It’s been 20 years since James Cameron’s Titanic sailed into theaters and box office history, but one thing is clear: We never let go of Jack and Rose’s tragic love story.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s iconic characters and their heartbreaking, infinitely quotable romance may be entirely fictional. But the chemistry between the actors was very real—and it was obvious to Titanic filmmakers from the start.
“There was a point very, very early where we all realized it had to be Kate and Leo,” Rae Sanchini, the film’s executive producer, tells E! News exclusively.
Winslet “had been very clear from the start she wanted to do it,” says Sanchini. But getting DiCaprio on board took some serious convincing from Sanchini and writer-director Cameron.
“I think the hardest thing with Leo was convincing him that there was complexity in Jack Dawson,” Sanchini says. “Because when you think about it, Jack is the purest of heart. We meet him, and he’s not conflicted. He knows exactly who he is. He knows his place in the world. He’s fearless…he falls in love, but he doesn’t change as a person…He makes his choice to die for the woman he loves, and he’s at peace with that.”
DiCaprio, who was 23 when Titanic opened on Dec. 19, 1997, had “always played very complicated characters who have very deep flaws,” notes Sanchini. And after starring in films like Romeo + Juliet, The Basketball Diaries and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, for which he earned his first Oscar nomination, playing Jack “almost seemed, I think when he first looked at it, too easy.”
“Jim would be the first to tell you,” Sanchini says. “It’s like, ‘I interviewed Leo for 15 minutes, and he interviewed me for three months!'”
