Thomas Brodie-Sangster says classmates tried to “bully” him for being in ‘Love Actually’ – but it didn’t work

Thomas Brodie-Sangster has revealed that his classmates tried to “bully” him while he was filming Love Actually, but he was able to rise above it.

The actor was 13 years old on the set of Richard Curtis’ 2003 Christmas romcom in which he played Sam, who falls for his classmate Joanna (Olivia Olson), while his stepfather (Liam Neeson) also falls for Joanna’s mother (Claudia Schiffer).

Shooting the movie meant that Brodie-Sangster had to miss sizeable chunks of his school time, which resulted in some of the other kids bullying him.

The actor has told The Telegraph: “They would all ask where I’d been, and get a little jealous I got that much time off school. But I always told myself it was good to go back to school to hang around kids my own age.”

Brodie-Sangster did receive private teaching on the Love Actually set, but as he clarified, the school bullying did not affect him badly. “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 I kind of made friends with them and they saw that I was alright.”

The ensemble film has become a beloved festive film, although last year Curtis admitted that if he were to make it now, he would cast someone older than Keira Knightley in the role of Juliet, and also called out the use of fat jokes in the film.

The film was a breakthrough for Brodie-Sangster, leading to him landing a key role in Nanny McPhee alongside Love Actually co-stars Emma Thompson and Colin Firth. He went on to star in Game of Thrones and the Maze Runner trilogy.

Now aged 34, he has transitioned into an adult star too, portraying Paul McCartney in 2009’s Nowhere Boy, and having a key role as chess champion Benny Watts in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit.

He is now starring in Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, the BBC’s second adaptation of the Hilary Mantel historical novels. The first episode premiered on BBC One on Sunday night (November 10), with new episodes airing weekly.