James Cameron down memory lane. The director of Titanic revealed some curiosities about the casting of the film, which launched two big names like Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio into the Hollywood Olympus. However, the choice of the two stars for the roles of Rose and Jack was far from immediate…
27 years after its debut in cinemas, Titanic is still talked about. The blockbuster directed by James Cameronreleased in 1997, wrote an indelible page of cinema history and, among other things, launched the careers of two of the most talented and famous actors around: Leonardo Dicaprio And Kate Winslet. The casting of the two actors, then in their early twenties, it occurred in very different circumstances. It was the one who told her director in person.
Recently, on the occasion of the launch of the HBO series The Regime, Variety dedicated a profile to the diva. And Cameron took the opportunity for one confession related to Titanic. Before casting Winslet in the role of Rose DeWitt Bukater, the director hesitated. The young woman’s fame, artistically speaking, was then mostly linked to costume drama (which is why she was nicknamed Corset Kate). The actress had distinguished herself in titles such as Reason and feeling (1995) e Hamlet (1996), playing roles that the Canadian author found all too similar to that of the protagonist of Titanic.
“It seemed like lazy casting,” he admitted James Cameron – it was almost too good a choice. But then wiser heads prevailed and I could see what everyone was talking about. She is very much alive. She walks into a room with a lot of confidence and has that spark of life.” Thanks to Titanic, Kate Winslet received the second nomination (out of seven total) at Oscar Prize. She will win the statuette in 2008, for her performance in the poignant film The Reader.
The director focused on another thorny issue. That is to say, the outcry caused by some Winslet’s statements on the harsh climate that reigned during the filming of the blockbuster blockbuster (to be precise, it is the fourth highest grossing film of all time in the world). Words that have fueled inferences upon assumptions tensions between the actress and James Cameron. To the microphones of Varietythe latter reiterated that no feud ever existed.
There has never been a rift between us. She had a little postpartum depression when he let Rose go. She and I talked about the fact that she goes really, really deep, and that her characters leave a lasting, sometimes dramatic, impression on her.
“There’s a part of me,” echoed Winslet, “that feels almost sad that stupid, speculative things about the Titanic at the time overshadowed the real relationship I have with him. He knows I’ll be ready. to everything. Any challenges, any suggestions you give me, I’ll try.” In 2022, it is no coincidence that the diva and the Canadian director reunited on the set of Avatar: The Way of Water. Furthermore, Kate will also appear in the third chapter of the successful franchise.
To this day, Cameron has no doubts: he cannot imagine Titanic without Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. He declared this openly in 2022, interviewed by Deadline on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the film. As for the actor, he recalled the absurd and contradictory dynamic that finally led him to lend his face to Jack Dawson.
I think of the casting of Leonardo [DiCaprio, ndr] and Kate [Winslet, ndr] in Titanic. Leo, the studio didn’t want him. I had to fight for him. Kate really liked her. And then Leonardo decided that he didn’t want to make the film. So I had to convince him to do it. You think that in any of those roles, if all of that had really fallen apart, there would have been someone else and it wouldn’t have been the same movie. And I can’t imagine that movie without him and her. So there’s a fragility to the whole process, there’s a fragility to the success. Change one item and it doesn’t work.
