James Cameron reveals Leonardo DiCaprio nearly lost Titanic? Here’s what he said!

Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio nearly lost the legendary part in "Titanic" because of his diva behaviour.

The actor looked snooty in a meeting with James Cameron despite having starred in numerous films and earning an Oscar nomination for 1993's "What's Eating Gilbert Grape."

DiCaprio refused to read during a screen test with Kate Winslet, the director admitted in an interview with GQ. The director of "Avatar" claimed that the actor had previously attended a conference when he "charmed everyone."

Here’s what Filmmaker James Cameron said

According to Cameron, Leo was the subject of a meeting and a subsequent screen test. "The meeting was funny because l 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. They all wanted to meet Leo. It was hysterical."

During the screen test, DiCaprio made an entirely different impression."He came back a couple of days later, and I had the camera set up to record the video," Cameron stated.

Cameron recalled, "He didn't know he was going to take the test. He thought it was another meeting to meet Kate. So I said, 'Okay, 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?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Oh, I don't read.' I shook his hand and said, 'Thanks for coming by.”

Cameron was about to reject DiCaprio at that moment, but the actor returned and said: "Wait, wait, wait. If I don't read, I don't get the part? Just like that?" Cameron responded, "Oh, yeah." He kept on explaining the importance of the project, "Come on. This is a giant movie that is going to take two years of my life, and you'll be gone doing five other things while I'm doing post-production. So, I'm not going to f**k it up by making the wrong decision in casting. So, you're going to read, or you're not going to get the part"

Cameron claimed that DiCaprio reluctantly agreed to read.

"So he comes in, and he's like every ounce of his entire being is just so negative - right up until I said, 'Action.' Then he turned into Jack," he shared. "Kate just lit up, and they played the scene. Dark clouds had opened up, and a ray of sun came down and lit up Jack. I'm like, 'All right.

He's the guy."

Cameron initially had some hesitations about using Winslet as the female lead despite the fact that she had previously agreed to play the role at the time and had appeared in other historical films before "Titanic." "I actually didn't see Kate at first," the 68-year-old admitted. "She had done a couple of other historical dramas as well, and she was getting a reputation as 'Corset Kate' doing historical stuff.”

The casting of Winslet, according to Cameron, "was going to look like the laziest casting in the world." In the end, he agreed to meet her and described her as "fantastic."

The movie "Titanic" ended up being a huge box office hit, earning $2.2 billion globally.

In addition to being adored by the public, it received 14 Acade Award nominations and won 11 of them.