Leonardo DiCaprio pays tribute to activist Jane Goodall at funeral
Leonardo DiCaprio spoke at Jane Goodall’s funeral in Washington, D.C., about their friendship and shared activities.
The director of Titanic has revealed how he convinced a reluctant Leonardo DiCaprio to sign on to star in the film.
Director James Cameron, who helped make the 1997 classic a success, said in a new interview with Vanity Fair that DiCaprio “didn’t want to do it” but agreed to the film knowing how difficult it would be.
Prime Minister David Cameron, 71, told the magazine: “He knew he should do it, everyone was telling him he should do it.” “It probably took me five weeks working with him to really dig into what he didn’t like.
“The answer was very simple,” the director said. “He didn’t think it was a challenge enough.”
“He didn’t want to just be ‘handsome young Leo,'” Cameron continued. “I said, even though you’re handsome and young, it’s not about you being a ‘handsome young Leo.’ I said, ‘It’s about staying centered when you don’t have all these props.’
“The hard way is to do what Jimmy Stewart does, which is to do nothing but be a handsome guy in the middle and keep the audience’s attention glued to it,” he told Vanity Fair about his conversation with DiCaprio.
“Do you know when he signed on to do the movie? When I told him he wasn’t ready to do the movie,” Cameron revealed. “I said, ‘You’re not ready to do this movie.’ Now I’m in so much danger because I knew I really wanted him, right? But when he did it, he realized how difficult it was. And it was.”
“Then he leaned in and brought everything he gave to the movie. He was great. He was white-hot.”
DiCaprio played poor artist Jack opposite Kate Winslet’s wealthy Rose in the love story now considered a classic of American cinema. The film, inspired by the real-life sinking of the Titanic, was nominated for several Academy Awards and catapulted both DiCaprio and Winslet to new heights of fame.
