Faye Dunaway and Reba McEntire were first choice for Titanic roles

Excuse me, I meant corset, not consort lol

I can envision Faye getting a Supporting Actress nod if she had taken the role.

Faye's scenery chewing would have made the iceberg redundant.

If Faye could have toned down her acting, she would have been excellent in the role. I've never seen her as a subtle actress, but it would have been a good bit of casting. I wonder if she was truly ever considered for the role however.

Faye would have chewed the scenery AND the iceberg

Reba would have been fine, but Kathy Bates was really good

Faye had already done a boat movie and thought that was enough.

Faye and Goop as Rose. Colin Farrel as Jack. Leave Kathy Bates as Molly.

I don't think she's beneath accepting supporting roles. Her one scene with Swoozie Kurtz was the highlight of Rules of Attraction.

r7 Colin Farrell would have been a sexier Jack, better than Leo who looked like an adolescent boy IMO although who knows how teen girls would have reacted to Colin. I would've kept Kate as Rose, because Gwyneth was too skinny for that era.

Faye was definitely taking Supporting roles at this time, such as Gia and Rebecca on TV, The Chamber, The Thomas Crown Affair remake in movies

Billy was way hotter than Leo. Rose should have listened to Mommie Dearest Ruth.

I felt the same way watching The Post. That it needed Faye or Ann Margret who would have brought the upper class glamour the role required. Instead of miscast Meryl.

They really should cast Faye in more movie work,

That would be Swoosie Kurtz, R8

Get that bitch of an iceberg away from the ship where it OUGHT to be.

I should've known you'd know where to find the boys and the bergs!

Faye did snobby Mrs. Van Hopper in "Rebecca" that year instead. Very small role, some similarities to Ruth....

One voyage of the damned was enough for me, bitches!

She was an interesting choice of Mrs. van Hopper... she was good.

And she still looked like herself.

Tear down that BITCH of an iceberg, and put an island where it OUGHT to be!!!!

NO MORE FRENCH GIRLS EVER!!!!!

Rose, why can't you give me that RESPECT that I'm entitled to???!!!!!

Faye walks in on Rose and Jack fucking in the automobile...

"I should have known you'd know where to find the boys, AND the booze!"

Is this a luxury ocean liner or a teenage brothel?!

Faye meticulously rearranging the deck chairs as the ship sunk was the scene we needed.

I was offered the role of Leo’s Italian friend.

Faye putting a big hat where a big hat [italic]aught to be!

Faye watching passengers jumping overboard: "Who wants to go swimming?"

R4, have you never seen “The Towering Inferno”? Faye’s acting is very subtle there; in fact, her evening gown acted more in that movie than she did.

Faye offering to sing "My Heart Will Go On" after Celine backs out at the last minute: "When I sang the demo for James Horner, I sang IN my range. He agreed to let me sing it, in that range, only later deciding to try to PUSH me into a HIGHER one!"

“Another capricious choice by a capricious man.”

Faye’s seething anger would’ve been perfect. Although the movie might have taken 5 years to make if she joined.

Supposedly, Reba’s passing on the role led to Frances Fisher being cast as Ruth too, because when Reba was onboard as Molly, the feeling was that they looked too much alike.

Reba was set to play the role but the film schedule kept moving around. she already rescheduled a big arena tour once for James Cameron. when it moved another time she decided to dropout because she had so many people on her payroll, band and crew etc

Off-camera, I don’t see Faye taking well to Reba’s bubbly personality, so imagine Faye’s disdain in their shared scenes would have been legitimate. This was before Reba did Broadway and earned her acting accolades, Faye would ask “why in god’s name, am I acting to some little country songtress?”

Too bad there is no audition tapes or better a read-through with both of them.

[quote]Mare Winningham and Joan Cusack were first choice for Titanic roles

Faye was considering taking that role in Titanic, but the orangutan she was starring with at the time in Dunston Checks In told her not to do it.

r10

Correct, Faye was doing Columbo and Dunstin Checks In at this time.

Bad Scripts, Bad directors!

I’m still surprised Faye took that psychiatrist role in the Thomas Crown remake. She probably thought she was still sexy and spry enough to play Rene’s role opposite Pierce.

Hey, she got an Emmy for that Columbo.

Rose refuses to get in the lifeboat and spits on Cal.

“What you’re doing is denying yourself the opportunity to live a wonderful and ADVANTAGED life!”

Boat is slowly lowered down.

“How sad that is.”

Jane Wyman was offered the role of Older Rose. She turned it down.

