Kate Winslet reveals her ‘Titanic’ regrets
The 1990s were home to some truly groundbreaking and seminal films, from Goodfellas to The Shawshank Redemption and Jurassic Park to Toy Story. For some, the ’90s marked the golden age of cinema with a fantastic cohort of Hollywood talent converging with seamless special effects and animation technology. James Cameron’s 1997 epic, Titanic, marked the climax of 20th-century cinema as it became the first film to gross over $1 billion, adding kerosene to the fire of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio’s young careers.
The fictionalised romantic story is set against the backdrop of the infamous demise of the “unsinkable” Titanic in the North Atlantic. The pauper, Jack Dawson, saves the unhappily engaged yet wealthy Rose Bukater from committing suicide from the back of the ship. The pair subsequently fall into a furtive love affair and agree to leave the ship together when it docks in New York. Tragically, a glancing collision with an iceberg throws their courtship and the Titanic into irrecoverable turmoil.
Cameron saw the story of the Titanic as an opportunity to create a historical drama like no other. “The story could not have been written better,” the director wrote in James Cameron’s Titanic by Marsh and Kirkland. “The juxtaposition of rich and poor, the gender roles played out unto death (women first), the stoicism and nobility of a bygone age, the magnificence of the great ship matched in scale only by the folly of the men who drove her hell-bent through the darkness. And above all, the lesson: that life is uncertain, the future unknowable…the unthinkable possible.”
Realising the historical and cultural significance of the project, Cameron allowed a production budget of $200 million, securing a star-studded cast including Kathy Bates, Billy Zane and Frances Fisher and wielding state-of-the-art technology to stage the Titanic’s dramatic descent to the icy depths.
The hefty budget paid off handsomely, with the blockbuster yielding 11 Academy Awards and setting DiCaprio and Winslet up for a lifetime of financial solvency and ongoing career prospects. However, despite the fame and fortune, Winslet has expressed regret over her role in Titanic and wishes she could go back and do it again.
While the British actor enjoyed the film and shaped a lasting friendship with her onscreen partner, she was less than satisfied with her acting performance. “Every single scene, I’m like, ‘really, really? You did it like that? Oh my God’. Even my American accent, I can’t listen to it. It’s awful,” she lamented in a conversation with The Telegraph. “Hopefully, it’s so much better now. It sounds terribly self-indulgent, but actors do tend to be very self-critical. I have a hard time watching any of my performances, but watching Titanic, I was just like, ‘Oh God, I want to do that again.’”
It’s highly unlikely that Cameron would humour a sequel or a remake in the near future, but it would seem that Winslet and DiCaprio would jump at the chance to reignite their onscreen romance. Given her time again, Winslet would be able to fine-tune her problematic American accent and have another smooch with Hollywood pinup DiCaprio.
