Near-death experiences, hypothermia, and an icebreaker no one saw coming. Oh, and then there was that time the whole crew was drugged.
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00:00Near-death experiences, hypothermia, and an icebreaker no one saw coming.
00:05Oh, and then there was the time the whole crew was drugged.
00:08One of the most bizarre things to happen on the Titanic set happened while filming the framing
00:13narrative centered around Bill Paxton's character, Brock Lovett, and his search of the wreck of the
00:17Titanic. Marilyn McAvoy, a background painter who worked on Titanic, spoke to Vice about the
00:22incident, which occurred in 1996 when some cast and crew sat down to enjoy a clam chowder lunch.
00:28There was only one problem — it was spiked with PCP. Those affected,
00:32including James Cameron and actor Bill Paxton, were rushed to the hospital.
00:36Both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were spared this eventful dinner,
00:40since they weren't required for this Canadian shoot.
00:43He said, well, did you eat the clam chowder? And I thought, well, yeah,
00:46I had a couple of bowls. And about that time, I started feeling it.
00:50Marilyn McAvoy recalls how the evening began,
00:53with people going for seconds and thirds of the chowder because it tasted so good.
00:57Everyone was having a lot more than they usually would. Soon, people started tripping,
01:01and once they realized what was happening, Cameron allegedly went up to his room to
01:05make himself throw up and stop the hallucinogen from taking over.
01:08McAvoy described how the crew was in the hospital all night,
01:12as some people were having a bad trip. She said,
01:14It became pretty chaotic. People had a lot of energy. Some were in wheelchairs,
01:18flying down the hallways. People were playing hacky sack.
01:21Bill Paxton also opened up to Larry King about the incident,
01:24describing the hospital scene that night in much the same way.
01:28You see, some people are freaking out. Some people are Congo dancing.
01:32Some people are euphoric. I knew I was pretty stoned.
01:36On her end, McAvoy said it all seemed like a dream and that her experience wasn't too bad.
01:41Unfortunately for the crew, they never caught the perpetrator,
01:44resulting in that entire night going down as one of the weirdest on-set moments.
01:49Once the Titanic sinks, Jack freezes in the frigid waters, but Rose manages to stay alive
01:54and flag down a nearby boat, looking for survivors. It's a tragic ending,
01:58but Rose's shivering tears weren't pure acting. It was cold as hell in that water.
02:02In 2017, Kate Winslet appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and
02:06revealed that when shooting this scene in the water, she got hypothermia.
02:10Yeah, I was really f----- cold.
02:13She further explained that even though this was all supposed to be pretend movie magic,
02:17there was so much water that the crew couldn't heat it all up. Hey,
02:20maybe if DiCaprio had just climbed up on that piece of wood to keep her warm.
02:24Nah, never mind. There's no way there was room for him. No possible way.
02:29It turns out Kate Winslet suffered quite a bit during filming. In a 1997 interview with
02:34The Los Angeles Times, Winslet revealed a variety of injuries she got on set — bruises, gashes,
02:39and a chipped elbow. She also described the moment when she almost drowned during one scene.
02:44What makes this even more bizarre is the fact that Cameron didn't notice and kept directing,
02:48as he was completely oblivious to her near-death experience.
02:51The scene in question takes place when Rose and Jack are running through the ship as water
02:55is gushing in. They try to find an escape route, but soon get trapped in by a closed gate,
03:00with water pouring in on them. Once the scene was cut,
03:03the production team opened the gate to allow DiCaprio and Winslet through.
03:07However, her coat got caught on the iron bars, and she was submerged in the water.
03:11Winslet described the experience to The Los Angeles Times, saying,
03:15I had no breath left. I thought I'd burst. And Jim just said,
03:18OK, let's go again. That was his attitude. I didn't want to be a wimp, so I didn't complain."
03:23Well, I'm fine. I'll be fine. Really."
03:28Although Cameron realized a few minutes later that Winslet was feeling shaken by the experience,
03:32he wanted to get back into it and shoot the scene again,
03:34comparing it to getting back on a horse after a fall. The show must go on, after all.
03:39For many, the staircase in Titanic is an iconic symbol of Rose and Jack's love.
03:43Early in the film, Jack waits for Rose at the bottom of the staircase to escort her to dinner
03:48with her family. He's blown away when he sees her looking fancy and beautiful,
03:51and the romantic tension between them is palpable. In the final scene of the movie,
03:55Rose passes away, and the staircase appears again,
03:58reuniting her with Jack and all of the others lost on the Titanic.
04:02Both are beautiful and emotional moments as they show the journey of Jack and Rose's relationship,
04:07culminating with their final embrace in the afterlife.
04:10However, behind the scenes of this romantic tale is a puzzling story.
