Leonardo DiCaprio Refuses to Comment on the Titanic Door Debate

It may be one of the most controversial scenes in all of movie history, at least in terms of fan [...]

By Nicole Drum

It may be one of the most controversial scenes in all of movie history, at least in terms of fan opinion: the scene in James Cameron's Titanic in which Rose (Kate Winslett) lays on top of a floating door waiting for rescue and Jack (Leonardo Di Caprio) instead remains in the freezing water, ultimately dying. For years fans have been insistent that Jack didn't have to die, that there was plenty of room on that door for him, but when asked about his thoughts on the iconic movie moment DiCaprio refused to address it.

In an interview with MTV (via ET) in promotion of the upcoming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, DiCaprio and costars Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie were asked about their thoughts about the scene and if Jack could have fit on the door. Robbie had a strong reaction.

"Oh my gosh, I thought it," she said. "I remember bawling my eyes out when I was a [little] girl."

DiCaprio, however, had nothing to say.

"I have no comment."

While DiCaprio humorously dodges the question, it's one that comes up quite a bit. Back in 2017, Winslet was pretty much asked the same question during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert but instead of avoiding the question, she agreed with the fans: there was room for Jack!

"I lie. I fully lie. I hold my hand up, I let him go," Winslet said. "He just should have tried harder to get on that door, because I think we would have [fit]!"

However, despite Winslet's take on things, director James Cameron has his own, very different ideas. After MythBusters took on the controversy in an episode, Cameron weighed in on their assessment, pointing back to the film's script as the definitive answer.

"Look, it's very, very simple: you read page 147 of the script and it says, 'Jack gets off the board and gives his place to her so that she can survive.' It's that simple. You can do all the post-analysis you want." Cameron began.

"OK, so let's really play that out: you're Jack, you're in water that's 28 degrees, your brain is starting to get hypothermia. MythBusters asks you to now go take off your life vest, take hers off, swim underneath this thing, attach it in some way that it won't just wash out two minutes later—which means you're underwater tying this thing on in 28-degree water, and that's going to take you five to ten minutes, so by the time you come back up you're already dead."

"His best choice was to keep his upper body out of the water and hope to get pulled out by a boat or something before he died," he continued. "They're fun guys and I loved doing that show with them, but they're full of s**t."

What do you think? Could Jack have fit on that door? Let us know in the comments below.

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