Kate Winslet Didn’t Like Her Titanic Performance For This Surprising Reason

Many fans love Titanic, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as young lovers Rose and Jack. However, despite James Cameron’s 1997 movie launching Winslet into household-name status and a top-billing actor, she didn’t like her performance in the Oscar-winning movie. When asked what scene from the movie she doesn’t look back on fondly, she responded that it’s every scene she’s in. “I’m like, ‘Really, really? You did it like that? Oh my God.’ My American accent, I can’t listen to it. It’s awful,” she told CNN in 2012 ahead of the movie’s 3D re-release.

Winslet explained that although she had a love-hate relationship with the movie when it first came out, it did open up many doors in the industry for her in the long run. Winslet, who won an Oscar 12 years later in The Reader, explained that many actors are hard on themselves about past performances. “Hopefully, it’s so much better now. It sounds terribly self-indulgent, but actors do tend to be very self-critical. I have a hard time watching any of my performances, but watching Titanic, I was just like, ‘Oh God, I want to do that again.’”

Despite filming challenging scenes with the ship sinking and her quick rise to stardom, Winslet said she wouldn’t “change anything for the world.”

Titanic is one of three movies with the most Oscar wins, along with Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and took home 11, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography.

Titanic also sparked the timeless debate of whether Jack and Rose could have fit on the door at the end of the movie. Winslet’s take? Jack could have fit on the door, it likely would have sunk. “The reality is… is it an intact door? No, it’s a bit broken, there’s a piece broken off. I actually don't believe that we would have survived if we had both gotten on that door,” she said in 2022. “I think that he could have fit, but it would have tipped and it would not have been a sustainable idea.”