Titanicthe widely acclaimed film by James Cameron, is broadcast this Sunday, November 17, 2024, at 9:15 p.m., on TMC. Tele-Leisure tells you how an evening of filming ended in a real nightmare for the production team.
This Sunday, November 17, 2024, TMC broadcasts at 9:15 p.m. a masterpiece that has left an impression on many. This cult film from the end of the 1990s looks back on one of the disasters which considerably marked nautical history: it is the famous Titanic by James Cameron, the feature film that propelled the careers of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. This titanic production for which the director gathered the colossal budget of 200 million dollars offers a considerable number of anecdotes, some impressive or amusing, others more tragic.
Titanic: an evening of filming that turns into drama
The nightmarish evening took place on August 8, 1996. James Cameron and the film crew had just finished an intense week of filming in Halifax, Canada. Subsequently, the production of Titanic had to go to Mexico, where the reproduction of the famous liner was located. But against all expectations, the last evening in Halifax turned into a real nightmare. In fact, the caterers had prepared clam soup (a culinary specialty of the region) to celebrate the end of this stage of filming. As the evening progressed, some members of the team became nauseated and began to suffer from hallucinations. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the film, Jake Clarke, who was part of the film team, testifies, on December 19, 2022, for the magazine Vulture. He describes the change in behavior of different employees: “He was a big guy, like 1.95m, and he was asking, 'Are you feeling okay? Because I'm not. I feel like I'm under the influence of something.'” The technician notably saw James Cameron in a pitiful state. He remembers: “Just as he was saying that, we saw James Cameron running up to our door with an extra. He was saying, 'There's something inside me. Get him out of there!'”
A heavy toll after the clam feast
Later in the evening, the patients were taken to hospital for examination. The result of the analyzes is clear: the film crew was drugged. Phencyclidine, a very powerful hallucinogenic and anesthetic drug, was slipped into the soup without anyone knowing. Although Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were spared, not being at the scene at the time, the surprising feast still sent around 80 people to the hospital. However, despite a very complicated night, the film crew was quickly able to resume filming. Today, light has still not been shed on the identity of the person who drugged the soup. However, the director has some theories regarding the culprit. In an interview given for the daily podcast Q with Tom PowerJames Cameron says: “We think it was someone who had problems with the caterers because the first thing we did was fire the caterers.… And, you know, of course, we had some leads on that. Of course, the theory was that I was such a psychopath that [l’agresseur] was trying to get back at me, but I reject that theory out of hand for obvious reasons.”
