8 Times Movie Directors Were Total Jerks To Their Actors

At the time of its production, James Cameron's Titanic was the most expensive movie ever made, and many scenes of the flooded vessel simply involved way too much preparation to be reshot over and over, so it's perhaps understandable that the director wanted to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible.

In order to ensure that actors and extras had realistic reactions to the sinking ship, icy cold water was used in all scenes and the actors had to spend huge amounts of time floating around without breaks. Some actors chose to use wetsuits to help them stay a little warmer, but Kate Winslet chose not to and ended up with pneumonia.

One of the worst stories about Cameron on the set of Titanic was when he threatened to fire anyone who left the water to use the toilet. The director later admitted that he'd lost his cool after the filming of one scene kept getting interrupted by people leaving to go to the bathroom.