It’s 20 years since Titanic played to audiences for the first time at the Tokyo International Film Festival. It went on to become the highest grossing movie of the 90s, raking in 11 Academy Awards in 1998 including Best Picture, Best Director (James Cameron) and Best Actress in a Leading Role (Kate Winslet).
To celebrate 20 years since we fell in love with Jack and Rose, here’s a look at 12 interesting facts that you might not know about the film.
Jack and Rose were nearly played by different actors
Can you imagine Titanic without Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet? Well it nearly was the case according to some rumours that suggest the pair were not first choice for the roles. Reports suggest that Gwyneth Paltrow and Matthew McConaughey were in talks to play the pair but both fell through.
Director James Cameron has since refused to confirm or deny whether this is the case, suggesting that it wouldn’t be “cool to talk about actors that either chose not to do it, or were unavailable, or stupidly decided that there wasn’t enough meat on the bone of the character, or whatever it was.”
James Cameron has since cleared up the door debate
More often than not, any everyday discussion about Titanic ends with a debate about the door and whether both Jack and Rose could have fit on it as the ship submerged. Naturally the question has since been posed to director James Cameron and he has cleared it up very simply.
He said: “Look, it’s very, very simple: you read page 147 of the script and it says, ‘Jack gets off the board and gives his place to her so that she can survive.’ It’s that simple”. Despite the director’s claims, Kate Winslet appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last year suggesting “I think he could have actually fit on that bit of door.”
Kate Winslet went to extreme lengths to land the role of Rose
The actress has denied getting hold of Cameron’s number and constantly phoning him, claiming she would be perfect for the role. However, Winslet has admitted to sending the director roses with a note saying “from your Rose” after her audition.
Winslet has since suggested that Cameron took a risk by taking her on with a lot of fellow actresses such as Uma Thurman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Winona Ryder being “much more likely candidates. I got lucky.”
James Cameron was the one who actually drew Rose
BOMB SHELL. No, it wasn’t Leo DiCaprio who was drawing Rose like one of his French girls. Instead it was actually the director of the film himself, James Cameron who stepped in and whose hand is shown drawing the picture of Rose.
The film crew were drugged
Shortly before wrapping up following an arduous shoot, many of the film crew came down with a mysterious illness after tucking into some lobster chowder. Reports suggested that someone had spiked their food with PCP (Phencyclidine).
As a result, “some of the crew were laughing, some people were crying, some people were throwing up,” according to actor Bill Paxton. “One minute I felt okay, the next minute I felt so goddamn anxious I wanted to breathe in a paper bag. Cameron was feeling the same way.” To this day, no one knows who the culprit was.
‘My Heart Will Go On’ wasn’t originally planned
It’s hard to imagine Titanic without Celine Dion belting out the epic ballad during the end credits. But one of the best-selling songs in music history nearly didn’t exist as Cameron originally elected not to have any music with words in throughout the movie.
Composer James Horner and lyricist Will Jennings hooked up together along with Dion and secretly created a demo of the song. Cameron loved it as well as the 15 million people who bought it worldwide.
There was someone called J. Dawson on board the real Titanic
Shortly after wrapping the film, director James Cameron was informed that there actually was someone with the name J. Dawson on board the real Titanic. As a result, it’s a mere coincidence that the lead male character played by Leo DiCaprio is called Jack Dawson.
Since the movie’s release, the grave of J. Dawson in Halifax, Nova Scotia has become somewhat of a tourist hotspot. The J is actually for Joseph, a 23-year-old trimmer on the ship who heralded from Ireland and died in the sinking.
Lindsay Lohan nearly had a role in the movie
The Parent Trap star, who was eight years old at the time, was set to play Cora, Jack’s “best girl”, but Cameron decided against it as her red hair was too close to Rose’s and her mother Ruth’s.
In addition, Rob Lowe, Rupert Everett, Peter Greene and Pierce Brosnan were all reportedly in the running to play Cal, before Billy Zane was cast. Robert De Niro was also offered the role of Captain Smith but declined due to illness.
Kate Winslet caught pneumonia during filming
As a result of Rose trudging through the freezing cold water to find Jack, Winslet actually caught pneumonia as it was really water from the Pacific Ocean and her reaction was real.
Being the true professional she is, Winslet refused to wear a wetsuit during the scenes involving water and caught the illness as a result.
Kate Winslet flashed Leo DiCaprio (in a professional sense)
When Winslet found out that she would have to strip down in the scene where Jack draws Rose, she decided to flash DiCaprio when they first met in an attempt to make it slightly more comfortable when it came to the real thing.
This was in fact the first scene that the pair filmed together. That’s one way to break the ice…(pardon the pun).
The movie was still in cinemas when it was released on VHS
Titanic was so popular that people were still going to the cinema to see it even after it was released on VHS – the first movie to do so.
To put that into context, the movie was released in the US on December 19, 1997 and was still showing in the cinema when the film came out on VHS on September 1, 1998.
Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio paid care home bills for Titanic survivor
It was revealed in 2014 that the pair, along with Celine Dion and James Cameron, had paid for the care home bills of Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of the Titanic.
Millvina, who sadly passed away in 2009 at the age of 97, was just two months old when the Titanic sunk, making her the youngest passenger on board. She survived along with her mother when they were rescued by a passing boat, but her father died during the disaster.
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