Titanic star got James Cameron on top of conference room table during strange audition that won h...

Frances Fisher's unusual approach to an inperson test with Cameron led to to her playing Ruth DeWitt Bukater, the mother of Kate Winslet's Rose. Titanic star got James Cameron on top of conference room table during strange audition that won her key role Frances Fisher's unusual approach to an inperson test with Cameron led to to her playing Ruth DeWitt Bukater, the mother of Kate Winslet's Rose. By Ryan Coleman :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RyanColemanauthorphoto0081ce8f0254478080f35972c433877b.

Frances Fisher's unusual approach to an in-person test with Cameron led to to her playing Ruth DeWitt Bukater, the mother of Kate Winslet's Rose.

Titanic star got James Cameron on top of conference room table during strange audition that won her key role

Frances Fisher's unusual approach to an in-person test with Cameron led to to her playing Ruth DeWitt Bukater, the mother of Kate Winslet's Rose.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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March 25, 2026 8:27 p.m. ET

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Frances Fisher as Ruth DeWitt Bukater in 'Titanic'. Credit:

- Frances Fisher is recalling the unusual audition that led to her securing a major role in *Titanic*.

- After director James Cameron told her to scrap the scenes she prepared to read, she suggested they "get on the table" so Cameron could "shoot down on me."

- Cameron loved the idea, Fisher detailed on the *Still Here Hollywood *podcast, with the director joking, "'Well if I'm sick, you'll know how to shoot the scene.'"

Once more, you open the door... and climb up on the table.

*Titanic** *star Frances Fisher's unusual proposition during her audition with James Cameron may just have won her the memorable part of Ruth DeWitt Bukater, the haughty mother of Kate Winslet's romantic lead Rose.

"My audition is one of my favorite stories to tell, because it wasn't like I wanted to get the job, Fisher explained on Monday's episode of the *Still Here Hollywood *podcast. "In that moment, I was that character, and I was just showing Jim how I would interpret her."

To Fisher's recollection, she sat in Cameron's offices for a callback when a man wearing a "lumberjack shirt and jeans jaunts down this hall" and asked her to come back to a conference room. Because "nobody knew what directors looked like, not back then anyway," Fisher asked *Titanic* casting director Mali Finn, "Well, where's Mr. Cameron?" Only to have Finn point right over at the "jaunty guy."

"We looked at each other, and he goes, 'You don't have to do any of the scenes that I asked you to do, let's just focus on the end of the movie.'" There went all of Fisher's carefully ordered prep, but she'd soon have a curveball of her own to throw right back at Cameron.

Frances Fisher and James Cameron in Los Angeles in 2023.

Todd Williamson/January Images/Shutterstock

"He pulls out his Super 8. He's doing the Super 8 on me as I'm doing little bits of scenes. Then comes the scene where I'm supposed to be in the [lifeboat] and Kate is up on the deck, and I say, 'Get in the boat!'" Fisher recalled.

"I was having such a good time playing with him. It wasn't even work," she explained. Keeping in that spirit, Fisher reasoned to Cameron, "'You'll probably want to shoot down on me. Can we get on the table and I'll step down into the chair, and then you'll be able to shoot down on me?' He goes, 'That's a great idea. Let's do it.' So everybody gets up on the conference room table."

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Cameron apparently found the unconventional ask amusing. Fisher recalled him joking, "'Well, if I'm sick, you'll know how to shoot the scene.'"

They shot the scene on Cameron's film camera, and that was that. "I just felt so connected to the character and so happy to do material that was good," Fisher explained. "All I had to do was step into the character."

The lion's share of *Titanic*'s numerous performance accolades went to Winslet and her co-lead, Leonardo DiCaprio. But Fisher was nominated alongside the pair, as well as Kathy Bates, Victor Garber, Bill Paxton, Billy Zane, and the rest of the ensemble for Outstanding Cast at the 1998 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

Fisher has spoken about her *Titanic *production experience here and there over the years. In a 2022 interview with *Vulture*, Fisher thought back to the scene she referenced to *Still Here Hollywood *host Steve Kmetko, in which her Ruth beckons to Rose to join her in a lifeboat.

"I was in the lifeboat as it was being lowered down, pleading up at Rose to get in. We shot it in real time. We did lots and lots of takes and turnarounds. We shot it over and over again," she shared. "People had to be immersed in that water for hours on end, so it wasn't icy cold. But I never got wet."

You can watch Fisher's full interview on the *Still Here Hollywood *podcast above.

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Source: Actors

Published: March 26, 2026 at 08:00AM on Source: PRIME TIME

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