25 years ago today, viewers saw for the first time how Rose and Jack fall in love aboard the Titanic and how that love ends up in the freezing waters where the ship sinks. The film Titanic by James Cameron is the third most successful film ever made, won eleven Oscars and is considered a classic. Yet the film almost felt very different.
James Cameron wist één ding zeker: hij zou nog eens een film maken over scheepswrakken. De regisseur heeft zijn leven lang al een fascinatie voor schepen die hun einde vinden op de bodem van de zee of oceaan. Daarom bracht hij zijn tijd vaak onder water door.
Een liefdestragedie bleek de perfecte manier om het verhaal van de Titanic te vertellen. Het schip zonk op 14 april 1912 naar de bodem van de Atlantische Oceaan met aan boord nog zo’n vijftienhonderd mensen.
Cameron was niet de eerste die een film over de RMS Titanic maakte, en ook niet de laatste. Maar hij is zeker de succesvolste. Dat kwam mede door het acteerwerk van Kate Winslet en Leonardo DiCaprio, die Rose en Jack speelden. Het tragische einde is tot op de dag van vandaag onderwerp van discussie: hadden Jack en Rose écht niet met z’n tweeën op dat stukje hout kunnen liggen?
25 jaar na het uitkomen van de film zijn Winslet en DiCaprio nog altijd met elkaar verbonden door de personages die ze speelden. Maar als het aan Cameron had gelegen, was het heel anders gegaan. Hij had al een acteur in zijn hoofd die Jack moest spelen: River Phoenix. Maar voordat de opnames ook maar in zicht kwamen, overleed de jonge acteur.
Too old, too expensive, and I don’t want to audition
Then came Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Tom Cruise as potential Jacks. But McConaughey (then in her mid-twenties) was too old, Leto refused to audition, and Cruise was asking for too much money. DiCaprio also didn’t really want the part and didn’t take the audition seriously, but Cameron saw something that convinced him.
Winslet had to call the director several times and send him daily letters before he could even audition. Gwyneth Paltrow, Winona Ryder and Reese Witherspoon had already turned down the role. Winslet persevered and sent Cameron a rose after his audition. Her perseverance and his talent finally convinced the director. Thus, she became the Rose to DiCaprio’s Jack.
Jack’s death was never discussed. But during the filming of the film, the real ending was very different. The film follows an investigation team in search of a precious jewel. The team hopes to find out where the necklace went by talking to a Titanic survivor.
Rose tells the team how she fell in love with Jack, how the two had adventures on the huge ship, and finally how she survived the disaster, but he didn’t. After Rose’s story, the team abandons the search for the precious jewel. It seems that she has always carried the jewel with her and throws it into the water.
Totally different ending of the film
Bill Paxton, who played one of the detectives, told BBC News shortly before his death in 2017 yahoo how the film should have ended. “Rose stands on the edge of the ship and we run to her: ‘Don’t jump!’ Then it turns out she always had the jewel. ‘You don’t know what really matters in life,’ Rose says to my character, and she throws that jewel in the water. For my character, it was supposed to be kind of a revelation and that’s why I’m starting to laugh out loud.”
It didn’t make the ending any stronger, Paxton thought. “You didn’t need those researchers at all to wrap the story right. That became very clear during editing.”
After all these years, Winslet is still glad she got the chance to play Rose, she said Good morning America. “It’s great to have been a part of something that evokes a sense of nostalgia for so many people. People can still identify with the story. It’s a great honor that people are still enjoying it so much after all these years.”
