Of course Kate Winslet was born to play Rose in "Titanic." It couldn't have happened any other way.
Except, it definitely could have.
Winslet had to read for the part in 1996, and in a video of that audition that's just now surfacing thanks to a fun Cosmo post, you can see that no one was guaranteed a lead role — because Winslet is reading opposite Jeremy Sisto, aka Elton from "Clueless."
Winslet was up against bigger stars (of the time), like Uma Thurman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Winona Ryder. As she told USA Today in 2012, "(Director) Jim (Cameron) took a risk in casting me."
But the screen test proves she was the right woman all along.
MORE: Kate Winslet reveals how Rose could have saved Jack's life in 'Titanic'
Sisto went on to appear in many other series including "Law & Order" and "Six Feet Under." The role of Jack, as we all know, went to Leonardo DiCaprio.
But back to Winslet. Getting the attention of director James Cameron so she could even make it to that audition room was hardly smooth sailing.
After reading the story, she told Rolling Stone in 1998 that "I closed the script, wept floods of tears and said, 'Right, I've absolutely got to be a part of this. No two ways about it.'"
So she got Cameron's number and called him on his car phone (hey, it was the 1990s). "(James) was on the freeway, and he said, 'I'm going somewhere.' And I think he pulled over, and I said, 'I just have to do this, and you are really mad if you don't cast me,'" she recalled.
MORE: Kate Winslet re-enacts 'Titanic' — on a cliff! — with Bear Grylls
A few days after the audition, she sent him roses with a note reading, "From your Rose." And she got cast just a few days after that!
As she noted to USA Today, "James took a risk in casting me. A lot of my contemporaries ... were much more likely candidates. I got lucky."
So did we!
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