A little off topic, but I’m surprised Michael Biehn didn’t have a role in “Titanic.” James Cameron is known for recycling actors, so why not him? It would have been a great opportunity for him, and I could see him playing one of the ship’s crew, maybe the first officer who shoots himself in the head.

R41 It’s been said Biehn was considered for the role of Cal before Billy Zane was chosen.

R42, do you know why Michael Biehn wasn’t chosen?

R43 No

Could you imagine Faye Dunaway in the corset scene screaming, “Noooo…working as a seamstress—everrrr!”?

“Rose, I want to talk to you…in the OTHER suite!”

“Rose! Bring me the axe!!!”

Faye and Reba in a big budget romance disaster epic with extravagant costumes, snotty WASP behavior, and prime Leo & Billy Zane… it would have been a bigger Gay classic than Mommie Dearest. Frances Fisher and Kathy Bates were good but they were just background, neither performance popped.

Can you imagine the stories of Faye on that set? With everything that already went wrong her meltdowns would’ve been epic.

I can’t imagine James Cameron would’ve put up with her antics for a second. The two of them in the same room would’ve been nitroglycerin in a blender.

I don’t imagine Faye was ever really offered this role. She’d have moved heaven and earth to do it, had it been. It’s just as well it wasn’t because at one point someone laced the on set dinner with Angel Dust, and I’m quite sure La Dunaway on psychedelics is something you don’t want to be around!

They eventually cast an actress over a decade younger than her, so she was hardly the type they were looking for in the first place.

Reba would have been good in the down home cornball part of the role but I doubt she could bring the depth Bates brought to the lifeboat scenes.

That shot of her looking at the ship and saying God almighty or something like that is chilling.

[quote] "It’s just as well it wasn’t because at one point someone laced the on set dinner with Angel Dust, and I’m quite sure La Dunaway on psychedelics is something you don’t want to be around!"

As fun as that is to imagine R51, she would't have been involved because her character wasn't involved in any of those Nova Scotia sequences. But I'd have paid money to see her on set under the direction of Cameron. He would NOT have put up with her antics for second.

Miss Dunaway's Ruth would have literally rearranged the deckchairs on The Titanic. And scrubbed the deck CLEAN.

*wouldn't have

Kathy Bates bore an eerie resemblance to the real Molly Brown.

For being such a major studio film with a $200 million budget, I’m surprised the movie had almost no stars. Kate Winslet, Leo DiCaprio, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Victor Garber, Gloria Stuart, David Warner, Danny Nucci, Jason Barry—although some of them had acted in some movies, none of them were really stars. Only Bill Paxton and Kathy Bates were the only two cast members one could honestly say were “stars.” I wonder why that was.

Instead of 'God almighty' Reba would have looked up at the ship and said to the other people in the lifeboat 'Can y'all believe your eyes?'

[quote]r57 Only Bill Paxton and Kathy Bates were the only two cast members one could honestly say were “stars.” I wonder why that was.

James Cameron wanted actors he could dominate, and he got them.

r57, that's true. Even with Gloria Stuart, nobody had ever heard of her. If he had cast Olivia deHavilland as Old Rose, it would have been somebody audiences already knew. Obviously it had no bearing on the box office, but some of those roles needed star power.

“Margaret, PLEASE! Please, Margaret! Leave us alone, Margaret. If you need anything, ask Trudy!”

Faye's Ruth would have stayed on the ship until the end and survived in the freezing waters, being found happily swimming laps when the lifeboat arrives to rescue survivors half an hour later. "I'll race ya to the Carpathia!"

"Hauling me over to Captain Smith's table like some picked up floozy! Or one of those steerage girls, out to give the stewards a good night on board. I may as well have the 'Property of White Star Line' tattoeed on my backside!!! Damn it, TITANIC is MY ship!!!"

[quote]Instead of 'God almighty' Reba would have looked up at the ship and said to the other people in the lifeboat 'Can y'all believe your eyes?'

Great balls of fire!

Did anybody think Titanic was going to be what it was? Did anybody even know it was being filmed? I had no clue. Don't recall much if anything about it, except thinking when it came out "Another Titanic movie?"

r65 people were anticipating it to flop and were actually delighting in the prospect. Interestingly, the soap actor Eric Braeden who played Astor said he knew the movie would be a massive hit because it had a soap opera sensibility, meaning that it was a melodrama with popular appeal. It was the last of its kind in that sense.

I continue to maintain that Billy Zane and Leonardo di Caprio should have switched roles. Billy Zane even comes from Wisconsin. But I guess the fangirls were more into the blonde tenor baby-dyke type than the smoldering dark hunky type.

