days when the young actor was on call.
"And my mom told me that he was super friendly and making me laugh, making faces at me and stuff. Very small interaction."
Small, but sweet and memorable -- at least for his mom.
It has to be cool to have this experience in your past, even if it would be hard to remember the details at age 5. It's staggering the number of people who have seen him on screen, even if they wouldn't recognize him in real life now. At least his heart is still going on, 20 years later ... unlike his character's, or Jack's, whether he could've fit on that door or not.
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