James Norton ended up in therapy after he was bullied at boarding school.
James Norton ended up in therapy after he was bullied at boarding school
The 37-year-old actor "didn't have the greatest time" during his five-year stint at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire and while he feels "lucky" to have not experienced mental health issues, he's still found it beneficial to talk through his experience with a counsellor.
Speaking on the 'Comfort Eating' podcast he said: “My school years were complicated. I didn’t have the greatest time.
“I was quite badly bullied for five years and I was at boarding school so I couldn’t leave. I’ve had a great therapist for the last four years, and it’s not from a place of drama.
“And I’m luckily not suffering from depression or anything like that but it’s been really, really helpful to understanding what (happened to me at school.)”
James finds the boarding school system "weird" and is concerned about their impact on children who are left in "pain" after being isolated from their families.
He added: “I’ve realised that boarding schools are really weird places. We’re the only country that still sends our kids away voluntarily.
“You’re stuck with these people, and all these young kids are just deeply, deeply homesick and they’re just lost.
“For some of them, that pain manifests itself in being needy or rebellious. But some of them get angry and rather than crying out for their mum they just bully someone.”
The 'Little Women' actor previously admitted being described as a "pin-up" means nothing to him because he spent so long feeling "unattractive and disempowered" as a youngster.
He said: "I was the kid at the all-boys boarding school who was bullied, whose younger years were definitely spent at the bottom of the pile feeling unattractive and disempowered.
"When people credit me with having 'a pin-up pout' now, it doesn’t mean anything because my bones are not that.
"But I do have moments when I’m being shot by a great photographer, wearing great clothes, when the little unattractive bullied kid in me is laughing his f****** head off!"
Tagged in James Norton