Article by Emma Champion: Rose Blossoms: Kate Winslet’s Original Titanic Screen Test and the release of Titanic 3D on Blu-Ray

It is a very rare thing to discover something new about something you know so well. Like when you discover your other half secretly collects stamps four years into your marriage; or that moment you figured out how to open those blasted milk cartons without mullering them to buggary.

Imagine my surprise then, when last week the publication of an extremely rare and never-before-seen piece of footage surfaced unexpectedly on the blessed tinterweb…

To mark the release of Titanic 3D (2012) on Blu-Ray, Twentieth Century Fox have unearthed yet more previously unreleased titbits for the extras package, including a nineteen-year-old Kate Winslet’s original screen test for Rose DuWitt Bukater – the character that would later earn her an Oscar® nomination.

I did not know that it was possible for me to learn anything new about James Cameron’s 15-year-old opus. Titanic is as much a part of me as the blood in my veins. Since the first time I saw it when I was 17, it strikes a chord with me every time, marrying a real-life nautical legend with which I had always been fascinated, with the romantic sensibilities of Romeo and Juliet – Baz Luhrmann’s 90’s version of which (William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996)) happens to be the other cinematic mistress in my life.

The incestuous relationship between Master Shakespeare’s doomed lovers and Cameron’s Jack and Rose does not end there. There is the obvious link – the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio was fresh from his turn as Romeo in Luhrmann’s ground-breaking project when he began work as Jack Dawson on the purpose-built Mexico set. But also that Claire Danes, Luhrmann’s Juliet, was originally offered the chance to play Rose, but turned it down. Not to mention that when James Cameron first pitched Titanic to Fox executives, he said, “I want to make Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic.” Needless to say, they were sold, although, at the time, they were unaware that this little gem of an idea would set them back $200,000,000.

When casting for the role of Rose, Cameron was looking for someone who would have the strength of presence to carry this leviathan of a project. “A nineteen-year-old girl who is going to carry a film of that scale on her shoulders…it’s a huge responsibility,” says Cameron. “If you don’t bring it off, it’s not going to work. Anyone else would have imploded under that. But she didn’t.”

You can see from the screen test (above) what Cameron saw in her; from the moment she enters the shot, she owns the screen. So much so that Jeremy Sisto, testing for the role of Jack, is utterly (and rather embarrassingly) dwarfed by her talent.

Her aristocratic American accent is flawless, she carries herself in a manner that suggests that she is no stranger to the restraints of period dress (which, indeed, she was not – with roles in Sense and Sensibility (1995), Jude (1996) and Hamlet (1996) firmly under her belt). She is clearly at home walking in Rose’s embellished and expensive shoes, and Cameron knew the audience would buy it – in terms of belief and ticket sales.

And so, a legend was born. Winslet’s Rose has since become an iconic and celebrated character. The only thing missing from this early version of Rose is her signature red hair. Here, we see what Rose would have looked like as a blonde. As someone who recently went blonde herself, I was pretty thrilled by this.

Any resemblance between this:

…and this?

Titanic is available now on Blu-Ray, both in 2D and 3D formats, as well as a Collector’s Edition, and a Super-Duper Frenzied Fanatic version (pictured below). I know which version I’ll be going for…

Titanic Blu Ray