New ‘Titanic’ behind-the-scenes photos with young Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet revealed
Behind-the-scenes photos of the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic” have been released — and they look like they were taken 84 years ago.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet boarded the fictional version of the RMS Titanic as production kicked off in summer 1996 — when the stars were just 21 and 20, respectively. The James Cameron-directed drama was filmed primarily at Fox Baja Studios, now known as Baja Studios.
The cast and crew worked in the town of Rosarito in Baja California, Mexico, where production created a life-size exterior set of the Titanic, which reportedly cost a whopping $40 million.
In the throwback photos, DiCaprio and Winslet can be seen walking around set in their Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater attire. In one photo, DiCaprio also sports contemporary black sunglasses as he and others take direction from Cameron.
Another amusing snapshot shows DiCaprio, bundled up in a not-period-appropriate parka, sitting with Winslet who’s wearing Rose’s life vest, seemingly about to shoot the film’s more dramatic scenes. The English actress even seems to get some shut-eye amid the busy work schedule.
Other photos show baby-faced DiCaprio walking around in Jack’s slacks and suspenders, mingling with co-star Danny Nucci, who played Fabrizio.
In one stunning photo, Winslet is dressed in Rose’s black-and-white striped suit and purple hat as she films the scene boarding the ship with co-stars Frances Fisher (Ruth DeWitt Bukater), Billy Zane (Cal Hockley) and David Warner (Spicer Lovejoy).
The resurfaced photos were acquired several years ago by a British collector.
“They are fabulous photos. They provide a unique, behind-the-scenes view of the production of the biggest-grossing movie of the 20th century,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said. “What is great about these photos is that they were clearly taken by a member of the crew using their own camera. They aren’t professional, p.r. shots; they are candid, amateur snaps.”
The real ship sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, killing 1,517 people. The crew suffered the most, with about 700 casualties.
There are no survivors of the Titanic alive today. Elizabeth Gladys “Millvina” Dean, the longest-living person to survive the wreckage, died at age 97 in 2009.
Cameron’s ambitious vision paid off, as “Titanic” became the highest-grossing movie of all time, surpassing “Jurassic Park.” Cameron’s “Avatar” beat his own record 12 years later, in 2009. (That was eventually beat by “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019.)
Additionally, “Titanic” won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, out of 14 nominations in 1998.
DiCaprio and Winslet both went on to win their own acting Oscars — DiCaprio for “The Revenant” in 2016 and Winslet years prior for 2008’s “The Reader.”
The on-screen lovers became the best of friends following the beloved film, which runs three hours and 15 minutes — an industry-head-spinning length in the ’90s, even being broken up into two VHS tapes.
“‘Titanic’ was very much an experiment for Kate Winslet and I,” DiCaprio told Deadline in 2016. “We’d done all of these independent movies. I loved her as an actress and she said, ‘Let’s do this together, we can do this.’ We did it, and it became something that we could’ve never foreseen.”
“People said, ‘Do you realize how big of a movie this is?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it’s big. It’s a big movie.’ They’re like, ‘No. No. No, it’s the biggest movie ever,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, what does that mean?'” he added. “I knew there was an expectation of me to do a certain thing at that point, and I knew I had to get back to what my intentions were from the onset.”
Winslet offered her own reflections on the film during its 25th anniversary last year.
“I’m 47 years old now, guys, and I turned 21 when we were shooting that movie. So it’s like half my lifetime ago,” she said on “Good Morning America.”
“It’s amazing and incredible to have been part of something that, you know, [is] so steeped in nostalgia for people and still resonates with people in the way that it does,” she continued. “It’s a huge, huge honor that people still love something that I was a part of all those years ago.”
DiCaprio was prodded about the movie’s infamous door scene, when Jack is unable to fit alongside Rose in the frigid waters — despite there being plenty of room. In a 2020 MTV interview, he was asked if he thought Jack could have shared it.
“No comment,” he said with a laugh.
