HOW GWYNNIE AND UMA MISSED OUT
TITANIC might have turbo-charged the careers of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, but neither was first choice for their roles.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Winona Ryder and Uma Thurman were all considered to play the role of 17-year-old Rose, with a little-known Winslet so desperate to usurp her more famous rivals that she sent director James Cameron roses signed ‘from your Rose’ after auditioning. She later admitted that several of her contemporaries ‘were much more likely candidates. I got lucky.’ Matthew McConaughey, meanwhile, was picked by Paramount Studios, which produced the film in conjunction with 20th Century Fox, to play Jack. He auditioned alongside Winslet before Cameron insisted on recruiting baby-faced DiCaprio instead. Although Winslet and DiCaprio laugh off suggestions their sizzling on-screen chemistry translated into off-screen romance, Winslet has jokingly described him as ‘the love of my life’.
DiCaprio — reported to have walked Winslet down the aisle at her wedding to Richard Branson’s nephew Ned Rocknroll in 2012 — is more muted in his praise, saying: ‘We just like each other as people.’
Their friendship appears to have survived the fact that Winslet was paid less than DiCaprio (£1.5million compared to his reported £1.8 million) and that she was nominated for an Oscar and he wasn’t.
Ouch. Not that either’s career has suffered. Thricemarried mother-of-three Winslet, 42, is now worth around £66 million.
DiCaprio, 43, single and dedicated to dating twentysomething models, is worth an estimated £180 million.