Director James Cameron has cast his mind back to the making of Titanic in the last 90s and has admitted that there were some “compromises” they had to make in order to get the film to the big screen.
James Cameron has said along with making the studio – 20th Century Fox – which financed one of the biggest movies in the world a lot of money, bosses were in a “panic” over how much the blockbuster cost. But he only cast people of a certain height for extras to save a lot of cash.
James Cameron only cast “short people” for Titanic
In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Cameron explained not only did they cast shorter people for Titanic extras, but that they spent so much money on sets and “the scale of everything” they wondered how they would make their money back.
He explained: “We only cast short extras so it made our set look bigger. Anybody above 5’8”, we didn’t cast them. It’s like we got an extra million dollars of value out of casting.”
The Hollywood director continued: “The scale of everything was beyond anything we could imagine in terms of our prior experience. At the time we thought, wow, there’s no way this movie could ever make its money back. It’s just impossible. Well, guess what?”
Leonardo DiCaprio’s audition didn’t go to plan
Following the 25th anniversary of Titanic last year, James Cameron has spoken about how they finalized his cast. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were the starcrossed lover leads as Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater. But he’s since admitted, Leonardo’s audition didn’t have the greatest start.
James said that the celebrity believed he was meeting Kate rather than doing a read ing, which is a standard for big-budget films.
“I had the camera set up to record the video,” Cameron said. “He 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.’ And he said, ‘Wait, wait, wait. If I don’t read, I don’t get the part? Just like that?’ And I said, ‘Oh, yeah. Come on. This is 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**k it up by making the wrong decision in casting.
“So, you’re going to read, or you’re not going to get the part.’”
Kate Winslet on being body-shamed when Titanic came out
Not only did James Cameron have problems with his Titanic cast beforehand, but he also faced issues afterward. Though the film has allowed its cast to have successful careers, it caused some issues for a young Kate. She has said she was called “fat” by the public and others in the entertainment industry, as she didn’t fit the unfair body standard.
“Apparently I was too fat,” Kate said. “Why were they so mean to me? They were so mean. I wasn’t even f***ing fat.”
She continued: “I would have said to journalists, I would have responded, I would have said, ‘Don’t you dare treat me like this. I’m a young woman, my body is changing, I’m figuring it out, I’m deeply insecure, I’m terrified, don’t make this any harder than it already is.’ That’s bullying, you know, and actually borderline abusive, I would say.”
