Did you know that Neil deGrasse Tyson made director James Cameron change a scene in the movie Titanic after it was released? Here is an interesting story on what made James Cameron make changes to his iconic movie.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is known for discussing inaccuracies in science fiction movies. When he watched Titanic, even though it is not science fiction, he had a problem with one scene.
He could not contain this to himself and wrote to James Cameron, who took his advice seriously and made necessary changes before the re-release of the movie. The scene that caught Tyson's eyes is the one depicting Jack trying to save Rose by freezing inside the water as she holds on to the wooden plank.
The Mystery of Starscape
The detail Tyson mentioned was the starscape Rose (played by Kate Winslet) watched while lying on the wooden door on the freezing sea with Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio). In his e-mail to Cameron, Tyson wrote: "At that time of year, in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the starfield she would have seen."
Cameron too immediately replied to Tyson saying: "All right, send me the right stars for that exact time and I'll put it in the movie." As soon as he received the right set of stars, Cameron did not waste any time but made necessary changes to the particular scene in Titanic before releasing it again in 2012.
Apart from this Tyson also felt that Jack could have at least tried once if the wooden door could save both of them. "You try once. 'Oh, this is not gonna work. I will just freeze to death in the water.' No, excuse me," said Tyson about the scene, speaking to Huffington Post.
Real-life Rose Was Not on Titanic Ship?
Another interesting fact is that the character of the female lead Rose was just inspired by the life of Beatrice Wood, an actress. She had never stepped on to Titanic. Beatrice Wood was a rebel and wanted to get away from home and her mother who ordered her around. She was a runaway painter but had to give up as her mother found her and dragged her away to Paris.
But Wood wanted to do what she felt like so she went to New York and learnt theatre. She later became an actress. More than becoming a celebrity, she wanted to earn money so that she could be away from home and live on her own.
She was not there on the ship, but Cameron drew inspiration from Wood's nature, life-story and wrote the character Rose for the movie Titanic.
According to Cameron, though he presented her with a copy of the film Titanic, she decided not to watch it as it was going to be a sad ending and it was too late to be sad in her life.
