Actor James Norton has told how he was “quite badly” bullied at boarding school.
The star of McMafia, tipped by many to be the next James Bond, told the Daily Telegraph he “sobbed (his) eyes out” to a monk named Father Peter during his time at the £36,486-a-year Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.
He said: “I actually got quite badly bullied at school and one of my saviours, one of the people who really got me through was a monk called Father Peter, who wasn’t a teacher, nothing to do the school but he had confession.
“You would go and sit, and I wasn’t a Catholic, so I was able to go and just talk and he basically became my therapist and I just would sort of sob my eyes out.”
Norton, whose other TV roles include Happy Valley, Grantchester and War & Peace, said he had an “odd time” at school and Ampleforth College had a “hard-core style environment”.
“I had some great friends, I made some lifelong friends and I had some incredible experiences and relationships with both some of the monks and teachers and pupils and then I had some which weren’t and I think that’s probably most people’s schooling experience,” he said.
Norton, 34, went on to read theology at Cambridge University after completing his A-levels at the college in 2005.
He is frequently tipped to take over from Daniel Craig when he walks away from the James Bond role.
Speaking about the rumours in 2017, Norton said: “It’s very flattering, it’s bizarre and a massive compliment, but it is pure speculation.”