Leonardo DiCaprio Nearly Lost ‘Titanic’ Role Over ‘Negative’ Attitude, James Cameron Says: ‘I’m Not Going to F—K It Up’

usmagazine.com:

He almost let go of Jack. Director James Cameron revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio almost lost the role of Jack in Titanic due to his “negative” attitude during the auction process.“There was a meeting with Leo and then there was a screen test with Leo,” the filmmaker, 68, recalled while breaking down his most iconic films for GQ in a video published on Tuesday, November 22. “The meeting was funny because I am sitting in my conference room, waiting to meet an actor.

And I look around, and all the women in the entire office are in the meeting for some reason.”Cameron added that everyone from the executive producer to the accountant turned up that day because “they just all wanted to meet Leo.

It was hysterical. I looked around and I went, ‘I think I already know the answer to this question.'”But while the Wolf of Wall Street star, 48, “charmed” everyone on his first meeting, tensions arose when the Avatar director asked him to come back for a screen test to see how well he connected with Kate Winslet. “He came back a couple of days later, and I had the camera set up to record the video,” Cameron said. “He didn’t know he was going to test.

He thought it was another meeting to meet Kate. So, I said, ‘OK, we’ll just go in the next room, and we’ll run some lines and I’ll video it.’ And he said, ‘You mean, I’m reading?’ … Oh, I don’t read.'”In response, the Canada native revealed that he shook DiCaprio’s hand and thanked him for coming in before explaining that if he wouldn’t read for the role, he wasn’t getting the part.“I said, ‘Come on.