Titanic: Recasting The Characters (If It Was Made Today)

Titanic was one of those films that truly does only come along once every decade or so. A phenomenon in all senses of the word, it smashed box office and awards records, becoming a cultural touchstone of the late 1990s and beyond. A big part of its success, of course, was the phenomenal cast, all of whom had great chemistry with one another and managed to bring this heartrending story to beautiful life.

While of course such a cast can never really be outdone, it’s still rather fascinating to speculate about what a cast with today’s finest actors would look like.

10 Rose — Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan is one of the finest young actresses of her generation. Time and again in recent years she has shown that she has an acting talent that is truly extraordinary. She’d be great in the role of Rose, since she would bring just the right amount of strength and vulnerability.

Ronan is just the right type of person to play the heroine in a romantic drama, and it would allow her to continue showing her skill— and hopefully earn her another Oscar nomination.

9 Jack — Timothée Chalamet

If Ronan is Rose, then there’s no doubt that Chalamet should be her leading man. They’ve already shown that they have chemistry in their appearances together, and Chalamet, like Ronan, is one of the most promising actors of his generation. He’s shown that he has just the right sort of puckish charm that would make him a great fit for Jack, though he would probably be slightly more aristocratic than Leonardo DiCaprio’s rough-around-the edges version.

8 Old Rose — Betty White

The original film was well-known for casting Gloria Stuart, an actress from the old days of Hollywood, as the elder Rose. Thus, this role requires someone who brings a certain amount of gravitas and experience to the role.

While Betty White is obviously mostly known for her comedic roles, it’s also true that she’s an American icon. She’s exactly the kind of person that one would want playing the part of an aging matriarch who nevertheless has quite a lot of life left in her.

7 Cal Hockley — Liam Hemsworth

Cal Hockley is one of the most obnoxious characters in the entire film, and the talented Billy Zane plays him to the hilt. It would be a bit challenging to find someone working today who has quite the ability to play the cad like Zane does, but it does seem like Hemsworth has what it takes.

He’s not quite as charming as his elder brother, and there’s often a bit of an edge to his performances that would make him a good villain.

6 Molly Brown — Margo Martindale

As with so many other characters in the original film, it’s hard to think of anyone but the great Kathy Bates playing the role of Molly Brown. If anyone could step into her shoes, however, it would have to be the beloved Margo Martindale.

Time and again, she’s shown that she’s comfortable playing a variety of supporting roles, and there have been quite a few times when she threatened to steal the entire show. She’s ideal for the role of Molly, a woman known for her unwillingness to suffer fools.

5 Captain Smith — Donald Sutherland

Captain Smith is one of the film’s more tragic characters, and a lot of that comes down to his characterization by Bernard Hill, who brings a powerful gravitas to the role. If anyone currently working in Hollywood could attain something similar, it would have to be Donald Sutherland.

With his mellifluous voice and his commanding presence on the screen, he’d be an ideal captain of a ship doomed to crash into an iceberg and sink into the icy sea.

4 Ruth DeWitt Bukater — Rachel Weisz

Ruth is, of course, Rose’s mother, who tries to get her to do what she wants regardless of how her daughter might feel about matters. Casting Rachel Weisz, a truly tremendous actress, would really help to expand the role. Plus, it would have the added benefit of getting Ronan and Weisz in the same room together.

Given how talented each of these actresses is, it’s almost certain that there would be all kinds of delightful mother-daughter sparks to witness.

3 Brock Lovett — Sam Rockwell

Brock is one of the characters who appears in the present day, and in the hands of the late Bill Paxton he was quite charming and endearing. Sam Rockwell, who is also one of today’s acclaimed actors— with several Academy Award nominations and a win under his belt— would be the perfect kind of guy to play this. Though some of his recent roles have shown him in a not very flattering light, he can pour on the folksy charm when he has to.

2 Thomas Andrews — Armie Hammer

Armie Hammer is another of those actors working today who has a lot of potential. While he has struggled a bit to find just the right role to bring out his stardom, he’s always shown that he’s willing to give his all to any role in which he appears.

Hammer would be a good fit for the role of Thomas Andrews, the unfortunate designer of the ship who has to watch his creation be destroyed. If anyone could play this sort of doomed role, it would definitely be Hammer— and it would be great to have him and Chalamet in a film together again.

1 Bruce Ismay — Jason Isaacs

The role of Ismay, one of the less pleasant characters, would require someone who has just the right bit of aristocratic disdain without becoming a caricature. That’s where Jason Isaacs comes in. He’s shown several times that he can create these types of characters with a lot of nuance and depth— look at Lucius Malfoy. He might even be able to bring a bit more complexity to this character than was shown in the original film.

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