Summary
-Rose Dewitt Bukater is a socialite boarding the RMS Titanic with her mother, Ruth and fiancée Caledon Hockley. American artist Jack Dawson and his Italian friend Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets to the ship. As the ship makes its maiden voyage toward its then-unknown doom in the North Atlantic, Rose and Jack fall for each other aboard the ship.
Cast
-Leonardo DiCaprio: Jack Dawson-Kate Winslet: Rose Dewitt Bukater
-Billy Zane: Caledon "Cal" Hockley
-Kathy Bates: Molly Brown
-Frances Fisher: Ruth Dewitt Bukater
-Gloria Stuart: Old Rose
-Bill Paxton: Brock Lovett
-Bernard Hill: Captain Smith
-David Warner: Spicer Lovejoy
-Victor Garber: Thomas Andrews
-Jonathan Hyde: Bruce Ismay
-Danny Nucci: Fabrizio
-Ioan Gruffudd: Fifth Officer Lowe
Did You Know?
-During the scene where the ship is sinking and its passengers are being shown either leaving or resigning to their fate, the older couple seen hugging each other while laying in the bed despite the rising flood waters were Ida and Isidor Straus, both of whom died on the Titanic and both of whom were the owners of Macy's department store.
-When Kate Winslet discovered she had to be naked in front of Leonardo DiCaprio in one scene, she decided to get herself prepared for the scene, so she flashed him
-Unintentionally, the scenes set in 1912, except for the modern-day scenes, opening/closing credits, lasted a total of two hours and forty minutes, the exact amount of time it took for the Titanic to sink to the bottom of the North Atlantic. In the movie, the scene where the Titanic collides with the iceberg took only 37 seconds, the same amount of time that the real Titanic took to collide with the iceberg
-When Leonardo DiCaprio is seen sketching Rose, the hands seen are not his, but director James Cameron. James Cameron is left handed and used mirror-imaging on the sketching shots to appear right-handed, like DiCaprio
-When Cal and Rose are having morning coffee and Cal flips the table from a tantrum, Billy Zane ad-libbed that and Kate Winslet's reactions were genuine.
-Gloria Stuart, who played Rose later in life, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at 87
-Gloria Stuart was aged by makeup to give the impression she was 100 years old. She didn't like this. Gloria died in 2010 at the age of 100
-Millvina Dean, an actual survivor of the Titanic, was asked to come to the premier. But found that watching the 1958 film A Night to Remember was hard enough
-To create the eerie post-sinking effects of frostbitten victims, the scenes were shot in a 350,000 gallon tank and the people playing the victims had a special powder applied to their faces that crystallized when exposed to water to make them look frostbitten. Wax was applied to their clothes and hair to give the impression of being in the water.
-In Nova Scotia, on the final night of shooting, a bunch of pranksters had slipped angel dust into the clam chowder served to the cast and crew. 80 people fell ill, more than 50 were taken to the hospital. When James Cameron realized what was happening, he forced himself to vomit before the drug took effect. The people responsible were never caught
-When Rose goes down into the passageways looking for Jack, the water filling the halls was from the Pacific Ocean, at the Baja California, Mexico set. The water was really frigid and when Kate steps into it, her reaction to the cold water and gasping at it was real
-Harland and Wolff, the shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, who built the Titanic, opened up their archives to be used in production
-The ocean into which passengers were jumping from the sinking ship was only 3 feet deep
-Kate Winslet has no problem with nudity so she didn't need a body double
-After spending hours in cold water, many cast members came down with colds, flu, or kidney infections, including Kate Winslet
-The décor on the ship was reconstructed by or under supervision by researchers of the White Star Line, the company who owned and designed the Titanic
-Shay Duffin, who played the English barkeep in the movie, is related to one of the Irish workers who helped to build the Titanic
-Some of the actresses who auditioned for the role of Rose include: Christina Applegate, Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie, Geena Davis, Penelope Ann Miller, Reese Witherspoon, Milla Jovovich, Emily Mortimer, Thandie Newton, Christina Ricci, Joely Richardson, Gweneth Paltrow, Sharon Stone, Charlize Theron, Rachel Weisz
-The band playing at the party in the 3rd class deck is Gaelic Storm
-Tom Wilkinson was the original choice to play Spicer Lovejoy, but instead the role went to David Warner. Later on, Tom Wilkinson would go on to star in The Full Monty, one of the main rivals for Titanic at the Oscars that year
-When Jack meets Rose on the Grand Staircase, the clock behind them reads 2:20, the time the ship sank in real life
