For most Hollywood actors, landing good roles is never easy. You have to pester your agent, attend industry functions and pretend to smile, warm up to people you’d rather not associate with, and openly express interest in certain films during interviews. However, not everyone suffers from this problem. Work looks for some stars, not the other way around. This was confirmed in a recent BBC 1Xtra interview where Denzel Washington revealed that it’s been more than 40 years since he auditioned for anything. It all stems from being good at your craft, and a few other actors can relate, notably Tom Cruise.

Ever since he had his breakout role in Risky Business, Cruise has been in high demand. By the mid-’90s, the actor had already starred in a string of hits, including Top Gun, Days of Thunder, A Few Good Men, and The Firm. And when the casting process for one of the decade’s biggest movies began, the actor was very much in the running.

Starting in 1993, a few A-listers and B-listers were singled out as potential candidates for the lead male role in James Cameron’s Titanic — a luminous tale of doomed romance that was as sensuous, moving, and stimulating as love itself. Tom Cruise was among those who could have been on the cruise, but minor issues prevented him from boarding.

Jack Dawson Still Stands Out as One of Cinema’s Most Iconic Characters

Few movie characters tick off ‘likability’ boxes as brilliantly as Jack Dawson does. First, he is daring and optimistic. Despite leading a purposeless, hardscrabble existence in Southampton, England, he doesn’t shy away from enjoying the best of what life has to offer. He knows the RMS Titanic’s tickets are out of his price range, and that the ship is full of aristocrats, not people like him, but he plays a poker game anyway and books himself a seat.

“I’ve got everything I need right here with me. I have air in my lungs and a few blank sheets of paper. I mean, I love waking up in the morning, not knowing what will happen, or who I’m going to meet. Where I will wind up. One night I was sleeping under a bridge… and now here I am, on the grandest ship in the world, having champagne with you fine people.”

The trip becomes more than he bargained for, and his time on the ship changes his life forever. Once inside, he romances the beautiful Rose (Kate Winslet), winning her heart through sweet words and art. She is in a rocky, barren marriage with a well-heeled Englishman whom her mother forced her to marry, so Jack comes off as her savior rather than a homewrecker. Despite that, their ill-fated romance follows a rugged course, reflecting the unpredictability and strictures of the era.

As the rivalry between husband and Side Guy is conditioned by fate and circumstance, Rose’s conflict between love and financial security puts her at risk of losing everything. But loving Jack proves to be the right decision. He even saves her from a suicide plunge and, after that, the feelings between them grow deeper.

Above all, Jack is selfless. During the film’s controversial ending, he helps Rose onto a small piece of floating debris and sacrifices his own life by staying in water, so that she can float and live. He dies from hypothermia, while Rose is saved by a returning lifeboat, before being rescued by the RMS Carpathia.

A straightforward character, Jack is a dream role for any male actor because his arc creates room for an effortless performance. It’s thus no surprise that Leonardo DiCaprio became a huge star after Titanic. But the role could have easily gone to any other actor, including Tom Cruise.

Tom Cruise Missed Out Because of Money Issues

In order to construct a perfect panorama of youthful experience, and interlink it with shifting perspectives of romance, James Cameron needed to cast a perfect actor. A Cinemablend report reveals that River Phoenix was his original choice. Sadly, the actor died before he could be cast. Matthew McConaughey, Billy Crudup, Chris O’Donnell, and Stephen Dorff were also considered, but Cameron felt they weren’t the right people for the job.

The filmmaker then switched his eyes to Jared Leto, only for the actor to refuse to audition. Tom Cruise was then approached, but his asking price was too high, so the studio passed on him. DiCaprio was eventually cast after he was brought to Cameron’s attention by casting director Mali Finn. The filmmaker surrounded the young DiCaprio with a top cast including Camilla Overbye Roos and Danny Nucci. Leo, handsome, confident, and assured in the lead, carried the picture, conveying the mysteries and complexities of the exceptional man.

Cruise was right to demand a higher fee because he had already made a name for himself by the time Titanic was announced. His presence was guaranteed to pull many people to theaters. Unfortunately, the studio didn’t see it that way. But was money used as an excuse?

Cameron revealed that he was allowed to stretch the budget beyond the planned amount. By the time production was done, costs had shot to $200 million. Fox executive, William Mechanic, was quoted by The New York Times saying that “Jim Cameron told us we could have an expensive bad movie or a more expensive potentially great movie. We made our judgment. And we made the best choice.” This suggests James Cameron could have hired Tom Cruise if he wanted to.

Cruise Was Never the Right Person for the Job

Tom Cruise fans will be sad about the missed opportunity, but was he ever the right person for the job? For his acting ability alone, he sure was. The actor sinks into all of his roles with ease and is renowned for putting in more effort than his peers. With him on board, we might have witnessed more stunts and extra aggression. And while it would be greedy for studio heads to ask for anything more than Titanic’s $2.264 billion box office gross, Cruise’s star power could have pushed the numbers ways closer to the $3 billion mark.

However, Tom Cruise was 35 years old when the epic romantic disaster film came out. Jack Dawson is 20 years old in the movie, so the age disparity would have been problematic. Instead of being critically acclaimed, the film might have been heavily criticized for having the common teen drama problem where high schoolers look old.

Still, Jack is not a real character, so James Cameron had the option of making him a thirty-something man, to fit Cruise’s age. But would a thirty-something unmarried man who spent his days in cramped Victorian-style concrete blocks and seemed uninterested in working to earn his keep have resonated with a slightly conservative ‘90s society?

Today, Cruise and his fans should be thankful that James Cameron looked the other way. Titanic‘s filming schedule was destined to clash with those of Jerry Maguire and Mission Impossible, two films that defined his career. The former earned him one of his only three Oscar nominations, while the latter launched his biggest franchise. 1997 wasn’t such a bad year for him either. He was named “The Most Beautiful Person in the World” by People.