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Leonardo DiCaprio nearly missed out on a role in โTitanicโ.
The Hollywood heartthrob played Jack Dawson in the iconic 1997 film but director James Cameron revealed that it almost fell apart due to the starโs poor attitude during auditions.
In a career retrospective for GQ, James said: โThere was a meeting with Leo and then there was a screen test with Leo.
โThe meeting was funny because I am sitting in my conference room, waiting to meet an actor. And I look around, and all the women in the entire office are in the meeting. They all wanted to meet Leo. It was hysterical.โ
The โAvatarโ director said that the first meeting with DiCaprio went well as the actor โcharmed everybodyโ but things did not go as smoothly when he was asked back for a screen test with co-star Kate Winslet.
James, 68, said: โSo he came back a couple of days later, and I had the camera set up to record the video.
โHe didnโt know he was going to test. He thought it was another meeting to meet Kate. So I said, โOkay, weโll just go in the next room, and weโll run some lines and Iโll video it.โ
โAnd he said, โYou mean, Iโm reading?โ I said, โYeahโ. He said, โOh, I donโt read.'โ
The filmmaker continued: โI shook his hand and said, โThanks for coming by.โ And he said, โWait, wait, wait. If I donโt read, I donโt get the part? Just like that?โ
โAnd I said, โOh yeah. Come on. This is a giant movie that is going to take two years of my life, and youโll be gone doing five other things while Iโm doing post-production. So, Iโm not going to f*** it up by making the wrong decision in casting. So, youโre going to read, or youโre not going to get the part.'โ