If Faye had been cast, I think the role would have been expanded a bit. For instance, with Frances Fisher in the role, once she'd in a lifeboat you only get a few reaction shots of her and she has no dialogue left in the movie, despite the fact that she presumed her daughter to have died in the sinking. I think Faye as Ruth would have confronted Cal on the Carpathia about his failure to control Rose, and probably begging him for some financial assistance, but in vain. Finally, Molly Brown would offer to support Ruth and help her out, so it wouldn't be totally helpless. I do think Rose was cruel to let her mother believe she was dead.

I wish someone who had more experience than I could do a super cut of Faye as Joan with Titanic scenes.

I'm not mad at you Rose, I'm mad at the iceberg!

R68 Ruth had that coming. She was a desperate, miserable, frosty bitch of a woman who basically sold her daughter to an abusive prick just so she could live above her social station. If she wanted to be a rich society gash, that's fine. Let HER be the one to marry some tycoon. But she pimped out her teenaged daughter to do all the work and take all the beatings, all so Ruth could continue to look down her hook nose at people who earned their living.

One of you failed actors get in drag as Faye with a camera.

I did feel Leo was miscast. Too waifish, too boyish. But it worked.

I was cast in the film - I won't say which role - but I dropped out when I heard they were getting Celine Dion to do the soundtrack. I mean, come on! She's not a real singer, and this ain't a fuckin' Elvis Movie!!!!

I believe you mean Hans Gudegast, r66.

r75, did you know that he survived a real life ship disaster, the Wilhelm Gustoff from World War Two where 9,000 German civilians died. He was about five or six years old.

Funnily enough Faye and Frances Fisher who ended up playing Ruth did another Edwardian era movie together called "Cold Sassy Tree".

I gave Roman Polanski some Cold Sassy Pee!

Faye and Reba should take "Legends" on tour.

I fear Faye is down for the count. Not a peep out of or about her since being fired from that Boston play, where she slapping a wig master’s assistant backstage.

Sad Last Hairpins.

Ruth’s on the lifeboat, watching the ship sink.

“God, I HATE this night!!”

NO MORE LIFEBOATS....EVER!!!

Ah, but nobody ever said life was fair, Jack. I'm richer and I'm smarter. I will always beat you.

ROSE: There's a lifeboat to the right.

RUTH: I should have known you'd know where to find the oars AND and the whores.

Ruth - We are leaving. Obviously safety cannot be maintained in this environment.

Captain Smith - Nothing really happened between the iceberg and the Titanic. It was harmless.

Ruth - No thanks to you!

Captain Smith - I think you're overreacting, Mrs. Bukater.

Ruth - And I think you're under-reacting, Captain Smith! My compliments to your ocean liner on its [italic]impeccable [/italic]reputation.

R80

Faye had a little part (alongside Kevin Spacey.....) in an italian movie in 2022 "The Man Who Drew God" ( L'uomo che disegnò Dio).

She got the part Vanessa Redgrave was in talk to play in the Franco Nero directed film.

Faye as Snooty/Cunty/Ice Cold Rose's Mum would've been golden. The comment about re: her rearranging the deck chairs cam only be beat by her being a bitch about her Waldorf Salad in the 1st Class Dining Room, and her appearing in the flash forward scenes with Old Rose to throw a Blockbuster VHS copy into the ocean along with the necklace.

Faye Dunaway would've been too much voltage in that supporting role. She would've become the eye-rolling Grande Dame of the production, and in the worst ways.

Also, James Cameron is a demanding (but human) director, and Dunaway is the iron cock-shredder of Hollywood. A director simply does not speak to Miss Dunaway the way James Cameron speaks to his actors - wanting take after take, wanting a 6am call time, wanting them to step back and let the CGI work as its own character. She would've quit after two days.

Funnily enough, Titanic and Mommie Dearest have a near identical scene where the mother tells that the daughter that they have no money and are scared about the future, which is why Rose must marry Cal and why Christina has to go on a work program at her private school to earn money to keep her there.

Mara Hobel should have been cast as Rose, and Rutanya Alda as Molly Brown.

Dear Lord nooooo Reba. FFS. She isn’t a great actress and her voice is grating. She doesn’t have the gravitas Kathy does.

I liked Frances Fisher, and did a great job, but Faye could have been really epic just because of her name.

The iceberg wakes her up.

“Frederick! Reginald! Dammmit!!

“Captain Smith, I have ASKED you to keep the ship quiet tonight! And for Chrissake, get it out of the ice field!”

“Have Trudy bring me in my tea!”

[quote]r88 James Cameron is a demanding (but human) director, and Dunaway is the iron cock-shredder of Hollywood.

