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Paul Rudd Encouraged Leonardo DiCaprio To Take Titanic Role

Paul Rudd Encouraged Leonardo DiCaprio To Take Titanic Role

Without him, Leo's life could have been very different

Amelia Ward

Amelia Ward

Titanic was undoubtedly the film that catapulted Leonardo DiCaprio from indie actor to international superstar, but there was a point where he wasn't too sure whether to take the role. That is until a certain ageless man stepped in.

As shown on The Graham Norton Show last night, Paul Rudd looks back on a time that may have had a huge impact on Leonardo DiCaprio's career.

He begins on the topic by speaking to Robert De Niro about him mentoring a young Leo as a 14-year-old. De Niro says that he spotted that Leo had a huge talent from a young age, before Graham turns to Paul Rudd, as someone else who had a 'huge influence' on DiCaprio's career.

De Niro and Rudd both influenced Leo's career.
BBC

Paul Rudd said: "I don't think I had an influence, but sometimes, looking back you find yourself in some interesting conversations and moments in time.

"I worked with Leonardo on Romeo and Juliet and at the time, my father made his living as a Titanic expert and he used to take people all over the world talking about Titanic - he'd go to universities, etc.

"It was my last day of filming Romeo + Juliet and we all went out to a bar afterward, all the guys.

"We were in different cars and I was riding to the place with Leo and he said 'I just got offered this movie, a big movie - he had done indie films up until this point.

Leo almost didn't take his iconic Titanic role.
Paramount/20th Century Fox

"It's a studio movie, it's Titanic and I said 'that's incredible', and I knew a lot about Titanic because my dad just talks about it.

"And we just had a conversation about it, and he was saying 'I don't know what I'll do and I said 'you should do it'."

So there we have it, without the encouragement from the son of an expert, Leo may have been in a very different situation.

Rudd added: "I don't think I had any say, but it is kind of interesting to think back on that."

Graham replied: "Yeah, there was a moment when he might not have done it."

To which Rudd jokes: "And he did it!"

Of course, the 1998 film is one of the most well known of all time and the production team considered a few different A listers for the role of Jack - meaning it is really lucky that Leonardo grabbed the chance when he could.

According to an interview with Kate Winslet, she also said that Matthew McConaughey auditioned with her for the part - and nearly took it. Thankfully for Leo, the Jack Dawson role was all his.

Featured Image Credit: BBC