James Cameron was too busy directing Aliens (1986) to think of a cinematic adaptation of the famous Titanic disaster, but he certainly had the idea in mind for a long time. Still, the late nineties were a great time for a movie like this, as the era had a tendency to focus on romantic dramas a lot more than the eighties, for instance.
It's certainly interesting, though, to consider how Titanic would have turned out if it had been made one decade earlier — for one thing, the effects may have been a lot less impressive. In of acting, there theoretically should not have been much of a difference, especially given the thespian talents that the eighties were known for.
Rose DeWitt Bukater — Jodie Foster
To replicate the elegant awkwardness of Kate Winslet's young Rose is no easy task, but it's a role that Jodie Foster should be able to pull off with ease.
The actress who was catapulted into the starlight as a teenager in Taxi Driver (1976), and Best Actress Oscar winner for The Accused (1988) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991) has proven many times over that she can handle a whole range of characters, although she does have a preference for strong women burdened by difficult backgrounds, much like Rose.
Rose Dawson Calvert — Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn's last major role was in On Golden Pond (1981), where she played an aging grandmother with scintillating finesse (and also won her fourth Academy Award.)
She returned to cinema only sparingly after this movie, but casting her as the older version of the protagonist, Rose Dawson Calvert, would have been one of the best possible decisions for 80s Titanic. While she doesn't have a lot of screen time, the poise displayed by Gloria Stuart in the final scene is in classic Hepburn form.
Jack Dawson — Rob Lowe
Before his career took a serious downturn after his scandalous videotape was leaked, Rob Lowe was a prominent part of the eighties Brat Pack, which also included Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, and Molly Ringwald.
He was one of the most sought after "teen idols" of his time, a title that Leonardo Dicaprio only obtained after the release of Titanic. Rob was both cool and charming, a simultaneous combination of traits that is hard to pull off but are compulsorily required in Jack Dawson.
Molly Brown — Sigourney Weaver
The sympathetic Molly Brown is a crucial character in Titanic, as she plays a maternal substitute for Jack, an orphan. She is both amiable and robust, depending on the situation (or the level of wealth of the people she interacts with.)
In fact, Molly is one of the few "rich" engers who hate the class-based separation of life-saving amenities on the ship, whereas the others are content to sit safely until rescue arrives. Sigourney Weaver has taken on several motherly personifications, like in Aliens (1986), but her Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist (1988) is why she'd have been an excellent Molly Brown.
John Jacob Astor IV — Al Pacino
The eighties were not a great time for Al Pacino's career, except, of course for Scarface (1983). Nevertheless, the depth of his acting genius as well as his boundless versatility when it comes to choosing his characters suggests him to be ideal for John Jacob Astor IV, the multimillionaire.
This man is claimed to have been at peace with his watery fate, and a few survivors apparently claimed to have watched him casually smoking on the left bridge. Al Pacino would have certainly captured Astor's composed demeanor.
Brock Lovett — Harrison Ford
Bill Paxton was an amazing Brock Lovett, the oceanographic treasure-hunter with a single-minded quest directed at locating the prized jewel that lay beneath the turbulent Atlantic for almost 90 years: the Heart of the Ocean.
Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones franchise offers sufficient evidence in favor of this character, not to mention how both actors are slightly quirky but contain wellsprings of intensity that are liable to burst forth at any moment (or on cue.)
Lizzy Calvert — Lea Thompson
Lea Thompson's first (and possibly only major) break comes in the Back to the Future trilogy, where she acts, with equal insouciance, as a red-blooded teenage girl and a fatigued-turned-fervent mother in different timelines.
Lizzy Calvert, Rose's granddaughter, displays very similar traits — she is glad to flirt with Brock and is a generally cheerful person, but her attitude undergoes a massive change when it comes to taking care of her grandmother (of whom she is very possessive. )
Edward John Smith — Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson's repertoire is limitless — he can go from the fiery Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) to the horrifically abusive Jack Torrance in The Shining (1980) to the eerie Joker in Batman (1989).
At the same time, he is highly capable of more sensitive roles, such as Garrett Breedlove in of Endearment (1983), as well as Melvin Udall in As Good as It Gets (1997), winning Academy Awards for the latter two. The captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, is a cantankerous man with an iron will, something Jack Nicholson is not going to have any problem portraying.
Caledon Hockley — Kevin Bacon
One of the most uncomfortably antagonistic characters in film is that of Caledon Hockley, the spoiled-rotten rich boy who expects the world to bend to his will as it did to his family before him. The slimy glamour he seeks to enchant his "love interest" with is second only to the self-serving odiousness exhibited when he realizes that his life is in serious danger (which had never really been the case before.)
Although Kevin Bacon's villainous features appear in his later filmography, in Hollow Man (2000), for instance, compared to his family-friendly 80s roles in Footloose (1984) and Tremors (1990), he would arguably have made for an accurate, if slightly different, Caledon Hockley.
Ruth DeWitt Bukater — Diane Keaton
Ruth DeWitt Bukater's character is a bit of a paradox: on one hand, she really truly loves her only child and wants the best for her, but her affection seems to have a corollary of status attached to it.
In other words, she is happy to see Rose happy, as long she doesn't mar the family name in the process. Diane Keaton is adept at such indecipherable portrayals of nature, as Annie Hall (1977), and Mrs. Soffel (1984) will prove.
