DANES WASN’T READY FOR DICAPRIO’S TITANIC FAME
Actor Claire Danes has “zero” regrets about turning down Titanic, saying that she had no interest in the level of fame the film brought Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Homeland actor says she bowed out of consideration for the classic, letting the lead role go to Kate Winslet back in 1996, largely because the part felt all too familiar. Danes had just wrapped Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet with DiCaprio, and was looking for a different type of venture, reports aceshowbiz.com.
“I had just made this romantic epic with Leo in Mexico City, which is where they were going to shoot Titanic! And I just didn’t have it in me!” Danes said during a sit down with Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast.
The 40-year-old recalls DiCaprio himself wrestling with the decision to take on the James Cameron epic, recounting a conversation they had outside their mutual manager’s office. “And he just looked up at me and said: ‘I’m doing it! I’m doing it!’ And I could see he wasn’t sure. But he was like, ‘F**k it, I gotta do this thing.’“
Danes added that she could not see herself grappling with the global attention the actor received following the film’s release. “And I looked down at him, and I was like, ‘I totally understand why you’re doing that. And I’m not ready for it.’ And I think I wasn’t ready for it. I remember after that movie came out... and he just went into another stratosphere.”
She noted she has “zero regret” after noticing a swift change in how people treat her former co-star. “I think I may have sensed I was courting that (level of fame) or I was proximate to that... and I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t want it. I was just really clear about it. I wasn’t conflicted,” she said.
Asked whether anything romantic happened between the two while filming the Shakespearean tragedy, she said,“That was never going to happen. I didn’t know how to go about that... we’re really different people.”