Leonardo DiCaprio has been one of the biggest actors in Hollywood, with his talent being highly respected throughout the industry. He rose to fame incredibly after his and Kate Winslet’s Titanic became one of the biggest movies of all time. He was more than happy once the role became his and James Cameron, as well as Kate Winslet, became dear friends of his afterward.
Looking back, the actor has no regrets about playing the role and was glad he took the decision of saying yes to Cameron after an intense amount of thinking. Seeing that it would have been a big jump in his career in the first place, his dilemma was understandable. However, it was Paul Rudd who managed to convince DiCaprio to take the role in the first place.
Paul Rudd Played A Big Part In Leonardo DiCaprio Getting Titanic
Paul Rudd and Leonardo DiCaprio worked together in Romeo + Juliet where the two became good friends. They would even ride together. DiCaprio was offered Titanic at the same time when he was offered Boogie Nights. Both the movies seemed enticing and the actor was unsure about whether or not he should do one over the other.
“I said, ‘That’s incredible!’ And I knew a lot about Titanic because my dad just talked about it at the table,” Rudd continued, “And we had a conversation about it and [DiCaprio] was saying, ‘Oh, like I don’t know what I’ll do.’ I remember saying, ‘You should do it!’”
He shared his dilemma with Rudd one time when they were going back together after the shoot. There he talked about how he did not know if it would be a good decision to pick James Cameron’s movie because it would be his first large-scale movie. Before that, he had only done smaller-scaled movies which had gotten him moderate recognition. That was where the Ant-Man actor came to help.
Paul Rudd Helped Solve Leonardo DiCaprio’s Movie Problem
Paul Rudd further elaborated on how he tried convincing Leonardo DiCaprio to take the movie because it would be an opportunity of a lifetime. He was excited to see his co-star get such a big opportunity and wanted to see him succeed even more.
“I don’t think I had any say, but it is kind of interesting to think back on that. Cause he did it. He did the movie.”
While he does not think that he had much of an influence on the actor, DiCaprio did, in the end, pick to play Jack Dawson, and Boogie Nights went to Mark Wahlberg. He did take the movie and that only benefited him more and more. Rudd too had a big part to play in that.
Source: The Graham Norton Show
