A lot of talented actors auditioned for Titanic to play Jack Dawson, like Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Christian Bale, and more. Ultimately, Leonardo DiCaprio won the role of Rose Dewitt Bukater’s doomed love interest, and Titanic went on to become one of DiCaprio’s best movies. What you may not know is that Mark Wahlberg also auditioned for the romance-drama film, and he reveals what made James Cameron think he was too “unfocused” for the role.
Normally the first part of an audition is an actor going through a script reading. They either get the script in advance or are handed it on the spot. In the case of Mark Wahlberg’s audition for Titanic, his experience was a little different once he met up with James Cameron. While speaking on Josh Horowitz’s podcast Happy Sad Confused, Wahlberg explained why the Canadian filmmaker probably thought the Bostonian actor was too “unfocused” to take on Jack Dawson.
Wasn’t really interested even in reading. I was like, you know, I really love Jim Cameron. I was so excited about Jim Cameron. I was like, yo, is that your Hummer outside? He was like, ‘Yeah, we’re supposed to be having a meeting.’ And so I was like, let’s go for a ride. Can I drive it? And drove his Hummer around with him. And he was like, ‘This kid’s not focused.’
So compared to going along with a script reading, Mark Wahlberg was more focused on driving James Cameron’s Hummer. And no, The Italian Job actor did not shout out the famous Titanic line “I’m King of the world!” It would be kind of hard for him to do that without a script reading. James Cameron is known for being a total perfectionist, I can understand the visionary filmmaker being turned off by an actor showing more focus on his car than his screenplay. You can watch the interview for yourself on Instagram below:
The year Titanic came out still wasn’t a bad year for Mark Wahlberg, as he received high praise in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. However, the Academy Award nominee almost said no to the period drama because he was turned off by the subject matter of portraying a porn actor. However, this script he actually did read and was slowly won over by it.
If you can believe it, there used to be a rumor that there was a feud going on between Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg during the casting of Boogie Nights. Paul Thomas Anderson ended up squashing the “urban legend” by explaining that shooting Boogie Nights would have conflicted with DiCaprio filming Titanic which is why he turned it down. So it was all just a matter of scheduling conflicts. It looks like Wahlberg got his big movie the same year DiCaprio got his, so 1997 gave them both success in different projects.
Mark Wahlberg revealed that James Cameron may have found the actor “unfocused” for Titanic due to wanting to ride the filmmaker’s Hummer rather than read his script. Even if the box office-winning film isn’t listed under Wahlberg’s best movies, he at least had Boogie Nights that year to help make a name for himself in the film industry.
To learn more about the Ted actor’s future projects, take a look at our 2024 movie releases. Titanic is also available to watch with your Paramount+ subscription and your Amazon Prime subscription.