Faye would have wanted to discuss and analyze every little thing on the set, ad nauseam (plus the placement of every light and filter), and after two days Cameron would have replaced her.

Gloria Stuart would be watching from the corner, shaking her head.

R86 Franco could t even get his own wife to appear in the film? Harsh!

No - impoverished - artists! What's an impoverished artist doing in this suite when I told you - No impoverished artists EVER? I work and work 'til I'm half-dead, and I hear people saying “Rose’s getting old.” And what do I get? A daughter who cares as much about the beautiful suitors I nab her as she cares about me. What's an impoverished artist doing in this suite? ANSWER ME! I buy you beautiful opportunities, and you treat them like they were some cum-rag. You do! Three hundred dollar tuxedo on an impoverished artist! We'll see how many you've got hidden in here. We'll see. Get out from under that bed. All of them are coming out. Out! Out! Out. Out. Out. You've got any more? We're gonna see how many impoverished artists you've got under your bed. Impoverished artists! Why? Why? You live in the most beautiful suite on the Titanic and you don't care if your hymen is stretched out by an impoverished artist! And your twat looks like a two-dollar-an-hour whore’s in some two-bit backstreet town in Oklahoma. Get up. Get up. Clean up this MESS.

In the scene where Molly says, “Say, who thought of the name ‘Titanic’? Was it you, Bruce?”, I can totally see Reba smiling and delivering the line in her southern twang.

Another early candidate for Molly Brown was Linda Hamilton, Cameron's then wife. Their marriage was foundering and he thought it would bring them closer together. It's hard to picture her in the role.

FFS Reba is too thin to play Molly Brown

Would have loved seeing Colin Farrell as Jack (as an Irish immigrant), Faye as Ruth and Michael Biehn as Cal. The scene where the kids have sex in the back of the car was interesting because it implied Leo's Jack was an inadequate lover who had to be guided by her in what to do... he's trembling in Rose's arms and she has to console him like a mother does to a child. This also implies that Rose was already having sex with Cal and not a virgin because she had no fear of sex.

R99, Michael Biehn was in his 40s when “Titanic” came out. He would have been too old to play Cal.

r100 plenty of rich men in their 40s were marrying 17 year olds in 1912. Get a clue.

R101, yes, but not in this movie. The character of Cal was a lot younger.

Reba’s take on Molly might’ve been reminiscent of Marilu Henner in the 1996 miniseries.

R99 Cal called her his wife in practice so yes they were definitely already fucking

True history fags will tell you that Mrs. Brown was never called "Molly" during her lifetime. She was Maggie, or Margaret, or Mrs. Brown. And although she never lost her Leadville twang, her marriage to the newly-rich JJ Brown brought her national fame and a whole new world of culture. She spoke several languages, gave time and huge sums of money to social reforms and suffrage causes, and lived like a full-time tourist (she was separated/divorced by 1912, and her children sided with their father).

The broad was the Auntie Mame of her day - Boisterous, liberal, dressed to the nines, and always either a little too loud or a little too sad.

Mother! MOTHER! MOTHER! You want me to play the fuckin MOTHER! HOW DARE YOU MR CAMERON! HOW FUCKIN DARE YOU! I am THE star! I AM Rose NOT her fuckin MOTHER! I AM THE LEAD OR NOTHING!

Faye as Ruth in the first- class smoking room at the time of the iceberg strike.

Faye/Ruth(to waiter): you there little homosexual boy, get me some more ice for my drink.

Titanic hits iceberg Faye/Ruth goes out onto the deck.

Faye/Ruth: Well I asked for fuckin ice but this is ridiculous!

I never heard about Reba as 'Molly'. The only one I ever heard was Bette Midlerbeing offered the role, but she was already committed to another project at the time of filming, and couldn't work it in her schedule.

R108 she would’ve ruined the whole picture

“The night the Titanic sank? Ah, yes! I’ll never forget it you knowwww! I was on the lifeboat with my girlfriend Ruth… Ruth looked at the ship, looked at me and said “you ever seen something so big sinking into a dark abyss?”… I said “yeah, you should my Gardener Jose when he fucks me on Tuesdays!”’

[quote]Faye was offered the role of the uptight mother Ruth DeWitt Bukater

Where does this info come from?

Imagine Faye and Bette on the same set? If true, Cameron probably had in mind that he needed a brash, trashy, tacky social climber and came up with Bette!

R111 That's what I'm thinking. I think Cameron probably wanted Milder to 'lighten' the scenes a bit with some comic deliveries. Bates didn't offer that in her character, or at least not what I recall. It could have used some lighter moments - they were celebrating on a cruise ship, after all.

