Tears flowed when audiences watched Jack Dawson give his place on the floating door to provide Rose DeWitt Bukater a chance at survival following the sinking of the RMS Titanic in the 1997 film of the same name. Once those tears were wiped away, fans took a closer look at the scene and realized that the door seemed awfully big to hold just one person. This sparked a decades-long debate about whether or not Jack could have actually survived the sinking of Titanic.
Kate Winslet has offered up her opinion on the matter and provided some tidbits regarding the filming of the infamous scene.
An ongoing debate among Titanic fans
Since the film‘s release in 1997, fans have debated about whether Jack Dawson could have fit on the door alongside Rose DeWitt Bukater, rather than remaining in the water and freezing to death.
Many have attempted to prove whether or not it was feasible for him to survive Titanic‘s sinking. On an episode of Mythbusters (2003-18), hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman created an exact replica of the door. As they carried out their experiment, they realized there was plenty of space for Jack and Rose to rest on it. The problem was buoyancy. The door couldn’t support the weight of the two without toppling to the side.
However, the hosts discovered that, if a life vest was tied to the bottom of the door, the buoyancy problem was solved. Whether or not it was feasible Jack, suffering from hypothermia, could have tied a life vest underneath the door has also been debated.
In Westminster, Australia, students tested the math behind the Mythbusters experiment. One of them explained, “We looked at how buoyant the door would have been, and how that would have changed if there were people on top of that. There was a lot of exploring and testing, and we had to fiddle with different buoyancies and look at what materials were realistic for that time.”
In the end, they proved that the math was sound – buoyancy was achievable.
They’ll have to recreate the scene
Fans finally turned to Kate Winslet, who played Rose DeWitt Bukater, to see what she had to say about the matter. “It’s funny, the door seems to have had a resurgence over the last few years. I don’t know why,” she said in an interview.
She’s well aware of the different experiments fans have conducted to determine whether or not Jack Dawson could have survived.
“People seem to be doing all kinds of experiments as to whether or not they could’ve really fit on the door,” she explained. “It’s hilarious. It’s one of those unanswerable questions. We’ll have to just go back there again and see if we could really both get on that door eventually.”
While Winslet feels they need to hop back into the cold water to truly determine whether Jack could have lived, it doesn’t seem likely to happen. Other members of the film have their own opinions on the door debate that would prevent such an experiment from happening.
Offering some insight into Titanic‘s infamous door scene
At a Q&A session for her World War II film, Lee, Kate Winslet revealed some behind-the-scenes tidbits about the filming of the infamous Titanic door scene. Speaking with Josh Horowitz, the actor revealed that the water wasn’t as deep as the film made it look.
“Well that was quite an awkward tank […] because to burst the bubble, it was waist height at that time,” she revealed, adding, “Leo I’m afraid to say was kneeling down.”
Winslet also explained the tank itself, saying, “Actually the thing that was amazing about the edges of the tank was it was an infinity tank. So there was constant water rushing and you could hear the constant sound of water.”
James Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio’s thoughts on the debate
Kate Winslet’s co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, who played Jack Dawson in Titanic, only has one thing to say whenever he’s asked about his opinion on the door debate: “no comment.”
One of the people who’s remained steadfast in his opinion that Jack couldn’t have fit on the door is James Cameron. Not only does the director know about the Mythbusters experiment, he joined in on the episode!
Regardless of the outcome, he said there’s no way Jack could’ve climbed onto that door. “Look, it’s very, very simple: you read page 147 of the script and it says, ‘Jack gets off the board and gives his place to her so that she can survive.’ It’s that simple. You can do all the post-analysis you want,” he explained.
Cameron has also said the whole debate is pointless.
“I’ve never really seen it as a debate, it’s just stupid,” he said. “There’s no debate. But if you really want to unearth all the [explicit] arguments associated with it… I mean, let’s go back to, could Romeo have been smart and not taken the poison? Yes. Could he have decided not to bring his little dagger just in case Juliet might stab herself with it? Yes, absolutely. It sort of misses the point.”
National Geographic‘s special investigation
Despite James Cameron saying the door debate was a waste of time, National Geographic produced a special about the film, titled Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron. A team conducted scientific experiments to learn whether Jack Dawson could have survived if he’d joined Rose DeWitt Bukater on the door.
Simulations of their ordeal, using stunt doubles with similar body types to Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, were used in the experiment, which was overseen by a hypothermia expert. The water temperature on the night Titanic sank was only 28 degrees. In the National Geographic test, the temperature was doubled for twice the exposure time in the water.
Of the tests, Cameron said, “We weren’t trying to prove or disprove anything, we’re just trying to say, ‘If you do this, does it make it better?'” He added that, after four experiments, the team came to “some pretty hard and fast conclusions.”
Negative impact of the Titanic door debate
The door debate took a negative turn early following Titanic‘s release, as Kate Winslet was body-shamed. People claimed her weight was the reason why Leonardo DiCaprio couldn’t fit on the door alongside her. “Apparently I was too fat,” Winslet said. “Why were they so mean to me? They were so mean. I wasn’t even [expletive] fat.”
The actor explained how she would’ve handled the situation differently, saying, “I would have said to journalists, I would have responded, I would have said, ‘Don’t you dare treat me like this. I’m a young woman, my body is changing, I’m figuring it out, I’m deeply insecure, I’m terrified, don’t make this any harder than it already is.’ That’s bullying, you know, and actually borderline abusive, I would say.”
In an interview with The Sunday Times, she added, “It can be extremely negative. People are subject to scrutiny that is more than a young, vulnerable person can cope with. But in the film industry it is really changing. When I was younger my agent would get calls saying, ‘How’s her weight?’ I kid you not. So it’s heartwarming that this has started to change.”
Kate Winslet said fame after Titanic was ‘horrible’
Kate Winslet explained that, after the craze brought about by the release of Titanic, she actively took smaller roles in independent films, calling the fame that resulted from the blockbuster “horrible.” At just 22 years old, she wasn’t prepared for the level of fame she’d achieved.
“[Young women now] know how to use their voice,” Winslet explained. “I felt like [in the aftermath of Titanic] I had to look a certain way, or be a certain thing, and because media intrusion was so significant at that time, my life was quite unpleasant.”
She continued, “Journalists would always say, ‘After Titanic, you could have done anything and yet you chose to do these small things’… and I was like, ‘Yeah, you bet your [expletive] life I did! Because, guess what, being famous was horrible.'”
That being said, Winslet still appreciated what starring in the film did for her – she just wishes it wasn’t as intense. “I was grateful, of course,” she added. “I was in my early twenties and I was able to get a flat. But I didn’t want to be followed literally feeding the ducks.”
James Cameron wasn’t even sure if Kate Winslet was the right choice
However, all of this may never have happened, as Kate Winslet wasn’t James Cameron’s first choice to play Rose DeWitt Bukater. The director sat down for an interview, in which he revealed he wasn’t originally sold on the idea of Winslet in the role, explaining that, at the time, he felt it was “lazy casting.”
Prior to starring in Titanic, Winslet had largely starred in period pieces, including Sense and Sensibility (1996) and Hamlet (1996). Her affinity for playing these types of parts made Cameron question if she was a good choice or just an obvious one.
He said that, ultimately, “wiser heads prevailed, and I could see what everybody was talking about. She’s very alive. She comes into a room with a great deal of confidence, and she’s got that spark of life.”
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For her role, Winslet earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting role. Thank goodness Cameron came around, because we could not picture anyone else as Rose!