Before James Cameron picked Leonardo DiCaprio for his period drama Titanic, he had auditioned Matthew McConaughey, Kate Winslet told Stephen Colbert in an interview.
The Oscar-winning movie stars Winslet and DiCaprio as passengers on board the passenger liner RMS Titanic that sank after hitting an iceberg on April 15, 1912. Titanic became a global blockbuster after it was released on December 19, 1997. A remastered version has been released in the United States of America to mark its twentieth anniversary.
Winslet told Colbert that she originally auditioned with McConaughey. “I auditioned with Matthew, isn’t that weird?” she said. “Never said that in public before. I auditioned with Matthew, which was completely fantastic. It just wouldn’t have been the whole, Jack and Rose, Kate and Leo thing.”
At the time of the Titanic audition, McConaughey had appeared in Dazed and Confused (1993) and Lone Star (1996). Cameron was also considering Billy Crudrup for the part of Jack Dawson that DiCaprio made his own, Indiewire reported. “The director wanted someone who looked like he was 20 to play the part, which is what eventually helped land DiCaprio the role,” the report said.
Titanic catapulted DiCaprio to international stardom, and DiCaprio and Winslet have routinely featured on “Best on-screen couples of all time” lists ever since.
