Love Actually star Thomas Brodie-Sangster has opened up about being bullied at school after starring in the hit film as a child.
The 34-year-old played Sam alongside Liam Neeson, who portrayed his stepfather, in the 2003 Christmas romcom. Sam develops feelings for his American classmate Joanna (played by Olivia Olson), and the plot leads to their parents also finding romance.
The actor, who recently married his Pistol co-star Talulah Riley, has opened up about his experience as a 13-year-old child star, saying that jealousy from his schoolmates led to bullying.
”[The other pupils] would all ask where I’d been, and get a little jealous I got that much time off school,” he told The Telegraph.
“But I always told myself it was good to go back to school to hang around kids my own age.”
Brodie-Sangster was tutored on set with occasional stints at Pimlico Academy. Expanding on his experience at school, he said: “People tried to pick on me but I don’t think I cared enough.”
He continued: “They would try to bully me for being in a film. But that was my job! I liked doing that! So what was their point? Eventually I kind of made friends with them and they saw that I was alright.”
The actor is currently promoting Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, a follow-up to the 2015 adaptation of Dame Hilary Mantel’s historical trilogy about the life of Thomas Cromwell.
He added that despite his negative experiences, he enjoys being recognised by people for his child roles, though it makes him feel “old”.
“It’s really cool,” he said. “Mothers or, like, big dudes will come up and say, ‘I loved Nanny McPhee as a kid!’ and now they’re grown-up. It does make you feel a little old, but it’s nice.
“It’s like Love Actually, everyone loves it, it’s not controversial. It’s an honour, really, to be in movies that have stood the test of time.”
The Maze Runner star, who was turned down for roles as Colin Creevey and Ron Weasley in Harry Potter, said, “I was very, very shy, but I would watch people. Pick up on their weird little traits.”
