Titanic: James Cameron reveals how Leonardo DiCaprio almost lost his role as Jack

Titanic: James Cameron reveals how Leonardo DiCaprio almost lost his role as Jack

The director almost refused the participation of the great star of the film!

Launched in 1997 Titanic considered one of the greatest masterpieces of cinema, as it depicts a very subtle and forbidden romance aboard the famous ship that sank in 1912. James Cameron received several awards around the world and even today his fans remember him fondly. But in the film there was almost no participation of one of its main stars: Leonardo DiCaprio????????

James Cameron recently spoke to quality control promoting your new project, Avatar: Path of Water???????? Recalling how the casting went, he told an anecdote about the first meetings with DiCaprio, and how, at the first meeting of the two, his office was crowded with women behind the scenes, who really wanted to meet the heartthrob:

“There was a meeting with Leo, and then a test. The meeting was funny because I was sitting in my conference room waiting to meet the actor. And I look around, and all the women in the office were in the meeting for some reason. There’s an executive producer, okay, but our accountant? They all wanted to meet Leo. It was hysterical. I looked around and thought: “I think I know the answer to this question.”

Cameron then shared some details of the meeting, including a script reading. He said that when he asked DiCaprio to read the scene, the actor said: “Oh, I don’t read”???????? And the director shook his hand and said: “Well, thanks for coming”???????? In response, DiCaprio was shocked and said: “Wait wait. If I don’t read it, I won’t get the part? Is it that easy?”

In the film, DiCaprio lives on as Jack, a young man who falls in love with Rose and ends up dying in a shipwreck.

Then Cameron said that Titanic was “a gigantic film that would take me two years of my life and you can do five other things while I’m stuck in post-production. So I’m not going to spoil everything by making the wrong casting decision. So either you read or you don’t get the role.????????

Without blinking an eye, the actor joined in Kate Winslet (who interprets Rose in the film) and they starred in the same scene together. Cameron noticed that the actor was completely transformed, becoming Jack what we all find out, and that’s when the director realized he needed to hire DiCaprio:

“Every part of him was completely negative until I said “go!” and then he became Jack. and Kate [Winslet] he just glowed and the two of them did everything together and he acted out the scene. The gray clouds left, the sunbeam fell and illuminated Jack. And I thought, “Okay, this is the guy.”

Although Leonardo DiCaprio already done several projects before Titanic, it’s undeniable that his participation opened the door for big and bold roles. If the actor had refused to read part of the script, he probably wouldn’t have the solid career he has today, let alone deprive us of a stunning role in one of the most beautiful novels in film history.

James Cameron’s next film Avatar: Path of Waterwhich opens on the day December 15th.

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