At this point, James Cameron's Titanic has reached the status of an iconic and classic American film, and part of the emotional punch it packs is because it didn't pull any punches about the tragedy of the Titanic's sinking.
But it turns out the film's director and producers were forced to tone down one character's storyline: that of Cora, the little Irish girl who develops a crush on Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack Dawson during the voyage.
In case your memory's fuzzy, Cora, played by then-8-year-old actor Alex Owens-Sarno, is most memorable from the scene of Jack and Kate Winslet's Rose dancing below decks.
Cora gets a bit jealous that her new friend Jack is having so much fun with Rose and he tells her, "you're still my best girl, Cora." It's a very sweet little moment.
Well, obviously, the ship goes down and the people in the third-class steerage decks, like Cora, were the first to go. But when it came to the little girl's demise, it was a no-go.
Owens-Sarno, who's now 36, recently appeared on the After We Wrap podcast to discuss her experience filming Titanic. And she revealed to host Gabriella Ortiz that her drowning scene was her favorite acting moment in the film.
But wait—what drowning scene? Because Cora's death doesn't actually appear in the film after parents insisted it not be included.
Owens-Sarno told Ortiz:
"For me, the thing that really lit me up about the 'Titanic' experience in the realm of acting was actually my drowning scene.
"It was heavily rejected by moms."
She explained that James Cameron adamantly wanted the scene in the movie, as it does really drive the point home about the brutality of the Titanic crew's classist incompetence.
But it sounds like parents' objections were so intense that it ended up on the cutting room floor.
The scene was eventually released in the DVD's special features, and has since made it to YouTube. And there's no denying—it's a tough scene to watch.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
In it, Cora and her parents rush to the stairs to escape the lower decks as the ship's stern and propellers lift up in the air, but end up trapped at one of the ship's infamously locked stairwell gates as the hallway fills with water.
Owens-Sarno said she did her own stunts for the scene and everything, and was very proud of it. But test audiences found the scene too traumatic.
"When they were showing ... test audiences, they were like, 'not her.'"
On social media, many 'Titanic' fans were shocked by the revelation, with some wishing the scene had been left in and others grateful it was cut.
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Regardless of the scene's deletion, Owens-Sarno will always be a part of cinema history. Not bad for an 8-year-old!
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AMC