I think they should do a play version of Titanic on Broadway with Faye Dunaway as the mother, Florence Pugh as Rose and Debra Winger as Molly Brown.

R113 Brilliant casting, but Ms. Dunaway would have to be Rose's GRANDMOTHER by now. The crone is too old to believably have a daughter that age. Her womb turned to dust a lot longer than 17 years ago.

If Debra Winger's not available (or if she farts on the wrong producer and gets fired), I suggest Patricia Richardson. She's nowhere near as crazy, but she can get the job done.

I’m surprised Meryl Streep wasn’t considered for anything. A lot of money was on the line with this movie, and having her in it would have bettered the odds that it would be a hit. Of course, it ultimately was a mega hit, but that was no guarantee in pre-production.

Meryl's career was pretty much at its lowest ebb at the time Titanic was in production. She was well respected but her presence definitely didn't guarantee a hit, just look at Marvin's Room, One True Thing, Dancing at Lughnasa, etc etc.

Regarding Streep, Cameron probably didn't want that strong a spice on his set. He favors a group of actors he knows (Bill Paxton, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, etc.), and if he can't get them, he'll go with up-and-comers or B-listers who are hungry for a hit.

He's a gifted filmmaker who brings a lot of energy to his projects, and most people who work with him love his style, but it's not for everyone. He can be demanding, and want long days and many takes to get the right shot. But he's also very hands-on, and jumps in to editing, sound, lighting, casting, even acting. He truly loves filmmaking in all its gritty and glamorous ways. A delicate flower, or an Actress with a capital "A," would probably be incensed at his style. They like a director to be a certain way, and nothing beyond that role.

Faye was very upset when the director told her he didn't want her to play the part of Rose, but the part of her quaint old English lady of a mother.

R118 "Is this the face of a mother?"

No, Ma'am. It's the face of a great-grandmother!

Streep auditioned for the role of Jack, which sheread her lines in a Polish accent. She lost out to Leo Di Caprio.

Carnie Wilson auditioned to play the ship's hull.

She lost out to CGI, and a non-union Mexican construction crew.

R121 if being cast today, Chrissy Metz would be auditioning for that role

r115 I don't know how you come to that assumption. Meryl Streep was never a box office star until her old age.

The actors on Titanic said it was the hardest work they've ever done. I don't think Faye would have been able to handle it, even though she didn't have to get wet. Just being around Cameron would have sent her neurosis into overdrive and she would have done something to sabotage herself. It would have been contest about which would sink faster on that set, the Titanic or Faye?

[quote]R112 It could have used some lighter moments - they were celebrating on a cruise ship, after all.

This is where there could have been some good, rousing songs for Bette.

Faye herself’s been hired for at least one Broadway musical in the past (possible duet.)

I wonder if Faye would have flipped out at some point, and called Leo DiCaprio 'the little homosexual boy' ?

Barbra and James Brolin as Rose and Jack.

I wonder why Celine wasn't cast in a part. They could have had her sing aboard the ship as entertainment.

Glenn Close auditioned for Old Rose but her range wasn't wide enough to deliver a good "oops" when she dropped the necklace.

The whole spitting scene could have been a cute number.

[quote]R106 “Mother! MOTHER! You want me to play the fuckin MOTHER! HOW DARE YOU MR CAMERON! HOW FUCKIN DARE YOU!” - Faye D.

When Billy Wilder sent Marlene Dietrich the script for “Fedora” (in which he wanted her to play Faye Dunaway’s mother) she returned it with [italic]“How could you possibly think…??” [/italic]scrawled across the cover.

R128 Glenn WAS offered the role of the fat bearded sidekick in the 1996 scenes, but she had already gotten into character as Cruella and had to take a pass.

Can somebody do an edit of the Titanic scenes replacing the iceberg with a giant head of Faye as Joan Crawford emerging from the sea? That would be amazing.

Oh FFS, Glenn was slated to be the iceberg because she's cold, pale, bland, rigid and hard, not to mention bigger below the surface, but even that was beyond her talent. Geeze

R128 And Patti we know you were offered the role of the ship, but you refused to lose weight for it.

Why did Cameron make Margaret so passive in the lifeboat? IRL, she threatened to pitch Quartermaster Rowe overboard when he try to shut her up.

Faye headlined Voyage of the Damned (1976)

I thought that was her autobiography?

"Rose... you haven't touched your caviar! Darling, fish eggs are good for you. You're not getting down from this table until you have FINISHED. THAT. COURSE."