‘Titanic’ wouldn’t be the same without Leonardo Dicaprio. The passionate and tragic love story directed by James Cameron revealed to us a very young DiCaprio in the role of Jack, whose iconic phrase was not only improvised but was not too enthusiastic.
The king of the world
There are many scenes that come to mind if we think of ‘Titanic’ and one of the most iconic is that moment in which the character of Jack is on the bow of the ship and yells that of: “I’m king of the world!”.
Regarding this memorable phrase, which the director even quoted when he was awarded the Oscar in 1998, Cameron commented in an interview that It wasn’t in the original ‘Titanic’ script.:
It was invented on the spot. I was in a crane basket and we were losing power. We tried this and that, I tried this line of dialogue and that and we hadn’t come up with anything. Finally I said, “Okay, I got it. Say: I’m the king of the world, and just open your arms, live in the moment, enjoy it and celebrate it.” And he answered me: “What?”.
Apparently, when Cameron told her his decision about the walkie-talkie impromptu line of dialogue, the idea did not excite DiCaprio at all. The director had to insist a lot, emphasizing that he, by saying it, he “had to sell it”. Despite initial reluctance, in the end the actor managed to hit the nail on the head and the rest is history.
About the shooting conditions of this key scene, Danny Nucci (who played Fabrizio, Jack’s friend) also spoke, explaining what unfavorable and busy that the set was for that specific moment:
Leo and I would ride in a construction elevator, they’d drop us off at the top, and then the elevator would disappear so it wouldn’t be seen during filming. We were stuck in that little tower with our coats on so we wouldn’t freeze. We were there for hours (…) It was one of the most hysterical experiences of my life. All I remember is that we were very hungry and at one point we had to pee in a pitiful way.
Actor and director will be back in theaters very soon: James Cameron with the revival of ‘Avatar’ and the premiere of ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ and DiCaprio in the new Martin Scorsese film ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.