What did you make of Leo and Kate's performances in this movie?

Well DiCaprio in Titanic was perhaps the biggest starmaking role in the history of movies. He was that charismatic and good in his role. Of course that irked a lot of insecure fanboy types.

Both did great with imho so-so dialog and anchored the movie so well that the most liked scenes weren't the typical Cameron effects stuff but rather the 1st class dinner and the walk on the ship.


It's no wonder that Winslet is regarded as arguably the best actress of her generation and DiCaprio is up there in the discussion for actors as well.

Both of them were excellent.

(I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.)

Kate Winslet was too British. She tried to speak America, but her English accent came through many times

DiCaprio wasn't bad. But his character Jack was pretty one-dimensional, and many others actors could have done his role just as well (Christian Bale and Chris O'Donnell were considered before Leo, I believe)

They were decent enough but I’m not sure they were a great match. Kate was too podgy and pale, and Leo was too twinky. Paltrow would have had a more slender, elegant physique and more natural charm (though Winslet is probably a better actress).

Titanic’s limitation is its thinly written characters. Compare it to Aliens where all the characters are vivid and alive, with endlessly quotable dialogue. Cameron was less comfortable making a historical epic, and characters like Mr Ismay are completely one-dimensional toffs.

With their terrible dialogue Kate and Leo did a serviceable job but I remember thinking in the cinema when Jack died, ‘why am I not holding back tears?’ It’s because I never really bought into their relationship.

They were fine in all their scenes, except the sex scene in the car.

You see, on the surface, a teen will see one thing when watching; but an adult who has watched this movie a lot, and understands human behavior better, sees something else entirely based on body language. Honestly, that scene wasn't as good as people pretend.

When I was 12 and watching this, or even in my later teens, I saw Jack's hesitation with Rose to be one of a guy not wanting to be ungentlemanly with the first decent girl he's ever been with, whom he actually cares about. He knows it's risky too, but he really wants her, so he's a little bit at an emotional impasse. He's so used to casual sex with prostitutes elsewhere that this is a whole new experience for him, to a degree. Rose is ready to go and throwing all her passion into it, using her imagination in how she thinks sex should go.

Adult me watches this scene and it sends all the wrong signals in how it should have looked, if you watch the body language. I mean, Jack is supposed to be very experienced with women, totally into Rose, and normally shouldn't have hesitated at all when she asked him to make love to her. Most men won't hesitate when a gorgeous redhead they like is asking them to make love to her in a brand new car.

But Leo's body language reads as a guy who hasn't had much experience bedding women, is not sure what to do, or maybe doesn't even want to touch her at all, but has to for the camera. (This was among several things that fueled rumors that he was a closet case back then).

Rose should have been a virgin, based on her strict upbringing, having only a vague, erroneous, cursory idea of how sex should be done, based on vague romance novels and inaccurate whispers she probably heard in boarding school. Most virgins, even with an experienced partner in bed with them, are often very clumsy with their first time making love, and it takes a bit of time (at least one session) for the other, more experienced person, to show them how to do it right.

But Kate's body language indicates a woman who is very experienced, not a virgin at all, knows exactly what she's doing, and is more than ready to show Leo how it's really done.

It all makes the love scene look kinda clumsy and fake.

To be honest, Kate`s performance was just fine. Despite that she`s obviously talented, there was nothing Oscar-worthy about her performance. Still, she managed to convey more substance and depth than Leo. But Leo`s acting was simply awful. He delivered his lines with little credibility and contrivance that it was easy to see through his so-called acting. And it`s a pity, cause Leo actually has talent. And I don`t mean to trash Leo, but his acting in this movie was simply bad.

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Adequate. Nothing special. They knew their lines and where to stand.