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Like any actor playing a memorable villain, Billy Zane gets most of the best lines inTitanic.
He wont amount to a thing.
God himself could not sink this ship.
I put the diamond in the coat.And I put the coat on her!
Who could blame an actor for wanting to move beyond the one credit everyone keeps returning to?
Maybe I was influenced by how naturally he embodies Cals elitist ridiculousness.
Is it a blessing and a curse to be part of it?Its never really been a curse.
Its always a blessing.
Its a great honor, to be honest.
Its a wonderful film and it holds up.
I like its reinventions with new technology.
I really enjoyed the 3-D release.
Ive never seen a 3-D movie that has so much dramatic screen time as opposed to action.
Im sure if theyre planninganother rerelease,in 8K or whatever, it will be that much more thrilling.
Everyone always asks that corny question, Did you know such-and-such movie would be so huge?
Obviously, the short answer is no.
I think that was shared with some members of the cast and crew.
Others, I think, were a little more stressed about the delivery, understandably so.
I wont say skeptical, but certainly preoccupied.
We had the luxury to be able to marvel at the sheer undertaking.
This could be a disaster.
But history will tell you that all you’ve got the option to hope for is low expectations.
The worst you’re able to hear is unanimous and vociferous support.
If everyone thinks its going to be a hit, youre pretty much doomed.
Its the natural law.
Butof courseit was a Christmas movie and not a summer movie.
I think it played upon the melancholy that the holidays elicit for so many people.
Hollywood actors in the early days of the talkies applied a mid-Atlantic, educated dialect.
It seemed to be the correct tenor and sound for Cal.
Did you audition with that accent?I did.
Maybe it was a little looser, but that was the intention.
And I think I consciously applied it anyway.
I had always enjoyed playing with sound and tone.
I grew up in Chicago, and midwestern is a particular accent.
I made a conscious choice to have a neutral American tone rather than a midwestern accent.
It seemed to work, right?
I cant remember if I read the entire script before or after, to be honest.
I think I had.
Cal really does, in regards to the hubris, carry the theme of the times.
We witnessthe slap in the faceandthe spit the surprise, the unexpected.
I really enjoyed that.
We discussed how he was completely blindsided by the rise of the bohemian.
There never would have been jealousy or suspicion.
It just did not come into question that someone like Jack would have rivaled him on any level.
Its like,What?
Really?What I also loved was using art, and Jacks capacity for it.
I love when he finds the drawing in the safe.
You see a fleeting glimmer of,Goddamnit, its good.
Theres that great line about how Picasso will never amount to anything.
And the confidence with which he says it!Classic.
Thats what was so fun about the character.
James and I would laugh with glee.
Wed cut because we found him so funny, like tragicomic.
That was the joy of the character in my mind.
He didnt give a thought that he wasnt getting off that boat.
[The sinking] was more of a nuisance, like,Whatever.
But certainly still confident that he will get off!
One amusing detail about Cal is how perfectly coiffed your hair remains as the chaos is mounting.
Maybe there are a few strands out of place, but its pretty pristine.
That was all conscious.
I was lobbying for him to actually not get wet at all.
He wouldnt step on anybody or anything, like a cat.
Hed just avoid water.
And we thought,At some point, its gotta pay off.
Hes got to get drenched.
Was that self-preservation on your part?
Were you just hoping to avoid having to run through knee-high water?Oh, it certainly was practical.
As we saw how cold those nights were, I was like, Ive got a good idea.
What if, in the sinking-boat movie, my character doesnt get wet?
Jim looked at me and laughed.
At that point, it was a very Cal suggestion.
Yes, very Cal of you.
How arduous was the sequence where youre chasing Jack and Rose downstairs with the gun while its flooding?
You would have had to, I assume, dry off and change clothes between every take.More or less.
There were certainly others that required a major reset, but that wasnt one of them.
And we only did a few takes.
It felt completely safe.
There were safety officers.
Thats a fond memory.
Did you do etiquette lessons with the rest of the cast?We all did.
I recall some dance lessons at some point.
It was nothing we ever used.
It might have been movement, how to float across the room with someone on your arm.
I remember very physical work.
It wasnt really about which spoon to use.
Jack learns his own silverware etiquette in the film, too.
Do you remember eating that caviar?Oh, yes, I do.
That was one scene I was very glad we had to reshoot again and again.
Oh, a dinner scene with 16 people?
