The former 'Doctor Who' star has experienced both sides of the issue.
Christopher Eccleston was reduced to tears as he confessed to being a bully at school on live television yesterday (June 28th 2016). The former 'Doctor Who' star joined Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on 'Good Morning Britain' to discuss his involvement with The Diana Award campaign Stand Up To Bullying.
Christopher Eccleston says he was a bully at school
Bullying is a common occurrence in schools across the world, ranging from the minor incidents to much more serious episodes that make national headlines. For Christopher Eccleston, even though his experiences didn't sound too damaging, they are things that he's carried with him ever since and even now get him emotional.
The 52-year-old is currently the face of The Diana Award bullying prevention campaign Stand Up To Bullying, but he confesses that he himself was once responsible for targeting a 'sensitive and vulnerable' classmate when he was at school in Little Hulton, Greater Manchester.
'It was a very sensitive boy in my class and at breaktime I used to make him give me some of his crisps and I did it a few times and I'm very, very ashamed of it', he admitted, his eyes welling up. He added that he would like to get the chance to apologise to his victim, saying 'I know his name but I don't know where he is'.
He insisted that it was a 'very short period' and something that he stopped himself without any intervention. 'He was probably like myself when I went into the infants. Vulnerable and sensitive', he said. 'I have to say, saying this on television is very difficult but I did self-regulate. I did stop myself. I can remember doing it now [and] feeling dislike for myself as I did it.'
His behaviour could come down to the fact that Eccleston himself was bullied from the age of five. 'Playtime became terror-time for me', he said. '[The bully] would trap me against the wall, she would make me do sums and it really coloured my life. I didn't want to go to school.'
More: Chris Evans denies bullying allegations
However, he stresses that his past experiences with bullies is in no way an excuse for his own attitude towards another child. 'The pop psychology of it is I bullied because I was bullied. I don't know. I don't know that I accept that. I know that I feel a great deal of shame', he says.
Christopher Eccleston appears in a new video campaign for Stand Up To Bullying alongside 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' actress Imelda Staunton, Jim Carter from 'Downton Abbey' and popstars Nathan Sykes, Nicola Roberts and James McVey.
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