Titanic child star who still receives earnings reveals reason for not cashing in royalty cheques

Reece Thompson, who played a small but emotional role in Titanic as a child, has revealed he still gets royalty cheques for his brief appearance, though he hasn’t cashed any in a while.

Thompson was just five years old when he filmed the scene for James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster. He played a young Irish boy in third class, appearing in one of the film’s most heartbreaking moments. 

Trapped below deck with his mother and sister, his character delivers a line that many fans still remember: “What are we doing mummy?”

His mother 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 in his 30s and working as a digital marketing director in Utah, Thompson recently spoke to Australia’s Network 10 about how his Titanic cameo still follows him today.

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,” he added.

“I’m just assuming that they are still coming.”

Despite having moved on to a completely different career, Thompson said people still bring up his Titanic role.

 “It’s interesting, I’d say my family and I mostly just think that it’s interesting that people are still finding it interesting,” he explained.

He added, “My wife and I mostly just get a kick out of comments. They are mostly just interesting to read, but – yeah – it feels like a dream, it was so long ago.”

Some fans have only recently started recognising him, he said, adding: “Now people are beginning to associate my face with it, whereas before it was a random fact about me, it’s kind of weird.”

It may come as a surprise to some, but Thompson isn’t Irish, and he didn’t even know what an Irish accent was at the time.

He just made it up on the spot before filming his line.