That scene must have taken days to shoot, right?Mm-hmm.
Wed run into each other socially.
He was quite a bit younger, but we found ourselves at similar parties and events.
It was great news to hear that he had been cast and we would get to work together.
It was very comforting in that respect.
So you must have been familiar with what had been dubbed the Pussy Posse?
[Pause] Um.
I doubt they called themselves that.
Im familiar with the clique, but I dont recall the term.
His friends visited quite often in Mexico [where the flashback portion of the movie was shot].
I was living in Soho from, like, 99 to 01, so Id see the boys out.
WasTitanicthe first time you met Kate Winslet?It was.
I was immediately charmed.
She is gracious and funny and forthright all the things youve seen in her work through the years.
They were both lovely.
I thought he was absolutely sweet as hell and destined for greatness.
He was already on that path, and she the same.
They were ten years younger, so they felt like little brothers and sisters.
It was like a dormitory.
It was really fun and supportive.
Im trying to remember how we arrived there.
I think it was simply,Why go around it?
Go through it.That was perhaps my suggestion.
Hes a great collaborator.
He inspires and encourages contributions.
The more interesting, the better.
As posh and elite and maybe effete as he could be, this is also potentially a dangerous man.
It would have been dangerous and inappropriate.
Theres improv and then theres chaos.
As I recall, it was discussed.
It was agreed upon, and the question was,How many dresses do we have?
How many place parameters?It was all about contingency.
I remember the wardrobe department being very grateful.
I would never have just done something like that with glassware.
It was not improv, per se, but it was arrived at on the day.
It seemed to be an effective choice.
It seems like you have fond memories of James Cameron.
People feel strongly about him one way or the other.
Even people who love him recognize that he has his moments.
Kate Winslet hassaidthere were times she was frightened of him.
They were like, Can you visit the set more often?
And I appreciated his expectation of personal best and of challenge beyond your comfort zone from every department.
I dug the militant quality of that.
The chain of command and the objective and the organizing principle lend themselves to a military operation.
Thats what film sets are his perhaps more so than most, some say.
I thrived on that.
That table scene was quite early in our journey, maybe the second day.
I think he hired me because I made suggestions.
Thats the reason I got cast.
He did not want to babysit.
People get cowed into waiting to be told what to do.
I gathered very early thats the last thing that man wants.
People want to share their stories.
Thats what I love about it.
A great movie is a trigger beyond entertainment.
Its a catalyst for what is more important to people, which istheirlife.
Its the movietheyrestarring in thats in theater No.
People want to tell me those stories.
I love it, I love it.
Granted, thats peppered with, Oh my God, I hated you so much.
You were such an asshole.
I say, Thank you very much, and we laugh about that.
You did your job.Yeah, I guess so.
It was the running joke for a decade, people just involuntarily spouting hysterical lines at me.
I couldnt even say it was a double-edged sword.
It was all very charming and humorous.
Some people tend to believe movies are real, but for the most part, people are rational.
They love how much they hate me.
I would respond with great laughter and joy.
Do you still have those?I do.
Do you have anything else from the set?I can neither confirm nor deny.
But these were just pieces that were flung and fractured in water.
They were being retired.
It wasnt like I was pilfering the set.
What can I say?
I was doing my environmental duty.
James Cameron would appreciate that as an environmentalist.I think he would.
Just repurposing, Jim, honest!
Is there aTitanicmemory you havent shared?
What havent I mentioned or talked about?
Ive spoken about how it was a flash point to a whole other life as a painter.
That happened on that set.
Thats become an entirely parallel journey ironic for someone who played a character who didnt appreciate art.
What inspired that?The downtime.
We were in Mexico for seven months.
After a while, that got boring and I would just stay.
It was Abstract Expressionism.
you might see the work atBillyZaneArt.com.
I just had some pieces at Art Basel.
There was something about the location that unlocked it for me.
That was really important.
We went,Okay, theres the bar.Where are we?
How are we doing?It was inspiring.
Who joined you for that?Im trying to remember.
It was like four people.
It might have been Victor, it might have been Frances.
Heres whats ironic: Tonight Im picking up Frances Fisher and were going to theAvatarpremiere.
She called me and said, Hey, we went to the Oscars together.
You want to go to the premiere together?
I said, Sure, doll, Im there.
We were just texting each other trying to figure out what the hell to wear.
The invitation said Avatarchic.
I said, What the hell is that?
