After 13 years away from the silver screen, James Cameron is set to make a triumphant return in December 2022, with Avatar: The Way of Water. Water has long been a source of fascination for Cameron – with it playing a major role in his 1989 science fiction movie The Abyss, and in his epic romance movie Titanic (1997).
Considering that many of us were at a young and tender age when we first saw James Cameron’s Titanic, one of the most memorable and stand-out scenes is undoubtedly Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) drawing Rose (Kate Winslet) like “one of his French girls.”
This scene is burned into the brain of many of us, and is a popular answer to the question; “when did you first see a nude scene in a movie?” The drawing reportedly sold at auction for $16,000 in 2011, which seems surprisingly low for such an iconic piece of film memorabilia from the highest-grossing movie of all time – until Cameron’s own Avatar pipped it in 2009.
But the most surprising aspect is that Cameron apparently didn’t employ an artist to draw the sketch, and in fact, he drew it himself. According to The Telegraph, “Cameron, a skilled artist, was responsible for the drawing seen on screen – which shows Winslet topless and reclining on a couch. He even added the initials of DiCaprio’s character and a dateline of April 14, 1912, the day before the Titanic sunk.”
The only thing that Kate Winslet wears in the scene is The Heart of the Ocean – a blue diamond necklace that has since become so iconic that it even features in a Britney Spears video.
We look forward to seeing Cameron blow the competition out of the water later this year when he makes his blazing return to the big screen. Winslet has returned to work with Cameron once more for The Way of Water, so she’s obviously not too traumatised from having to pose nude for the director.
Will he break his own box office records? Only time will tell if history will vindicate James Cameron once again.