“It’s one of those questions that I don’t really understand.
How much swell is there, how long does it take the lifeboat to get there.
He couldn’t have anticipated what we know today about hypothermia.
‘Titanic’.
He didn’t get to run a bunch of different experiments to see what worked the best.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you come on board the film?
Did they make an offer or did you audition?
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VICTOR GARBER:I believe I was the last principal to be cast.
So I worked on the part and I went in and she videoed me.
It seemed to go really well, and she seemed very positive about it.
20th Century Fox/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
And she was surprised.
Then she realized that he hadn’t seen my tape, so it was a comedy of errors.
I met James Cameron for the first time on the set.
He was actually in the tank filming.
The background people were in the tank and floating around, and he was shooting.
He waved at me.
And I was there for the next five months.
Because I’m a perfectionist.
There was a dialect coach on the set.
Then the dialogue coach on set helped me.
If it had been Scottish, I would’ve been in real trouble.
But for some reason, Irish was a little easier to assimilate.
I don’t honestly really think like that as an actor.
I don’t think, “Oh, he’s foreshadowing.”
It’s just a moment to experience.
I don’t plan it, it just comes in that moment.
James is a very intricate director, and I loved working with him as an actor.
He saw himself as that person on this whole project.
Was that something you actively worked to build with Kate?
No, it was completely spontaneous.
Kate and Leo were extraordinary, and they were in the early parts of their career.
In a script full of infinitely quotable lines, you have two of them.
How did you find the right delivery for that?
I didn’t think of it as one of those lines that people would still be quoting.
I knew it was obviously significant, and I didn’t have that many lines, actually.
It’s a small part, but I knew that was a major moment.
That’s what acting on film is like.
you might do it in any number of ways, and hopefully, you’re in the right ballpark.
What you’re asking me is how I act.
And all of that just happened.
It’s really in that moment with the actor you’re working with, that’s when it happens.
Kate is one of the greats.
What was involved in shooting that?
We were in a studio and things were moving, and they were on wires.
So, I was watching all of this happen.
The grips were hanging on to me, and I was hoping that I wouldn’t fall over.
Obviously, a lot of people had to get in the tank and the water.
Did you have to do much of that?
I never touched water I’m happy to say.
Nobody believes me, but it’s true.
I think I was one of the only people on the set that didn’t actually get wet.
I knew it was James Cameron, and he was known for doing extravagant and technically brilliant movies.
Most of the time, I sat around waiting to go on and didn’t go on.
It was a lot of that.
It does sort of take the wind out of your sails, literally.
I couldn’t believe it when I finally saw it.
Did you have any scenes that were cut that you wish made it in?
Oh, God, I certainly don’t remember.
I think they wanted to get an establishing shot of me when the boat hit or something.
But it was a shot that never happened.
I had to wait around and we finally did that, but it never got in the movie.
I didn’t really care.
What I did care about was having to wait around to do it.
But when I saw the movie, I couldn’t believe what I was watching.
I couldn’t believe what James Cameron achieved and what everybody involved in the movie achieved.
I never had any idea of the magnitude of what it would be when sitting in a theater.
With so much waiting and downtime on set, what did you do to fill the hours?
We sat in the dressing room for hours and hours and played Scrabble.
We were shooting mostly nights.
But sometimes they took so long that you didn’t make it on and were sent home.
But you’re in costume, you’re in hair and make-up, in the dressing room waiting.
Cause if you’re needed, you better get there fast.
It was at least a month of that.
I haven’t looked at a Scrabble board since then, because I was so played out.
But it saved us.
Who was the best at it?
No, Jonathan Hyde was, and Bernard was also.
I had my moments, but they weren’t consistent.
