earlier this week, Avatar: The Way of Water Director and Screenwriter JamesCameron caught up with GQ to talk about his latest film. The acclaimed filmmaker went through all of his films and revealed behind-the-scenes information about each of his projects. One of them was natural titanica film that is a milestone both for his career and for cinema itself.
Titanic became the highest-grossing film of all time in 1997 and made superstars out of leading actors Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. At the time, they probably didn’t realize how big it was going to be, but Cameron certainly knew what kind of project he was putting together. So he had a clear idea that the cast of hapless lovers Jack (DiCaprio) and Rose (Winslet) had to be perfect. During the interview, he revealed that he was initially reluctant to call Winslet to an audition, a decision he immediately regretted after seeing her read lines to him. For DiCaprio, however, the casting process started off on the wrong foot, and the director could easily have gone the other way if Leo hadn’t broken his own rules. Cameron explains:
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY
“Leo came in of course, charmed everyone, including me, and I was like, ‘Okay, let’s see what your chemistry is with Kate.’ So he comes a few days later […] he didn’t know he was going to test. He walked in thinking it was another meeting to meet Kate. And I said, ‘Okay, so let’s just go into the next room and we’ll just, we’ll run a few lines and I’ll film it. And he said, “You mean I read?” and I said, “Yes!”. And he said, ‘Oh, I don’t read,’ and I said, well, I shook his hand and said, ‘Well, thanks for stopping by.'”
RELATED: ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ has to be one of the highest grossing movies of all time to be profitable
Needless to say, the Titanic story could have played out a lot differently if DiCaprio hadn’t been mad at Cameron. As the director continues the story, he reveals that the young actor was so frustrated that the director didn’t want to give him the role right away that he decided to audition out of defiance. What happened next was magical:
“So he comes in and he’s like … every ounce of his entire being is just so negative. Until I said “Action” and then he turned into Jack. And Kate just lit up and they got into this whole thing and acted out the scene… Dark clouds had opened up and a ray of sunshine was coming down and illuminating Jack. I’m like, ‘Okay, he’s the guy.’”
Titanic was the most expensive film of all time at the time of production. It was the title of the highest-grossing film of all time for 12 years and was the first to surpass $1 billion in ticket sales. Much of that success relied on the undeniable chemistry between DiCaprio and Winslet, which had to drive the story for at least over an hour – the doom sequence doesn’t start until about halfway through the film. The cast is there too Kathy Bates, Billy Zane, Gloria Stuart, Victor Garberand Bill Paxton.
You can watch the full interview with James Cameron below: