At the time of its production, James Cameron’s Titanic was the most expensive movie ever made. Because of that, Cameron took some shortcuts to make the film even better, including casting only short extras.
Speaking to The Los Angeles Times, Cameron recounted several “cheats” that he employed during the making of the film. Most notably among those, he revealed, is the fact that they only cast short people as extras in order to make the actual set of the Titanic appear even bigger.
Another cheat: “We only cast short extras so it made our set look bigger,” said Cameron. “Anybody above 5’8”, we didn’t cast them. It’s like we got an extra million dollars of value out of casting.”
Other tactics that Cameron employed to save tactics included cutting an entire set that they had planned to use, opting instead to just use two sets, one for the pre-iceberg scenes and one that was tilted at six degrees to replicate the Titanic sinking.
Titanic remains a classic to this day
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, Titanic tells the story of the sinking of the famous RMS Titanic and centers around the two as they fall in love despite their different social standings. The film also stars Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, and Bill Paxton.
Originally released in 1997, Titanic became a smash hit from the moment it premiered, with praise from critics and audiences alike pouring in. The film was the first ever movie to reach the billion-dollar mark at the box office and remained the highest-grossing film of all time until Cameron would go on to beat it with another film of his in 2009 — Avatar.
Nominated for 14 Academy Awards, Titanic tied 1950’s All About Eve for the most Oscar nominations and would win 11 of them, including Best Picture and Best Director. It also tied 1959’s Ben-Hur for the most Oscars won by a single film.