04:14In 2017, Cameron reflected on his time filming Titanic in National Geographic's
04:18Titanic 20 Years Later with James Cameron. When looking back at the iconic staircase,
04:23Cameron recalled,
04:24"[The staircase has got a steel footing. Then when we sank the ship, it lifted.
04:28Wood is buoyant. It ripped off that footing, and it all floated up,
04:31and it actually pinned two stunt players. Fortunately, they weren't hurt,
04:34but it was a pretty scary moment."
04:36The staircase was built to replicate the actual grand stairs that were aboard the famous vessel,
04:40so perhaps it brought some of its bad luck with it.
04:43Brett Baker, Leonardo DiCaprio's photodouble in Titanic, spoke to Vanity Fair in 2016 about his
04:49experience making the film. Baker was a struggling actor and was thrilled to join the project,
04:54even though the role wasn't exactly what he'd trained for. As a photodouble,
04:57Baker's job was to silently take DiCaprio's place in shots where you couldn't see his face
05:02to give the star a break from more tedious work. Baker's presence in Titanic is undetectable,
05:07but he remembers how nervous he was to meet Cameron for the first time since he is both
05:11shorter and older than DiCaprio. Luckily, Cameron believed he looked enough like DiCaprio
05:16that it would work. Baker looks back fondly on his time on the Titanic set,
05:20saying most actors don't get their big breaks starring in one of the biggest films of all time.
05:24Plus, the photodouble life got interesting, thanks to all of the teen fans waiting by
05:29the studio gate, hoping to catch a glimpse of DiCaprio. During the filming of Titanic,
05:33the Leo craze was in full swing. Security would usher DiCaprio out the back to avoid the fans,
05:38and Baker would be brought out front for everyone to gush over,
05:41turning him into a real-life photodouble for the star. As Baker recalled to Vanity Fair,
05:46The fans went berserk, screaming, looking inside the window, waving their pieces of
05:50paper for an autograph. I don't know if anyone knew that was going on at the gate every morning.
05:54At least he got his own little fan club during filming.
05:58Actors have been known to take things from set from time to time. Think of it less as
06:02stealing and more as holding onto a piece of memorabilia that commemorates the time
06:05they spent filming. It's understandable when one goes through blood, sweat, and tears to
06:09make a film that they feel like they deserve a little something for their troubles — aside
06:14from their massive paycheck, of course. Winslet did almost drown and get hypothermia. Maybe it's
06:19fair to say that she wanted to take a little something extra on the way out. In an interview
06:23with The New York Times, she revealed that she likes saving things from sets, and during Titanic,
06:27she snagged some jewelry. She explained,
06:29I did take a pair of Rose's earrings, but somewhere I lost one.
06:33It's a fitting story, since Titanic itself is framed around a search for lost jewelry — a
06:37necklace that, of course, gets lost in the ocean at the end.
06:41It's no secret that Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have enjoyed a decades-long friendship.
06:46Ever since starring as star-crossed lovers in Titanic, the two have freely shown each other
06:50their admiration and support over the years. A decade after Titanic,
06:54the two starred in the post-war romantic drama Revolutionary Road.
06:58Winslet talked about her friendship with DiCaprio in an interview with The Guardian,
07:01noting that they've known each other for half their lives. She said,
07:04He's my friend, my really close friend. We're bonded for life.
07:08Winslet won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in 2009 for Revolutionary Road
07:12and gushed about her co-star in her off-the-cuff speech.
07:15For his part, DiCaprio has described how Winslet broke the ice between the two right off the bat.
07:19In the official behind-the-scenes book of the film, Ed W. Marsh's James Cameron's Titanic,
07:24DiCaprio shared their bizarre first encounter that did just that.
07:27The first scene he shot was the one where he draws naked Rose. DiCaprio explained,
07:32Winslet had no shame with it. She wanted to break the ice a little beforehand, so she flashed me.
07:37I wasn't prepared for that, so she had one up on me. I was pretty comfortable after that.
07:41A 1998 Rolling Stone profile on Winslet detailed how things snowballed from there,
07:46with Winslet and DiCaprio spending the rest of the shoot pranking each other and
07:50forming a very comfortable relationship. Winslet explained,
07:53We were kind of the two goofy kids on the set. We'd do the most ridiculous things to each other.
07:57He'd be tickling me, groping me, winding me up,
08:00and I'd be doing the same thing back, sort of grabbing his bum.
08:06DiCaprio discussed the seriousness of their friendship on set as well, saying,
08:10She was my best friend for seven months. We'd unload the stresses of the shoot to each other,
08:15vent to each other, watch out for each other. Kate was just the perfect person to work with
08:19because she was very much one of the guys, and it would have been much harder without her.
08:22We were partners.
08:25Oh, that was better. You gotta work on it. Really try to hock it up and get some body to it.