'Titanic' director James Cameron reflects on 1998 Oscars speech

Titanic filmmaker James Cameron aired his opinion on his infamous 1998 Oscars acceptance speech for Titanic after quoting his film's line.

Speaking to the The Hollywood Reporter, the Avatar filmmaker said he instantly realized he made a blunder in his speech simply by looking at presenter Warren Beatty’s face backstage.

“I’ll tell you exactly when I first realized it [was going to be a problem]: when I walked backstage and Warren Beatty had this look on his face like, ‘What the **** did you just do?’

He was just looking at me like, ‘You poor boob, what the **** did you just do? And I went, ‘Oh, was that not cool? OK.’ I mean, obviously, I’ve analyzed that. My wife at the time, Linda [Hamilton], had said, ‘Well, if you’re going to quote a line from the movie, then quote it with gusto.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I can do that.'”

Cameron continued, “And what I realized is, the problem with it is that it’s too self-referential and seen as hubristic — not just the actual sort of semiotics of, ‘I’m the king of the world,’ but the scenario of quoting your own movie as if every single person in the audience is a big fan, because there were a lot of people in that audience that did not vote for ‘Titanic.’ You can’t make the assumption that because you’re winning, you’ve won by some vast landslide.”

The critically-acclaimed director bagged three Oscars for Titanic, including Best Picture and Best Director.