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James Cameron Calls James Horner The Heart Of ‘Titanic,’ Shares Memories

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 14:48 PST, Jun 23, 2015

Director James Cameron recently opened up about his fond memories of James Horner — including why he was the “heart” of Titanic.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the 60-year-old director reflected on the various times over the years that he and James Horner worked together.

Perhaps one of the biggest highlights, though, was when he shared his behind-the-scenes story of what Horner did for the 1997 Oscar-winning film, Titanic.

“When we were looking for a composer for Titanic, I just thought to myself, ‘I want the best.’ And during my writing process for the film, I had been listening to so many of James’ recent scores… And I said…that he was the guy.”

James Cameron stated earlier in the interview that the two did not have the “best working experience” when Horner created the iconic score for the 1986 film Aliens primarily because they had to re-cut some of Horner’s music.

Therefore, when it came to Titanic, Cameron states that he was determined to make it work out better for the both of them. In Cameron’s own words, “it turned out to be the dream team.”

Cameron then shared the heartwarming story of how he reacted to James Horner’s music for Titanic the first time that he heard it.

“It was just James and I together in his studio. And he sat down and played a solo piano theme and I cried. I sat there and cried. He played three themes for me that day and I was in tears after every one.”

What made the moment even more impressive was that, when he first performed the music for Cameron at that time, James Horner had not written any of the music down yet.

“He was just reacting to having watched 30 hours of dailies and steeping himself in the movie. I said to him, ‘You’ve done it.’ And he said, ‘I haven’t done anything yet.’ And I said, ‘James, you’ve done it.'”

Cameron further stated that James Horner was “the heart of the film, absolutely” — especially since he wrote the music for the Oscar-winning song “My Heart Will Go On,” which was sung by Celine Dion.

Even though Cameron credited the popularity of “My Heart Will Go On” for the “pop-culture propulsion of the film,” he made it clear that he is still a big fan of the actual score album — a soundtrack that he says is still “the highest grossing instrumental soundtrack album of all time.”

James Cameron concluded his emotionally stirring tribute by commenting on Horner’s personality and a great way that he can honor James’ memory.

“I never heard him raise his voice or ever say anything negative about someone else. It made him such a well-loved conductor—and he conducted himself, which is fairly unusual. He’d walk in and the orchestra just adored him. He was such a sweet, lovely guy. Right now it’s important for us to get busy and honor James.”

James Cameron joins the growing list of other filmmakers, celebrities, fans, and critics that have shared fond memories and paid tribute to the late Oscar-winning composer James Horner.

[Image Credit: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images]

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