How did James Cameron ensure Titanic’s sets were imposing?

One of the biggest hits of his career James Cameron, Titanic It has immense and imposing scenes. However, in an interview with Los Angeles Timesthe filmmaker revealed that, in fact, they weren’t that big and revealed the trick adopted to reduce production costs: hiring only lower extras.

“We only cast short people to make our sets look bigger. The rule was that we didn’t cast anyone taller than five feet tall. I think with this trick we valued the work on the sets. Let’s just say they looked like $1 million more expensive than they really were”evaluated Cameron.

The fear was that the film would not recover its cost at the box office, but what happened was exactly the opposite. The film – which tells the love story between Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) It is Rose (Kate Winslet), two young people from completely different classes – premiered in 1997 and was an absolute success.

Today, the film has already grossed US$2.26 billion (around R$11.17 billion at current prices) at the global box office. For many years, Titanic It was the highest-grossing film in the history of cinema, second only to Avatara 2009 feature film, also directed by James Cameronwhich maintains the position to this day.

Furthermore, Titanic also joined the list of biggest Oscar winners to date, having taken 11 of the 14 award nominations in 1998, including Best Picture and Best Director for James Cameron. The number of statuettes is the same as that won by Ben-Hurfrom 1959, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King2003.