It’s been more than 20 years since the Titanic was released and very few people in the world would not have seen this movie. Here are several interesting facts about the production process of this classic film.
Some interesting facts about the production process of the film 'Titanic'
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- Actors such as Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale, Macaulay Culkin, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt auditioned for the main role of Jack Dawson. Kate Winslet even took an audition with McConaughey. But the young (and not then famous) Leonardo DiCaprio got the role.
- There was tough competition for the lead actress’s role too before Kate was selected. Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, Wynona Rider, Sharon Stone and Uma Thurman were her competition. To increase her chances, Kate got the phone number of the director, James Cameron, and kept calling him to tell him, "I have to get this role. You'd be mad not to hire me." Now she denies it, but she admits that she sent Cameron roses with a note that said "From your Rose."
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- The movie “Titanic” cost more than the ship. The movie cost $200 million to produce and the ship cost only $7.5 million (or $150 million in the modern equivalent.)
- If all the modern time scenes are cut out from the movie and only the 1912 events are kept, the movie would be two hours and 40 minutes long – this is exactly how long it took the ship to sink.
- Cameron didn't want to use any songs in his movies. But composer James Horner secretly recorded a song with Celine Dion and gave the cassette to the director. The singer had her doubts about the song (she didn't really like it) but when she read the script, she changed her opinion. Everyone cried during the recording of the song.
- In 1995, Cameron made 12 dives to the bottom of the ocean to see the sunken ship with his own eyes. It was then that the director realised he couldn't allow any mistake to appear in his work and that he had to honour everyone who died during the tragedy.
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- Do you remember DiCaprio's phrase "I'm the king of the world?" This was an improvisation. It wasn't in the original script.
- According to the script, Rose was supposed to stab her fiance with her heel, but Kate decided it would look better if she spits in his face and that's the scenario they ended up choosing.
- The movie broke many records. One of them was how long the movie was on the big screen — 287 days.
- When we see Rose in her old age, we can see her dog — a Pomeranian. There's a reason behind this – after the crash, three dogs were found. There were two Pomeranian dogs and one Pekingese. By the way, the scenes with the animals who were trying to save themselves were also filmed but the director made the decision to cut them.
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- The movie budget was two times more than planned. It was the most expensive movie of its time. 20th Century Fox had to invite another company to split the expenses. The other company was their competitor — Paramount Pictures. In fact, nobody believed that the movie would earn money.
- During filming, the movie was called The Ice Planet. It was done to make the process secret so that other companies who were making movies about Titanic couldn't see the production.
- Kate's dress was made with the idea that it should look good both dry and wet.
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- The scene when Jack draws the portrait of a naked Rose was shot on the very first day. The director had to see the sincere emotions and embarrassment, and the actors hadn't known each other. But Kate took one more step: before the production process, she showed Leo her breasts because she knew what scene they were going to make. She did it in order to make Leo feel more comfortable.
- In the same scene, Jack made a mistake. He told Rose to go to the bed when he had to say "to the couch." This version is in the final movie.
- Some scenes in the movie are based on the memories of the survivors. For example, the scene when a man puts two girls in a rescue boat and says, "This is not for long," is based on a story of one of the girls.
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- Cameron wanted his characters to be completely made-up people but when he finished writing the script, he found out that there was a passenger named Jack Dawson on the ship.
- Fans have been arguing whether Jack could fit on the piece of wood together with Rose. Students from Great Britain even made an experiment and proved that DiCaprio had all the chances. All these talks irritate Cameron who simply says, "Page 147 in the script says that Jack dies. It's simple." According to the director, if Jack had survived, the movie would have been completely different. And this is a movie about loss, so the main character had to die.
- By the way, the piece of wood Rose used is the exact replica of the fragment found after the ship sank. It's in the museum in Halifax.
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- Beatrice Wood became the prototype for the "Old Rose" in Titanic. She was never aboard the ship, but like Rose, Beatrice was from a wealthy family and she defied her parents to pursue a career as an artist. Cameron read her autobiography I Shock Myself and realised the first chapter described the character he already had in mind.
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