Weird But True Behind-The-Scenes Stories From The Set Of 'Titanic'
Vote up the best stories from the set of ‘Titanic’ that make you love the movie even more.
- 1946 VOTES
The Movie Unfolds In Real Time
Photo: Paramount PicturesOne of the reasons there's a heightened sense of danger and urgency pulsing through Titanic is because Cameron stayed true to the actual event's timeline. The entire movie runs two hours and 40 minutes - precisely the amount of time it took for the real Titanic to sink.
Also, the iceberg collision lasted 37 seconds in the movie, which parallels how long the real Titanic took to meet its demise.
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Kate Winslet Hounded James Cameron For The Role Of Rose
Video: YouTube
Kate Winslet really wanted the Rose role. Sensing what a major movie event Titanic would become, Winslet hounded James Cameron until he finally hired her. "You don’t understand! I am Rose!" she told him. "I don't know why you’re even seeing anyone else!"
She didn't audition, however - presumably, her persistence was enough to get her a screen test to seal the deal.
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Leo DiCaprio Ad-Libbed The Whole 'King Of The World' Moment
Photo: Paramount PicturesWhen Leo DiCaprio stands at the bow of the ship, arms triumphantly outstretched, proclaiming he is "king of the world," it's an enduringly magical movie moment. But DiCaprio's most famous line wasn't in the script at all - he completely improvised it.
Cameron would later reuse the line a bit more self-serving in his Oscar acceptance speech for his directing.
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A Section Of Wood Paneling From The 'Titanic' - Like The One That Saved Rose - Still Exists
Photo: Paramount PicturesOne of the most indelible scenes from the movie involves Rose and Jack floating in the ocean, waiting for rescue. They find a piece of wood paneling, and Jack insists Rose use it to stay afloat. There's a similar piece of wood paneling salvaged from the real wreckage; it's in a museum, where it reportedly inspired Cameron.
According to the magazine Grazia, "Cameron regularly visited the museum when researching for the Oscar-winning film, which led him to use a similar piece of wood to stage Jack and Rose's emotional final moment." As an aside, there was enough room on the board for both characters.
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James Cameron Drew The Artwork In Jack's Sketchbook
Photo: Paramount PicturesWhen you watch Jack sketching Rose, you aren't watching Leo DiCaprio's hands, but director James Cameron's. He did all of the artwork in Jack's sketchbook. In his early years in the movie industry, Cameron worked as an art director and production designer, so drawing was in his wheelhouse. His portrait of a nude Winslet from Titanic sold for £10,000 in 2011.
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The Actors Had Access To Hot Tubs Because The Set Was Freezing
Photo: Paramount PicturesGiven the icy Pacific waters used for filming, the actors spent most of their time miserable from the cold. The producers made hot tubs readily available on the set for actors to warm up. And with every moment of an epic like Titanic requiring meticulous planning and intricate shooting, there was substantial downtime for reheating in the bubbles.
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There Truly Was A 'J. Dawson' On The 'Titanic,' Just Not The One You Think
Photo: Bigg(g)er / Wikimedia Commons / GNU Free Documentation LicenseThe two main characters in Titanic - Jack and Rose - do not have any connections to a specific couple during the real Titanic's sinking. But in one of life's supreme coincidences, a man named J. Dawson died in the tragedy. Rescuers discovered Dawson's body; he eventually had a burial in a cemetery in Nova Scotia, but this wasn't a Jack Dawson: it was a Joseph Dawson, one of the ship's crew members.
As can be expected, this fact hasn't stopped scores of devoted Titanic movie fans from flocking to his grave, though.
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Kate Winslet Flashed Leo DiCaprio The First Time They Met
Photo: Paramount PicturesThe formative scene of Jack drawing Rose "like one of his French girls" was among the first scenes shot for Titanic. To break the ice, Kate Winslet allegedly flashed Leo DiCaprio. It was reportedly the first time the two had met.
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There Were Wild Cast And Crew Parties - On Sunday Mornings
Photo: Paramount PicturesDanny Nucci, who played Jack's friend Fabrizio, has dished delicious behind-the-scenes secrets about Titanic. One involved wild cast and crew parties - but festivities took place when filming wrapped at 7:00 am on Sunday mornings.
"I didn't realize how much British people drank," Nucci said. "Woo! Holy cow. I mean they can party."
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Kate Winslet Refused To Wear A Wetsuit - And Got Pneumonia
Photo: Paramount PicturesAlmost every Titanic cast member had to spend extended periods of time in a massive, on-set water tank during filming. Sourced directly from the Pacific Ocean, the water for these tanks were freezing.
Most cast members wore wetsuits for protection, but one notable holdout was Kate Winslet. She refused to wear one because she'd thought she'd be too aware of it - thus, it'd negatively affect her performance. She got pneumonia as a result.
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Jenette Goldstein Used An Earthquake Experience To Help Perform Her 'Irish Mother' Scene
Photo: Paramount PicturesOne of Titanic's most heartbreaking scenes shows an Irish mother (Jenette Goldstein) calmly telling a fairy tale to her children, trying to get them to fall asleep before the water will fill the ship and drown them. The scene is agonizing because the mother has given up hope of saving her children, and is entirely focused on the goal of seeing them to their deaths without any fear or pain.
