15 Surprising Facts That Were Left Behind the Scenes of Titanic

A man named Dawson really was on the Titanic

Jack Dawson is a completely fictional character, but it turned out that a person with a similar name was on board the real ship (the passenger’s name was Joseph). The young man was 23 years old, and after the premiere of the film, his grave became a popular place to visit. James Cameron himself claims that he learned about the real Dawson after the filming of the picture, and the name for the hero DiCaprio was invented by him. Perhaps this is indeed an incredible coincidence and another beautiful legend that complements the film’s mythology.

Lindsay Lohan could have been in the movie

Yes, that’s right, the star of the 2000s, who was 8 years old at the time of the film’s release, could have appeared in a cameo role in Titanic. Remember the moment when Jack Dawson is dancing with a young passenger. The hero Leonardo DiCaprio called the baby his best girl. It turns out that Cameron changed his mind about casting Lindsay Lohan for the reason that her red hair was reminiscent of Rose and her mother, Ruth. In the end, so that the audience would not mistake Jack’s favorite for a relative of Rose, the heroine was played by Alexandra Owens-Sarno.

Rose’s portrait and other drawings in Jack’s folder were drawn by James Cameron himself.

The scene where Jack draws Rose is familiar even to people who have never seen the movie. It’s a truly sensual moment, and the line “draw me like one of your French women” has quite rightly become one of the best memes ever. Interestingly, the hand that makes the sketches does not belong to DiCaprio at all, but to Cameron himself. The director drew not only a portrait of Rosa, but also all of Jack’s sketches. In addition, DiCaprio is right-handed, and Cameron is left-handed. For the sake of authenticity on the screen, the director mirrored the images in post-production.

The elderly spouses who remained in the cabin had real prototypes

You probably remember this heartbreaking moment: an elderly couple lies on the bed until the musicians stop playing, and the water rushes into the cabins. The people the characters are based on were named Isidore and Ida Strauss. James Cameron could have taken their love story for a movie plot and raised just as much money. It makes no sense to retell the biography of the Strauss. The only important thing is that the couple were married for 40 years and, as eyewitnesses reported, they always tried to stick together. It is also known that Isidore was offered to board a lifeboat, but he refused to take a seat while women and children were on board. Ida, in turn, did not want to leave the ship without her husband. The lovers were last seen on deck: they were sitting on sun loungers and holding hands. The Strauss owned Macy’s. On the ground floor of the department store, you can see a memorial plaque dedicated to the spouses.

The ship sank at 02:20, while in the movie the clock shows 02:15.

Cameron’s film has an impressive running time – more than three hours. Curiously, it took the ship 2 hours and 40 minutes from the time of the accident to sinking into the ocean. In other words, the Titanic did not sink as rapidly as it might seem when watching the movie. But there is a detail that quite accurately conveys the real facts. The liner collided with an iceberg at 23:40 and went under water at 02:20. The director focuses the audience’s attention on the clock – the hands show 02:15, that is, there are only five minutes left before the giant ship disappears into deep waters. Already in the finale, when Rose and Jack meet on the ship, we see 02:20 on the clock – time on the liner has stopped forever.

Film crew was poisoned on the last day of work

After grueling filming, many members of the team caught a mysterious illness. Fifteen minutes after dinner, the cast and other staff began to suffer from nausea, anxiety, and hallucinations. It soon became clear that someone had added phencyclidine to the food. 80 people were hospitalized. There was a version that the poisoning was the work of a fired chef, but later these conversations turned out to be rumors. To this day, it is not known who is responsible for what happened.

Jack was unable to take Rosa to Santa Monica, but judging by the old photos at the end of the film, the girl did visit this place.

After the meeting of the heroes, Jack gives Rosa his word that they will go to the Santa Monica Pier together and ride roller coasters and horses. We can only ignore the fact that the popular attraction was built after the sinking of the Titanic and pay attention to the final part of the film. The camera stops on photographs of a young Rosa: in one of the photographs, a young lady is captured on a horse near the very Santa Monica Pier.

Fabrizio’s knife at the end of the movie is the one he and Jack won at cards

As you know, at the beginning of the film, Jack and his friend Fabrizio are playing cards. Luck smiled on young people: a few laps, and now in the pocket of the young men were tickets to board the Titanic, cash, a watch and a knife. Already at the end of the film, when the worst happened, Fabrizio cuts the lifeboat ropes with the same knife. In addition, the clock during the game shows 11:53: friends have exactly seven minutes to catch the ship, which is due to leave at 12:00.

The scene with the boy playing with the top was inspired by a real photo.

The film contains a whole palette of small but important details that are easy to overlook. One of them is the unremarkable scene of a child playing with a spinning top as Jack makes his way to the first class deck. During filming, the director used a photograph taken on April 11, 1912 by the Irish Jesuit priest and photographer Francis Brown. The picture shows six-year-old Robert having fun with a traditional toy for that time. Brown did not witness the crash, as the man went ashore while moored. And the boy, along with his father, were among the survivors, but shortly after the crash, Robert died due to an accident.

The chef in the film is based on a real person who survived thanks to alcohol.

Another minor character based on a real passenger is a chef who drinks from a flask during a shipwreck. Cameron was inspired by the story of Charles John Jowin, a cook who was in cold water for two hours and survived. The man was the last survivor of those who left the ship. Charles himself believes that he did not suffer from the icy ocean thanks to the alcohol he had drunk earlier.

The night sky was depicted incorrectly in the original film and was changed in the 2012 re-release

Despite the presence of many reliable details, the film was not without blunders. For example, it is worth remembering the moment when Rose was lying on a broken door and looking at the stars. The most attentive viewers noticed that the heroine Winslet did not see the sky that was in 1912. American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson tried to convince the director to make the appropriate adjustments. Eventually Cameron asked the scientist to send him the exact location of the stars. In 2012, on the centenary of the disaster, a re-release of Titanic was released, where the night sky corresponds to the realities of the times.

Cameron didn’t plan to include songs in the film, but Celine Dion’s voice made him change his mind

For help with the music, Cameron turned to composer James Horner. Tom knew that the director wanted the film to have only melodies without vocals. However, Horner still decided to go his own way and recorded a song with Celine Dion My Heart Will Go On. Cameron agreed with the composer’s decision, and after 25 years, this seems to be perhaps the most correct choice of the master. The song is inextricably linked with the picture, and “Titanic” is impossible to imagine without the recognizable voice of the Canadian performer.

Elderly Rosa’s dog is a tribute to the Pomeranians who survived the disaster

Elderly Rosa has a white Spitz in her arms. In fact, the choice of breed is not accidental. Two of the three dogs that survived the crash were Pomeranians. When the liner went to the bottom, the passenger released the pets from their booths. James Cameron filmed the animal scene, but unfortunately the scene was not included in the final cut of the film.

The script contains quotes from real survivors.

James Cameron introduced phrases from real people who survived the shipwreck into the script. Remember the iconic scene when Jack wants to stop Rose from jumping overboard. The hero tells the girl that he once fell into icy water, and compares this pain with a thousand knives that pierced his entire body. The quote is from second mate Charles Gerber Lightoller, who similarly described his experience during the shipwreck.

James Cameron dived into the water to see the wreckage

The idea to make a film about the disaster came to the director after meeting Robert Ballard, an American explorer who led a team that discovered the wreckage of the famous ship. Cameron dived into the water not one or two, but as many as 12 times! The director explored the liner, took pictures and became more and more imbued with a tragic story. The shots that the director made were shown in the film, which makes the Titanic even more realistic.