James Cameron Was Asked to Cut a ‘Titanic’ Scene That Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio Hated
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet had a problem with one scene in Titanic that many wanted James Cameron to cut.
But Cameron decided to keep the scene in the film despite the pushback, and it later became one of the movie’s most liked scenes.
Kate Winslet once shared that nothing could have prepared her for ‘Titanic’ and James Cameron
Cameron was once well-known for being a strict and diligent filmmaker. His reputation was only supported by his behavior and methods while shooting Titanic. For Winslet, the first day of filming showed signs of a rough and potentially grueling shoot.
“The first day started at 5 a.m. and went on to 1 a.m,.” she once said in an interview with the LA Times. “Nothing could have prepared me for it. There were quite a few 20-hour days. And two-thirds of it was night shooting — because the ‘Titanic’ sunk at night. It was every man for himself on the set — you had to ensure that you snatched some sleep during the day, with a black eye mask on. Sometimes you’d find yourself having lunch at 2 a.m. or breakfast at 4 p.m. It was very disorienting.”
In an interview with The Guardian, Winslet once again shared the shoot didn’t leave her and her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio in the best mood.
“It wasn’t pleasant for any of us, but we were all in it together,” she said. “Though he had way more days off than I ever bloody did. I guess I was raised to be grateful and just get on with it. I didn’t feel it was my right to be miserable, and if I was miserable I certainly would not have let a journalist know.”
James Cameron once shared that Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet hated doing a beloved ‘Titanic’ scene
Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio weren’t too fond of the scene where DiCaprio’s character teaches Winslet how to spit. But the two weren’t alone. Most involved in the film shared their sentiments about the moment. So much so that the higher-ups asked Cameron to do away with the scene completely.
“I wrote this spitting scene where Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) shows her (Kate Winslet) how to spit. The president of my company (Paramount) begged me to take it out. She hated it. My co-producer didn’t like it. The people at Fox didn’t like the scene. Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t like it. Kate Winslet didn’t like the spitting scene when we all sat around reading it the first time,” Cameron once told The Buffalo News.
But Cameron eventually convinced everyone to come around. Upon Titanic’s release, the scene had a nice reception from the audience, which taught the Terminator director to always trust his instincts.
“I finally got them to fall in love with it. It’s probably the second or third highest-rated scene in the film,” he continued. “The way I do it is if I have a nagging shadow of a doubt about something and if I hear the same thing from other people, I’ll act on it. But if I believe strongly in something, I don’t care how many people tell me it’s wrong. It’s got to be a personal issue.”
James Cameron didn’t agree with his reputation of being an ‘obsessive’ filmmaker
Cameron’s reputation as an obsessive filmmaker was brought to his attention, but he didn’t agree with the term. The Avatar filmmaker just felt that he was willing to do what it took to bring the best out of his movies — especially when he was tasked to oversee multi-million dollar projects.
“Obsession implies unhealthy degree of fixation on a subject or an activity or a person,” he said. “What’s unhealthy when you’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars of somebody else’s money to create a piece of entertainment that’s going to be offered to the five billion population of the earth? What’s too much? I think nothing is too much, as long as it’s within your capability to do. And as long as you don’t physically injure anybody or psychologically injure anybody.”
