James Cameron has dismissed rumours of a rift between him and Kate Winslet after filming Titanic, but admitted the actress was not his first choice for the role of Rose.
In a new interview with Variety, the director of the 1997 Best Picture Oscar winner said Winslet’s reputation as “Corset Kate” (referring to her period drama roles) had made him hesitate in casting her.
“It seemed like lazy casting,” he said, considering Winslet was known for her performances in films like 1995’s Sense and Sensibility and 1996’s Hamlet — roles perhaps too similar to Titanic’s wealthy socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater.
“But then wiser heads prevailed, and I could see what everybody was talking about,” Cameron recalled. Of her performances, he added that Winslet is “very alive. She comes into a room with a great deal of confidence, and she’s got that spark of life.”
In the same interview for Variety, the English star, who earned a Best Actress nomination for Titanic, recalled how some of her previous comments were misinterpreted as signs of a feud between her and Cameron.
“There’s a part of me that feels almost sad that stupid, speculative Titanic stuff at the time overshadowed the actual relationship I have with him,” said Winslet, who in 2022 reunited with the filmmaker for Avatar: The Way of Water. “He knows I will be up for anything. Any challenge, any piece of direction you give me? I’ll try it.”
Cameron added: “There was never a rift between us. She had a little postpartum depression when she let go of Rose. She and I have talked about the fact that she goes really, really deep, and her characters leave a lasting, sometimes dramatic impression on her.”
Back in February, Winslet admitted that her “life was quite unpleasant” after finding fame with Titanic.
Speaking in a interview with PORTER, the actress, who was 22 at the time of the film’s release, said: “I felt like I had to look a certain way, or be a certain thing, and because media intrusion was so significant at that time, my life was quite unpleasant.”
She added: “Journalists would always say, ‘After Titanic, you could have done anything and yet you chose to do these small things’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, you bet your fuckin’ life I did! Because, guess what, being famous was horrible’.
“I was grateful, of course. I was in my early twenties, and I was able to get a flat. But I didn’t want to be followed literally feeding the ducks.”