James Cameron Says His Titanic Oscar Speech Was “Cringe Worthy”

There’s no denying that James Cameron is one of the most successful filmmakers of all time. He’s helmed some major classics like The Terminator and Aliens, and those aren’t even his movies that are included in the top ten highest-grossing films list. This week, Avatar: The Way of the Water became the seventh highest-grossing film of all time, and the list also includes Avatar in the number one spot and Titanic in the number three spot. Back when Titanic was released, it was a huge phenomenon and ended up winning eleven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Back in the day, Cameron’s speech was pretty infamous and he recently talked about it being “cringe-worthy” with CNN. 

“Mom, dad, there is no way that I can express to you what I’m feeling right now,” Cameron said during his speech. “My heart is full to bursting, except to say, ‘I’m the king of the world!’” Of course, the last bit is an iconic quote from Titanic, and many thought quoting it in his speech was arrogant. However, Cameron says that wasn’t his intention. “I was trying to express the joy and excitement that I was feeling in terms of that movie – and the most joyful moment for Leonardo DiCaprio’s Titanic character was when he was free and at the bow of the ship,” Cameron explained. 

“What I learned is you don’t quote your own movie to the Academy if you win, because it’s cringe-worthy,” Cameron continued. “It makes the assumption that you didn’t win by a narrow margin, but that every single person sitting in the audience on that night at the Kodak Theatre saw and loved Titanic. And we’ll never know how much we won by, but it might not have been a landslide at all.” He added, “I took flack for all 25 years after that … You do have to be careful what you say in your acceptance speech, me and Sally Field, we have a little self-help group together on this.”

Why Did Kate Winslet Join Avatar: The Way of the Water? 

Cameron reunited with Titanic star Kate Winslet for Avatar: The Way of the Water. Recently, ComicBook.com‘s Brandon Davis had the chance to chat with Winset about working with Cameron again after all these years. 

“He just asked me and I think I admired the first Avatar. Loved it so much in the same way that we all did. And you know, Jim is an incredible writer of strong female roles and he was one of the first to be really doing that,” Winslet explained. “And when he described Ronal to me and said that she was the female, sort of goddess warrior leader of the water tribe, I just thought, I mean, to me, that’s proper sort of music to my ears. So, the idea of playing someone like that who was a leader in that way, the water element was very important to me. I love water. It’s a big part of my life, always has been, and to work with Jim and the other cast, I was just very excited.”

Avatar: The Way of the Water is now playing in theaters.