Sitting at #4 in the highest-grossing films of all time list, James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) had casting troubles initially. Cameron has always been intricately involved in the filmmaking process down to the very last second of post-production. But, it may come as a surprise that Leonardo DiCaprio had tough competition for the role of Jack Dawson.
A couple of months ago, it was revealed that Cameron and DiCaprio initially had a little disagreement over creative aspects of the role in the early stages of development and the ace director had shortlisted a few others before finalizing The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) lead.
Years later, one of the runner-up actors worked with DiCaprio in the aforementioned film. He has, on multiple occasions, confessed that his audition was highly positive and he almost had the part, until he didn’t!
James Cameron Almost Said Goodbye To Leonardo DiCaprio
In an interview with GQ, James Cameron opened up about his iconic works and the part about Titanic was the most intriguing.
Cameron said he was ready to shoot a casting video with Kate Winslet and a potential candidate for Jack. Upon meeting with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron recalled the actor’s lack of interest.
“We’ll just go in the next room and we’ll run some lines, and I’ll video it, and he [DiCaprio] said, ‘You mean I’m reading?’ And I said, yeah. He said, ‘Oh I don’t read.’ Well, I shook his hand and I said, ‘Thanks for coming by.’”
He added that he schooled DiCaprio to read the lines as he didn’t want to make a mistake with the casting. But, he was surprised by his instant transformation into the character.
The Wolf Of Wall Street Actor Recalled His Audition
Mentoring Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort to make him a wall street manipulator, Matthew McConaughey almost had the biggest breakthrough of his career as a young star in Titanic.
Billy Crudup, Jared Leto, and Tom Cruise were all considered early on. But, passing on all of them, McConaughey came too close to even do a screen test with Kate Winslet.
“I went and auditioned for that, I wanted that,” McConaughey said on The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast in 2018. “I auditioned with Kate Winslet. Had a good audition. Walked away from there pretty confident that I had it. I didn’t get it.”
We’re never going to find out how Titanic would have turned out to be had McConaughey played Jack Dawson instead of Leonardo DiCaprio.
James Cameron’s Avatar 3 is expected to release worldwide on December 19, 2025.
Source: Youtube
