Thomas Brodie-Sangster has revealed he was determined not to let his school bullies feel bad about his role in Love Actually.
Before we knew him for his work in Game Of Thrones and The Queen’s Gambit, Thomas got his big break in the Christmas rom-com, playing lovestruck teenager Sam.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the British performer recalled how filming Love Actually meant he missed a big part of his high school education, and it wasn’t exactly the warmest reception when he returned.
“They would all ask where I’d been, and get a little jealous I got that much time off school,” he said, adding: “People tried to pick on me but I don’t think I cared enough. 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,” Thomas claimed he “kind of made friends with them and they saw that I was alright”.
Back in 2022, Thomas shared that the role he played when he was still a teenager is something he’s still immensely “proud of”.
“It’s cool to be in a film that’s somehow still gaining momentum,” he told The Guardian. “It did quite well but it wasn’t a huge blockbuster. But over the years it’s gained that cult following.”
Thomas is actually distantly related to one of his most prolific Love Actually co-stars – who only found out about their family connection while they were on set.
“His grandmother and my great-grandmother are sisters,” the Times Of India quotes Thomas saying back in 2007. “He didn’t know. I said, ‘Apparently, you are my uncle or my cousin or something’. Then he kind of remembered my mum and uncle.
“So, for the rest of the shoot he went round saying: ‘Hello cousin’. That felt quite cool.”
Love Actually is available to stream on Now.