Titanic, the iconic 1998 Best Picture winner currently available streaming with an Amazon Prime subscription, sure looked like a wild ride to put together. Since behind-the-scenes facts about the movie include that its release date was delayed to finalize the special effects as well as a wooden staircase mishap, I can imagine how difficult filming must have been to create a masterpiece. However, star Kate Winslet tells the story of one Titanic scene that was “a nightmare” to film, and I never would have guessed it.
If I had to guess which Titanic scenes were the hardest for Kate Winslet to shoot, I’d think it was when she was hanging off the side of the boat after meeting Jack, or having to swim in a freezing 17-gallon water tank where she “sometimes peed.” Instead, she told Vanity Fair that a tough scene for her was Jack and Rose’s first kiss, with her reasoning making a lot of sense:
See, I look at that and I just see how much I couldn't breathe in that bloody corset.
Corsets often do look uncomfortable in photos and movies. Now, we know from Kate Winslet that the struggle is real of wearing the constricted old-fashioned garment for a project like Titanic. At the same time, there are so many iconic outfits from the ‘90s movie that I still love to look at, like Rose’s dinner dress or the white dress she wore at the very end of the movie.
The memorable scene of Titanic wasn’t only “a nightmare” for Kate Winslet because of her costume. There were also a lot of technical aspects of the “I’m flying!” scene that were frustrating for her, as well as Leonardo DiCaprio’s laughing:
Oh, this was a nightmare, shooting this, because Leo couldn't stop laughing, and we had to re-shoot this about four times, because the light. The light was – Jim wanted a very specific light for this, obviously, and the sunsets kept changing where we were.
I would probably feel like losing my patience, too, if a scene had to be re-shot because of lighting issues and a certain co-star’s laughing. But Jack and Rose’s first kiss was a very important scene for Titanic to get right as it was the last sunset the ship had before its sinking, and for starting off the romance of our favorite doomed couple.
As you probably guessed by now, Titanic was not actually filmed on a real ship. It was a real-life-size replica built to be 90% the size of the real RMS ocean liner. However, Kate Winslet said that particular set for the juicy kiss scene was actually a real pain to shoot on:
This was a section of the ship, it wasn't part of the actual whole ship set that we had. It was a little sort of sawn off bit. We had to climb up a ladder to get to it. I remember, it was sort of, hair and makeup couldn't reach us.
That doesn’t sound like fun for Kate Winslet to have to climb up a ladder wearing the long dresses that she had to for the movie. It must have been a tough climb if hair and makeup couldn’t join them up there for touch-ups.
So, without hair and makeup joining the cast and crew, how did Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio get their makeup fixed between takes? The British actress had an inventive technique that proves corsets have their uses outside of fashion:
Now, what you wouldn't know, because Leo looks completely natural, but he had to lie on sun beds, there's a lot of fake tan makeup going on. So, I have got hidden in here and here [points to two sides of her top] I've got his makeup and brushes and sponge and my makeup and brushes and sponge in the other side, and between takes, I was basically redoing our makeup.
Now, that’s teamwork! So, now we know Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio’s makeup in that scene was on point because of the Oscar winner’s hidden talent. I’m sure with all of that in mind, Rose having to climb up the dock pretending to fly with Jack must have been nothing compared to everything else the stars had to deal with.
I never would have thought that “a nightmare” scene for Kate Winslet to shoot was the scene of Jack and Rose’s first kiss. But if I had to wear a tight corset, climb up a ladder in a long dress, and fix my laughing scene partner’s make-up, it would be a challenge for me to feel the mood of the romance scene too.
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