Goldstein, a James Cameron regular who was also in Aliens and Terminator 2, recalled using her own memories of an earthquake to put herself in the mother's frame of mind:
The very last scene, putting them to bed, was in one way easy and in one way hard. The easy thing was putting myself in that position because I had gone through the big Los Angeles earthquake in 1994 when my oldest son was five. I was a single parent, my son was in the bed with [me], and it felt like a bomb was going off. I got him out of the bed and stood under the doorway, and he was asleep and I was holding him, and I wanted to scream, but I didn’t, because the same thought was in my head: We’re gonna die. Let him die while sleeping. Don’t scream. So that was the easy part. The hard part was, during the scene, trying not to cry.
The script only said that the mother told her children a story, without specifying which one. Irish actors suggested the tale of Tír na nÓg. Goldstein recalled:
I think in the script it said, ‘She tells them a bedtime story.’ That’s all it said. And so I said, ‘Which one?’ I was talking to a lot of the Irish actors and they said, ‘You’ve got to tell them the story of Tír na nÓg,’ and they wrote out the whole tale for me. It goes so well with the kids — you’re going to a place of final rest, where it’s youth and beauty.
Child actor Reece Thompson didn't realize the characters were supposed to die. “After we do the scene," Goldstein said, “he goes to me, ‘So when are we gonna do the next scene? And I said, ‘Which one?’ And he goes, ‘The one where we get onto the boats and escape.’ Oh my god. I was just like, ‘Uhhhh, talk to your mom.’”
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Someone Laced The Crew's Food With PCP
Photo: Paramount PicturesOn the final evening of filming in Nova Scotia, the Titanic cast and crew sat down to eat during their break. Clam chowder was on the menu, but unbeknownst to the Titanic folks, someone had laced it with PCP. Eighty cast and crew members, including James Cameron and Bill Paxton, started hallucinating, and dozens had to go to the hospital.
No one found out who peppered the PCP in the chowder, but set painter Marilyn McAvoy remembered how it tasted:
The chowder was unbelievable. People were going back for second bowls. I really thought about going back because it was so good. And I think that was part of the problem: people ate a lot more than usual because it was so delicious.
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During Filming Of The Lifeboat Scenes, Several Actors Peed In The Water
Photo: Paramount PicturesCameron was insistent on not allowing actors restroom breaks while filming the lifeboat scenes. He allegedly threatened to fire anyone who took a break during these crucial scenes. Thus, many actors ended up peeing in the water. Both Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio admitted they were among them.
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Robert De Niro Was Originally Cast As Captain Smith
Photo: David Shankbone / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0While Matthew McConaughey and Lindsay Lohan almost had roles in Titanic, Robert De Niro had a formal offer for the part of Captain Smith. He intended to take it, but had to decline at the last minute - he had a gastrointestinal issue. Some wonder what unique interpretation De Niro could have brought to this pivotal supporting role.
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Want More 'Titanic?'
Photo: Open Road MediaEven though the RMS Titanic slipped beneath the icy surface of the Atlantic more than 100 years ago, people continue to be fascinated by it. Whether it be first-person accounts of what happened on board or historical analyses of the captain’s decisions that fateful night, there is plenty to dig into if you’re someone who is interested in all things Titanic. If you – or someone you know – just can’t get enough of the "Unsinkable Ship," here are our staff’s picks of what to read, watch, and buy next.
A Night to Remember: The Sinking of the Titanic, the #1 New York Times bestselling book by Walter Lord. Based on interviews with sixty-three survivors, Lord’s moment-by-moment account is among the finest books written about one of the twentieth century’s bleakest nights.
A popular gift volume featuring dozens of meticulously accurate, full-color paintings – including a fold-out illustration of the whole Titanic – Titanic: An Illustrated History offers a wealth of information about the "unsinkable" cruise ship and its fatal voyage.
The History Channel’s documentary Titanic: The Complete Story is ideal for anyone who really wants all of the details from that fateful night in a format they can watch and re-watch anytime.
For younger readers, Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic, 1912 in the popular Dear America series offers a unique view of life onboard the ship from the perspective of a young girl.
For the collector, miniature lover, and design enthusiast, there are rare photographic prints, scale models, and even Titanic trivia available.
Our staff has written lots on the subject, too, so stick around!
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Cameron Wanted Enya To Score The Movie
Photo: Niall More / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0Before James Horner joined the crew, Cameron was adamant about Enya scoring the movie. He used her music in the first rough film edits. When Enya turned down his offer, Cameron hired Horner. There's a rumor about Horner, unaware of Cameron initially wanting Enya, using her music as inspiration for his score.
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Matthew McConaughey Was Almost Cast As Jack
Photo: Ranaroyale / Wikimedia Commons / Public DomainAll right, all right, all right: yes, the world might have had a dramatically different Jack Dawson. In 2017, Kate Winslet revealed how Matthew McConaughey was the studio's first choice for the role of Jack. She told Stephen Colbert:
I auditioned with Matthew, isn’t that weird? Never said that in public before. I auditioned with Matthew, which was completely fantastic. It just wouldn’t have been the whole "Jack and Rose, Kate and Leo" thing.
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Lindsay Lohan Was Almost Cast As Cora
Lindsay Lohan was years away from Mean Girls, superstardom, and questionable life choices when she auditioned for the role of Jack's "best girl" Cora Cartmell in Titanic; she was eight-years-old at the time.
Cameron reportedly wanted her for the role, but he ultimately believed her flame-red hair would confuse viewers, especially since both Rose and her mother had flame-red hair as well. The part of Cora eventually went to Alexandrea Owens.
