Even 25 years after the original release of “Titanic,” it’s hard to separate Leonardo DiCaprio from his role as Jack Dawson. DiCaprio’s Hollywood star was already rising in the mid-’90s, but James Cameron‘s film was the actor’s breakout role. But according to Cameron, DiCaprio nearly didn’t get the part because, on some level, the actor thought he had already “made it.”
EW reports that in an interview with GQ, Cameron disclosed that while he knew he wanted Kate Winslet as Rose Dewitt Bukater, DiCaprio as Jack was never a sure thing. That’s because DiCaprio didn’t think he even needed to read for the part to get it, so Cameron put the young hotshot in his place. “There was a meeting with Leo, and then there was a screen test with Leo,” Cameron told GQ. “The meeting was funny because I am sitting in my conference room, waiting to meet an actor. And I look around, and all the women in the entire office are in the meeting for some reason. There’s a female executive producer, okay, fine, but our accountant? They all wanted to meet Leo. It was hysterical. I looked around, and I went, ‘I think I already know the answer to the question here.'”
Apparently, DiCaprio had assumed he had already landed the part as Jack in “Titanic,” and thought he was returning to meet Cameron and his new co-star Winslet. But Cameron wasn’t having it. Cameron said that DiCaprio told him, “Oh, I don’t read,” to which the director shook the young heartthrobs hand and said, “Well, thanks for coming by.” DiCaprio, shocked, replied, “Wait, wait, wait, if I don’t read, I don’t get the part. Just like that?” That’s when Cameron explained to DiCaprio that “Titanic” was “a giant movie that is going to take two years of my life, and you’ll be gone doing five other things while I’m doing post-production. So I’m not going to f— it up by making the wrong decision in casting. So you’re going to read, or you’re not going to get the part.”
Cameron said DiCaprio was quietly fuming about the situation at the screen test until it finally began. “Every ounce of his entire being is entirely negative right up until I said, ‘Action,'” explained Cameron, “and then he turned into Jack. And Kate just lit up and they went into this whole thing and he played the scene. Dark clouds had opened up, a ray of sun came down and lit up Jack. I’m like, ‘All right, he’s the guy.'” And the rest is history — and $2.202 billion at the global box office, making “Titanic” the third highest-grossing movie of all time.
Will James Cameron’s latest film, “Avatar: The Way Of Water” catch “Titanic” or the director’s 2009 film “Avatar” on the all-time box-office gross list? Find out when the film hits theaters everywhere on December 16.
