James Cameron’s big boat movie isn’t as big as it might look – it’s just filled with slightly shorter-than-average people.
Being a jobbing actor sounds a bit exhausting, if we’re honest. Not only do you have to worry about things like “does my hair look sort of presentable” and “remembering lines”, there’s always the chance you’ll lose out on being in the 4th highest-grossing film of all time because you can reach the top shelf in Sainsbury’s.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times to celebrate Titanic's upcoming 4K remaster, Cameron delves into the pretty astonishing level of penny-pinching involved in the nautical juggernaut’s production – including some very sneaky choices when it came to casting.
“We only cast short extras so it made our set look bigger,” Cameron said. “Anybody above five foot eight, we didn’t cast them. It’s like we got an extra million dollars of value out of casting.”
It’s a good job Leonardo DiCaprio had a speaking part then – at exactly 6 foot (thank you, Google) Cameron would have had him out of the audition before he could say “is that an iceberg?”. In fact, for the gentlemen in the film, the number of actors meeting Cameron’s strict criteria is pretty slim.
How slim, we hear you ask? In the interest of providing quality film-related content, then, here’s a helpful list of male actors who could theoretically have been cast as extras on Titanic in 1997:
Tom Cruise
John Leguizamo
James McAvoy
Michael J. Fox
Jack Black
Martin Freeman
Prince
Kevin Hart
Christoph Waltz
Kate Winslet, though? 5 foot 7 inches, if you were wondering. She would’ve made an excellent distressed passenger.
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