- Debate erupted on a NZ morning radio show over the 1997 movie Titanic
- The host was stunned to learn the elderly Rose was not a real person
- Listeners chimed in to confirm that they too had made the same mistake
A fiery debate erupted between the hosts of a New Zealand morning radio show over the 1997 Hollywood blockbuster movie Titanic.
A recent segment on The Edge NZ saw announcer Dan Webby passionately argue that he’d always believed the main character in the film, Rose, was based on a real person.
Furthermore, he felt the movie led him to believe that the woman who appeared as the older version of Rose was in fact the real-life person whom the story was based on.
‘I thought for many, many years that the old lady was legit on the Titanic and she was Rose in real life,’ Dan told his co-hosts.
‘You know how it sort of crosses back between documentary?’ he explained.
Flabbergasted, co-host Ash London promptly corrected Dan’s error.
‘No part of this film is a documentary. It’s people acting,’ she replied.
The breakfast announcers continued to press Dan on how he’d come to the conclusion that Rose was a real person in the movie, he explained that it was because the sections of the film she was featured in were ‘filmed in a documentary style’.
‘[W]hen she turns up on the helicopter… I was like, “Oh, my God, this is fantastic – they brought her in for the movie. She knows the story”,’ he said.
Fellow announcer Clinton Randell proceeded to point out that there was no logic to this assumption.
‘Wouldn’t you have done the maths?’ Clinton questioned.
‘The Titanic sank in 1912 and the movie came out in ’97, so that’s 85 years ago. Bro, she would be 110!’
But Dan continued to insist that he wasn’t alone in mistakenly believing that the elderly woman in the Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio film was a real person.
‘The number of people that stand with me, you’re gonna look like the idiot here,’ Dan said.
And he was right.
The show quickly began to receive a flurry of texts and messages from listeners confirming that they too had made this mistake about the award-winning film.
When a clip of the radio segment was later posted to TikTok, it was also inundated with replies from movie-goers who’d also presumed the elderly woman was a real-life Titanic survivor.
‘I 100 per cent also thought that,’ read one comment.
‘Is she not the real Rose? I’ve been living a lie,’ added another.
‘I can’t believe it’s not the real Rose!!’ chimed in a third.
One woman even explained that she’d wound up ‘arguing’ with her husband about the older Rose in the film being a real person, only to be proven wrong when they’d Googled it.
In the movie, the elderly 100-year-old character of Rose Dawson Calvert was played by veteran actress Gloria Stuart.
Her appearance in Titanic was her most well-known and earned nominations for Best Supporting Actress at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.
Gloria’s 75-year acting career also included credits such as the 1997 film Batman & Robin, and guest roles on TV shows such as The Waltons, Murder, She Wrote, Touched by an Angel and General Hospital.
In 2000, the actress was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Gloria lived to be 100 years old – the exact same age as her most famous on-screen role of Rose. She passed away in September 2010.
Titanic director James Cameron has previously confirmed that although the character of Rose is not real, the character was inspired by a real person, American artist Beatrice Wood.
The acclaimed filmmaker said he drew inspiration for Rose’s personality after reading a biography about the artist – and particularly her rebellious spirit and family background. However, Beatrice was not a passenger on the Titanic.
Film buffs have also previously noted that while there was a real-life passenger named Rose on-board the Titanic, her life story is not the same as the Rose character in the movie.
The RMS Titanic sank on 15 April 1912, only four days into its maiden voyage. At the time, it was the largest ocean liner in service.
The ship struck an iceberg and sank in under three hours. This resulted in the deaths of 1,635 passengers on board, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
