Fascinating facts about the movie 'Titanic'

Released in 1997, 'Titanic' was an absolute hit at the time. With the recent catastrophic expedition to the shipwreck, people have revived their interest in its story. But some facts about the famous movie never really became common knowledge. Have a look at the weirdest facts about 'Titanic'!

Director James Cameron was completely involved with the story and worked tirelessly on the production. In addition to directing, he was responsible for editing, producing, and scripting the film.

Even the famous drawings made by Jack are also the work of Cameron. In the famous scene where the artist draws Rose without clothes, it is the director's hand that appears. As the character was right-handed and Cameron was left-handed, the scene had to be bounced in editing.

For the filming of the movie, Century Fox had to build a new studio to fit the replica of the ship, which was almost the same scale as the original, sunk in 1912.

But for filming to take place and the ship to appear to be sailing, it was also necessary to build a tank with a capacity of over 60 million liters of water.

To give more veracity to the plot, Cameron made more than ten expeditions to the wreck of the real Titanic, staying longer on the ship than the passengers of the vessel.

James was also so precise that he managed to make the scene of the accident last exactly as long as the collision of the ship with the iceberg: 37 seconds.

The super-production is one of the three films in Oscar history that won 11 Academy Awards. The two others are 'Ben-Hur', from 1959, and 'The Lord of the Rings', from 2003.

Despite his brilliant performance, Leonardo di Caprio was never nominated for an Oscar. The person who won the award for Best Actor that year was Jack Nicholson for his role in the film 'As Good As It Gets'.

Among the nominated categories, 'Titanic' got most of the awards, except those for best makeup, supporting actress, and lead actress. Kate Winslet lost to Helen Hunt, who was also part of the movie 'As Good as It Gets'.

There had been some disagreement over the role of Rose before Kate Winslet was cast. Names like Madonna and Nicole Kidman were considered.

For the scenes that were recorded in the water, Kate Winslet refused to wear thermal clothing, which led to pneumonia.

Some iconic scenes, such as Jack screaming "I am the king of the world", were completely improvised by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Everything for the film was meticulously studied, even astronomy. Astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson identified that, in 1912, Rose could not see those stars. Then he mapped the correct position and the director reshot the scene, inserting the new stars in the 3D version, released in 2012.

For the recording of the sinking ship and the invasion of the sea and all its force, the production spent, on average, 120 thousand liters of water.

During the recordings, about 80 people on the team fell ill after consuming soup adulterated with phencyclidine (a drug that causes hallucinations). At the time, the police were called to investigate, but true sabotage was never confirmed.

Since the release of 'Titanic', there has been a general suspicion that Jack could also fit in the door Rose clung to in order to survive. To answer this and other questions, in 2022, National Geographic produced the documentary 'Titanic: 25 Years Later'.

Photo: National Geographic / YouTube

Researchers recreated the scene of the floating door to try to prove or disprove the fan theory that Jack would have fit on it. However, they found that, if Jack and Rose shared the space at the door, it would have caused a series of new problems, and probably both characters would have gone under.

Photo: National Geographic / YouTube