Leonardo DiCaprio speaks about Titanic film crew being spiked with PCP for first time
Leonardo DiCaprio shared his thoughts on an unfortunate incident which saw several crew members spiked with PCP while filming Titanic.
The actor and environmental activist addressed his time filming the 1997 romance classic during Variety's Actors on Actors with his Don't Look Up co star Jennifer Lawrence, which saw The Hunger Games actor tease DiCaprio about his dating history.
Meanwhile, The Wolf of Wall Street star revealed that he hasn't watched Titanic since filming it nearly 30 years ago.
This wasn't the only revelation from the interview either, as 51-year-old shared his recollections of an infamous incident which saw several crew members working on the James Cameron film spiked with PCP.
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Now, this story may sound like something pulled straight from a Titanic-inspired 'Two Truths and a Lie', but trust me, this actually happened.
During a shoot in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the crew were filming the blockbuster's 'framing device scenes' which saw Bill Paxton's Brock Lovett lead an exhibition to find the 'lost' sapphire diamond necklace (you know, the one Rose had all along and then chucked into the ocean) when they were delivered some clam chowder to eat.
Unknown to anyone at the time, this clam chowder had been spiked with the drug PCP, which can cause people to develop hallucinations.
Fortunately for DiCaprio, he wasn't involved in this filming sequence, and therefore didn't eat any of the spiked chowder, but had heard plenty of 'third hand' stories from the night.
"I think people started [dancing]," DiCaprio recalled. "There was like a conga line that formed and people were dancing. They were supposed to be working."
DiCaprio isn't the first member of the Titanic cast and crew to speak out about the infamous incident, which included Cameron being stabbed in the face with a pen by another crew member, with the director telling Variety he was 'sitting there bleeding and laughing' after the incident while watching his set descend into chaos.
As for the culprit of this mass spiking incident, they were never officially caught, however Cameron speculated it was a recently fired crew member attempting to get back at the catering staff.
"We believe the poisoning was this idiot’s plan to get back at the caterers, whom of course we promptly fired the next day," he recalled. "So it worked."
A total of 80 crew members – including Cameron and Paxton – ended up in hospital from the incident, and one of the greatest pieces of film trivia was born.
Cameron also recently reflected on the Oscar-winning film during a profile with The Hollywood Reporter, revealing he waited '20 minutes' to get the perfect sunset for the Jack and Rose kiss scene.
Cameron explained the crew had been waiting for hours on a cloudy evening in hopes of catching the sunset. Just when all hope appeared to be lost, Kate Winslet saw the clouds parting and alerted everyone that it was time to shoot.
"I’ve never heard an actor yell at me and say, 'Shoooooot'," Cameron recalled of the incident.
Topics: Entertainment, Film, Leonardo DiCaprio, Titanic, Drugs, Celebrity
Brenna Cooper