How Kate Winslet convinced Leonardo DiCaprio to sign ‘Titanic’: ‘It’s him, and I have to find this guy’
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Leonardo DiCaprio was absolutely against signing up for the mega-blockbuster ‘Titanic’ until 21-year-old Kate Winslet took it upon herself to convince the ‘Romeo + Juliet’ star to sign the dotted line for the film that would later become one of the most iconic Hollywood productions. Previously, James Cameron revealed in an interview with People that the Oscar-winning actor was not willing to sign the movie, citing the screenplay to be boring. While Cameron opined that DiCaprio was sold into the movie by the promise of a more “difficult challenge,” there might be someone else who helped Cameron get the deal.
The ‘Mare of Easttown’ actress was the first of the duo to be signed for the film. She was in fact, involved in screen testing with the other actors running for the role of Jack Dawson. However, once she knew DiCaprio was also in the running for the role, she knew Jack must be played by the ‘Catch Me If You Can’ star. During an interview with Hollywood, Winslet revealed, “I had loved him in ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?’ obviously and ‘The Basketball Diaries’, which I have to admit is probably my favorite of the films he’s done.”
'I actually tracked him down'
It was Winselt's determined pursuit of the actor that sealed the deal. The ‘Ammonite’ actress revealed, “I was in Cannes that year and had just been cast in the movie, and knew that they had wanted Leo to do it. And I thought ‘It’s him, and I have to find this guy.’”
She continued exuberantly, “I actually tracked him down in the hotel he was staying and I said ‘Look, I’m not going to do this without you! It’s going to be really great and we’re going to have loads of fun.’” For more conviction, she even added, “I’m nice to work with!'” Winslet continued, “As much as I could I kept calling him and persuading him until finally I think he felt so guilty about the idea of NOT doing it. And thank God he did.”
Even DiCaprio recalled of the dedicated pursuit, “Kate and I had both essentially come from the independent film world before the mega-film Titanic came along, and she said to me ‘I know it’s something you’ve never tried before, but we’ve got to do it together!'” he said. “And I was like ‘I don’t know. What is this? The ship sinks? I don’t know what it’s like to do a film like that, and I’m kind of petrified.’ I had a lot of conversations with James Cameron but it was Kate at the end of the day, and we sort of dove–no pun intended–into it together, two young independent actors, just to try something new and have a completely different experience.”
'We were very, very, very close'
During a chat with Irish Mirror, Winslet further revealed that she worried that her then 21-year-old self might fancy the then 22-year-old DiCaprio. She was found saying, “I did think to myself beforehand, it’s going to be hard, because you know, what if I really fancy him?” She was, in fact, quite sure that she would like him because DiCaprio was “absolutely gorgeous” then. Winslet continued, “And I so thought I was going to, because he is absolutely gorgeous,” before explaining that this did not happen, saying, “It was a real brother sister thing. We were very, very, very close and really stuck together.”
'The second we met, we just completely clicked'
Winslet not only feared that she might take a “fancy” of the ‘Inception’ actor, but also that he may not like her. She even thought that he could get the wrong impression of her or think she was “stuffy”. Once, in an interview with Rolling Stone, she reminisced about her experience of sharing the screen with ‘The Great Gatsby’ star, saying, “Y’know, working with Leonardo DiCaprio — he’s a bit gorgeous, and I was worried that I was going to be bowled over by him, or that he was going to find me all stuffy and Shakespearean and English.” However, as fate would have it, the moment they met, absolute magic happened, as she said, “But the second we met, we just completely clicked.”
Bringing the energy of their early 20s to the set, both the stars discovered each other's mischievous sides. “We’d do the most ridiculous things to each other,” Winslet recalled before elaborating, “He’d be tickling me, groping me, winding me up. And I’d be doing the same thing back, sort of grabbing his bum.” A single collaboration gave birth to one of the most legendary Hollywood friendships of all time.