It’s the 20th anniversary the epic disaster drama, Titanic. Here are all the odd facts you may not have known about the 1997 blockbuster.
1. It was one expensive movie!
James Cameron, the director of the movie, needed $2 million to fund a deep-sea expedition to the wreck of the real Titanic. The costumes alone cost $8.4 million. It was nothing compared to the film Titanic’s final price tag, though.
2. Chick flick?
Cameron once called Titanic “a $190 million chick flick” and by January 1998, 20th Century Fox estimated that 7% of all American teenage girls had seen the movie twice. It made more money ($32 million) during its 11th weekend in theaters than it did during its first.
3. Kate Winslet really wanted to play the character of Rose.
After Kate auditioned for the part, and Cameron left her waiting, Winslet tracked him down on his car phone and said, “You don’t understand, I am Rose!” And she was, indeed she was!
4. Leonardo DiCaprio turned 22 and Kate Winslet turned 21 during the shooting of the movie.
Kate spent her 21st birthday shooting Jack’s death scene. “We were lying there on the raft, sort of shivering together, and I said ‘Leo, it’s my birthday today.’ And he said, ‘That’s great, sweetie. You know what? I don’t care.’”
5. Leo didn’t want to be Jack Dawson!
James Cameron knew he wanted DiCaprio to be his Jack Dawson, but DiCaprio didn’t want to be his Jack.
“I just wasn’t used to playing an openhearted, free-spirited guy, I’ve played the more tortured roles in the past. It was difficult to be someone closer to ‘me’ than anyone else.”
6. James Cameron was told to cut the film but he refused harshly.
20th Century Fox President Bill Mechanic visited Cameron onset and told him, “From a financial standpoint, this film is wildly out of control. Nothing is going to change that. All we can do now is contain it. So here are some scenes we’d like you to cut from the shooting schedule.” Cameron studied the list of scenes, and immediately refused to cut any of them.
“If you want to cut my film,” James Cameron told the president of Fox, “you’ll have to fire me, and to fire me you’ll have to kill me.” Then he stormed off set. The scenes stayed in the picture.
7. Everything was REAL – no, we’re serious.
James Cameron wanted real wallpaper – thousands of props, from ashtrays to teacups to forks, had to be stamped with the White Star Line logo, even if it was impossible for viewers to see. Even the water in the film was freezing ocean water which later gave Kate Winslet pneumonia.
8. The Heart of the Ocean necklace did cost a lot – literally!
The J. Peterman Company of the United States, began selling the $198 Heart of the Ocean necklace. They ended up selling more than a million dollars’ worth of Heart Of The Ocean replicas – and faced bankruptcy because the popularity of the movie went away but their expansion ideas that had emerged due to this necklace cost them heavily!
9. Guess who was Leo’s understudy!
James Cameron wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to be his Jack Dawson, but the film’s producers wanted another leading man – Matthew McConaughey. Yes, the Matthew McConaughey. Imagine Rose and Jack all over again now.
Yeah, we can’t either.
10. These lines are EVERYTHING!
“It’s not up to you to save me, Jack,” Rose says, after she has tried to pull away from him, and he has tried to come back to her.
“You’re right,” he says. “Only you can do that.”
