Rose From James Cameron's Titanic Was Partially Inspired By This Real-Life Artist

James Cameron learned of Beatrice Wood when Louise Newbury — the wife of the filmmaker's late collaborator Bill Paxton — gave the filmmaker Wood's autobiography "I Shock Myself." Cameron, in turn, was startled by Wood's similarities to Rose. "The first chapter describes almost literally the character I was already writing for Old Rose, the filmmaker said in "Titanic: James Cameron's Illustrated Screenplay." 

As such, VC Star reported, Cameron spent some time with Wood to learn about her life. "When I met her she was charming, creative, and devastatingly funny. And her memory of her teenage years was extremely lucid," the filmmaker wrote in "Cameron's Illustrated Screenplay."

That, however, is where the similarities between Wood and Rose end. In another section of "Cameron's Illustrated Screenplay" not written by the filmmaker, the book noted, "The film's Rose is only a refraction of Beatrice, combined with many fictional elements. James Cameron pays homage to her in the opening scene of his [1997] film Titanic. We see the film's heroine making ceramics, one of Beatrice Wood's favored mediums." The character's name, the book noted, came from one of Cameron's grandmothers, who was named Rose.

While Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack Dawson was completely fictionalized, there was apparently a J. Dawson listed on the real "Titanic" passenger list. The publication clarified, however, that J. stood for Joseph. The character felt real to "Titanic" fans, though, and his death after slipping from a floating door in the frigid Atlantic created one of the most controversial movie endings of all time. Countering fans, Cameron got scientific to prove Jack really had no chance on that door.