Leonardo Dicaprio Still Refuses to Address the Ongoing ‘Titantic’ Door Controversy
Was there room for one more on that door?
It’s been a long time since Titanic smashed box office records and captivated audiences around the world. The 1997 Best Picture winner told the story of a fictional couple named Jack and Rose who fell in love aboard the doomed ship despite their differences in wealth and status. Their love story will go down in history as one of the most tragic and memorable movie romances of all time.
But there’s always been one question that fans can’t help but ask: during the scene where Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) cling to each other as he slowly freezes to death in the icy water, could she have scooched over and let him float on the makeshift door raft too?
Clearly, Leonardo DiCaprio is sick of hearing this question. Here’s what he had to say about it more than twenty years later.
The controversial door scene is still big news
It doesn’t matter how much time has passed — movie fans are still curious about this one small detail from Titanic, and they’re not willing to let it go.
During a recent interview while promoting his new film, Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood, DiCaprio’s costars Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie decided to ask the eternal question. When the Titanic door scene came up, Robbie affirmed, “That is the biggest controversy, I think, in modern cinema.”
Brad Pitt had a few questions too, asking, “Could you? Could you have squeezed in there? You could’ve, couldn’t you?” But DiCaprio refused to give an answer, responding with a curt, “No comment, Brad.”
Director James Cameron can’t understand why people are so obsessed with the door scene
This is clearly not the first time the issue has come up. In a 2017 Vanity Fair interview, James Cameron said, “The answer is very simple because it says on page 147 [of the script] that Jack dies. Very simple. Obviously, it was an artistic choice.”
“The thing was just big enough to hold her, and not big enough to hold him … I think it’s all kind of silly, really, that we’re having this discussion 20 years later.”
Fans have a different theory
Though James Cameron offered a logical explanation for the door scene, eagle-eyed fans have their own theory about why Rose let Jack get hypothermia on that tragic night. They point out that when Rose first climbs on top of the floating door, Jack tries to join her but the door starts to sink under the weight of them both. So, he sacrifices himself to let her get on the door alone.
This makes a lot of sense and would explain why Rose lives and Jack dies even if the door was technically big enough for both of them. But no matter which explanation you believe, it’s vital to avoid bringing up the topic with Leonardo DiCaprio. After two decades of hearing the same question, it’s clear he’s fed up with it.
