James Cameron Says He Had to 'Twist' Leonardo DiCaprio's Arm for Titanic at Golden Globes 2023

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Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock, Kevin Mazur/Getty James Cameron (L); Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't sure he wanted the role of Jack in Titanic.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE at the Golden Globes 2023 on Tuesday, director James Cameron said he had to convince DiCaprio, now 48, to take the job that would end up helping launch him to superstardom.

"He didn't want to do a leading man," recalls Cameron. "I had to really twist his arm to be in the movie. He didn't want to do it. He thought it was boring."

The Canadian filmmaker, 68, says that while DiCaprio eventually "accepted the part" of the ill-fated Jack, it was "only when I convinced him that it was actually a difficult challenge."

"It didn't surprise me, first of all, that he's made a lot of authentic choices going forward," Cameron adds. "And secondly, I never doubted his talent."

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Ron Wolfson/Getty James Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio in 1998

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Twenty-five years later, Titanic still stands tall as one of the highest-grossing movies ever made, and Cameron recently told Deadline he "can't imagine that film" without its two leading stars: DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

"I think about that casting Leonardo and Kate in Titanic. Leo, the studio didn't want him; I had to fight for him," the director told the outlet during an interview about his career and his new movie, Avatar: The Way of Water.

"Kate really liked him," the director said of DiCaprio. "And then Leonardo decided he didn't want to make the movie. So then I had to talk him into it."

During the interview, Cameron noted that Titanic "wouldn't have been that film" if DiCaprio had decided not to take his role as Jack or if anything with the production had come together differently.

"You think at any one of those places, if that had really kind of frayed apart, it would have been somebody else and it wouldn't have been that film," he told the outlet. "And I can't imagine that film without him and without her."

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To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the film will be returning to theaters. Cameron's historical-romance epic is set to make a splash on movie screens once more in February, marking the occasion with a new trailer and poster.

Titanic, which won a record 11 Academy Awards in 1998, will be screened in 3D 4K HDR with high-frame rate.

Alongside DiCaprio and Winslet, now 47, the film, which was also written by Cameron, starred Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, David Warner, Victor Garber and Bill Paxton.

"I spent a year researching because I wanted it to be as accurate as possible," Cameron recently told PEOPLE of the film, for a Titanic special edition issue. "I said to the team, 'Guys, I want it to be like we went back in a time machine and filmed what happened.' "