Titanic has long been a source of fun—and “fun”—production stories. For instance: by now we likely have all heard the epic tale of the drugged chowder. Leonardo DiCaprio and Danny Nucci, who played Fabrizio, froze their asses off to give us that “I’m the king of the world!” scene. And yeah, James Cameron actually flooded the Titanic set with frigid water for the scenes in which the ship was sinking—and provided the cast with off-screen hot tubs to warm back up. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that in describing the production in a recent interview, former Fox studio exec Peter Chernin kept returning to one word: “hell.”

In a roundtable discussion published Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter asked producers what films they believe are essential for anyone aspiring to adopt their craft. Charlize Theron (Bombshell) suggested watching bad movies—a sentiment The Irishman producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff and Debra Martin Chase (Harriet) both echoed. Justin Lin went with Jiro Dreams of Sushi. And then came Chernin.

“I would say Titanic,” Chernin said. “Just because it was such an extraordinarily impossible production. And at the same time had as big an impact as any movie in history. So it shows you the promise of what you could potentially achieve—but it was hell. Hell on a level unimaginable.”

“When I greenlit it, it was the most expensive movie ever made,” Chernin added. “And we went more over budget than the budget was.... We went $105 million over budget.... But it was also a great lesson because it was an out-of-body experience—everything public about the movie was a disaster. And with every personal interaction I had, I thought it was phenomenal. It was a phenomenal pitch. It was a phenomenal script. It was phenomenal dailies. [Cameron] would show us an hour of footage—the only decision I made was just go deeper.”

Theron asked whether that was an easy decision to make. “Or did you panic a little bit about that?” she wondered. “I didn’t panic,” Chernin replied. “I assumed I was going to get fired, but I was ready to be fired for it. You have got three alternatives: Shut it down entirely—that seemed like a bad idea $140 million in. Replace the director, which seemed like a bad idea. Or try and make it great. And it seemed clear to me the only hope was to make it great.”

Obviously Chernin’s bet paid off—so much so that Cameron will likely forever be locked in a “dumb debate” about whether or not Rose and Jack could have fit on a door. But it just goes to show you, it ain’t always easy making these moving pictures sing.

Tom Hardy Thinks Rose Could Have Saved Jack in Titanic

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