James Cameron’s judgments are mostly bold and profound. For instance, his choices to keep Titanic, Avatar, and Avatar: The Way of Water’s insanely long run times intact were really good moves. But there are other instances where you begin to question the legendary director. For instance, he strongly supported the last two Terminator movies and vouched for their top-notch quality. That made people question his judgment a lot. And another such instance occurred when JC initially wanted Gwyneth Paltrow to star in Titanic instead of Kate Winslet.
Gwyneth Paltrow Instead of Kate Winslet?!
In an interview with GQ where James Cameron breaks down his most iconic films, he revealed something very interesting about Kate Winslet’s casting in Titanic. Here, watch the first few minutes of the interview:
As per James Cameron, Kate Winslet had starred in a couple of historical dramas before Titanic, and she had almost got a reputation of “Corset Kate.” So, in the very early days of conceptualizing Titanic, he didn’t want to make a lazy casting choice and bring her in a sort of similar role. Instead, he was thinking of Gwyneth Paltrow and some other names. But when he met Winslet, she totally wowed him. And then her screen test with Leonardo DiCaprio went really well too. So, she bagged the role from there on. In fact, her past work with Cameron also led her to star in the Avatar sequels today.
But just imagine if Gwyneth Paltrow had got the part instead of Winslet. No offense to her acting talent, but Titanic could have been a total disaster. This film needed Kate Winslet’s brilliant performance as Rose. It needed her amazing chemistry with DiCaprio’s Jack. Those two together made this beautiful film the kind of success story it was. And any changes to their pair could have proven fatal.
James Cameron’s Surprising Casting Choices
This isn’t the first time James Cameron has revealed something as surprising about his casting choices. Apparently, he was also stuck in a dilemma while casting Jake Sully for Avatar. Besides Sam Worthington, both Channing Tatum and Chris Evans were also in contention. Worthington hadn’t proven to be a bankable success story before Avatar. While most people in the world would have chosen Tatum or Evans over him, Cameron trusted his gut and went with Sam Worthington instead. And the rest is history.
As mentioned above, Cameron’s judgments have turned out to be quite surprising and almost shocking. But more often than not, those crucial calls taken by him have led to undeniable success. He truly has the Midas touch!
Source: GQ
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