‘Didn’t want the kind of fame ‘Titanic’ brought DiCaprio’

Actress Claire Danes has “zero” regrets about turning down “Titanic”, saying that she had no interest in the level of fame the film brought Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio.

The “Homeland” actress says she bowed out of consideration for the Oscar-winning blockbuster, letting the lead role ultimately go to actress Kate Winslet back in 1996, largely because the part felt all too familiar.

Danes had just wrapped Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” with DiCaprio, and was looking for a different type of venture, reports aceshowbiz.com.

“I had just made this romantic epic with Leo in Mexico City, which is where they were going to shoot ‘Titanic’! And I just didn’t have it in me!” Danes said during a sit down with Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast.

The 40-year-old recalls DiCaprio himself wrestling with the decision to take on the James Cameron epic, recounting a conversation they had outside their mutual manager’s office.

“And he just looked up at me and said: ‘I’m doing it! I’m doing it!’ And I could see he wasn’t sure. But he was like, I gotta do this thing.'”

Danes added that she could not see herself grappling with the global attention the actor received following the film’s release.

“And I looked down at him, and I was like, ‘I totally understand why you’re doing that. And I’m not ready for that.’ And I think I really wasn’t ready for it. And I remember after that movie came out… and he just went into another stratosphere.”

She noted she has “zero regret” after noticing a swift change in how people treat her former co-star.

“I think I may have sensed that I was courting that (level of fame) or I was proximate to that… and I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t want it. I was just really clear about it. I wasn’t conflicted,” she said.

As for whether or not anything romantic happened between the pair while they were filming the classic Shakespearean love story, she believes off-screen love was not written in the stars for them.

“That was just never going to happen,” she said, while admitting there was a “crushy” vibe between the two.

“I didn’t know how to go about that… we’re really different people.” IANS