Leonardo DiCaprio almost rejected 'Titanic' role
- By Web Desk -
- Jan 13, 2023
Hollywood director James Cameron revealed that famed actor Leonardo DiCaprio was not initially on board to work in his Oscar Award-winning film ‘Titanic‘.
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James Cameron, who has directed record-breaking films ‘Titanic‘ along with ‘Avatar‘ and ‘Terminator‘ franchises, said he found the screenplay “boring”.
“He didn’t want to do a leading man,” the famed director recalled in an interview. “I had to really twist his arm to be in the movie. He didn’t want to do it. He thought it was boring. [He] accepted the part only when I convinced him that it was actually a difficult challenge.”
Moreover, ‘The Revenant’ star was unwilling to screen test with co-actor Kate Winslet – who had already bagged the role of female protagonist Rose DeWitt Bukater – before getting the role of male protagonist Jack Dawson.
“I had the camera set up to record the video. Leo didn’t know he was going to test. He thought it was another meeting to meet Kate. So I said, ‘Okay, we’ll just go in the next room, and we’ll run some lines and I’ll video it.’ And he said, ‘You mean, I’m reading?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Oh, I don’t read.’ I shook his hand and said, ‘Thanks for coming by’,” he recalled.
James Cameron said that he was thinking about replacing Leonardo DiCaprio who maintained that he doesn’t read whole scripts before signing movies.
The director told the actor that he would be acting in five other films while the project would be in the post-production phase. He recalled him telling him that he would not make a casting decision.
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The celebrity told the actor that he would only cast him if he reads his line. The award-winning actor did his screen test and bagged the role.
‘Titanic‘ is the third highest-grossing Hollywood film. It earned bagged $2 billion worldwide.
It won the Oscar Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects.