James Cameron reflects on ‘hubristic’ Oscars mistake after Titanic win in 1998

Director told onlookers he felt like ‘king of the world’

James Cameron has reflected on his “hubristic” speech after winning Best Director at the 1998 Academy Awards.

The filmmaker quoted from his winning film, Titanic, after taking the stage at the awards ceremony, telling the crowd he felt like the “king of the world”.

Cameron’s speech was poorly received by Oscars viewers, with the Avatar director revealing that he knew he’d made a mistake after seeing Warren Beatty’s face backstage.

“I’ll tell you exactly when I first realised it [was going to be a problem],” he said, in an oral history of Titanic for The Hollywood Reporter. “When I walked backstage and Warren Beatty had this look on his face like, ‘What the f*** did you just do?’”

“He was just looking at me like, ‘You poor boob, what the f*** did you just do?’” he continued. “And I went, ‘Oh, was that not cool? OK.’ I mean, obviously I’ve analysed 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.’”

Titanic would win 11 Oscars during the ceremony, including Best Picture.

Cameron explained: “What I realised is, the problem with [the ‘king of the world’ speech] 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.”

In the same feature, Cameron described an embarassing wardrobe malfunction during his victory speech.

This year’s Oscars ceremony will take place on Sunday 12 March. See the full list of nominees here.