A 1/8 scale model of the ship's stern was also used.


Gloria Stuart, being only 86, was aged by makeup to play Rose at age 101. She did not find this a pleasant experience.


In preference to hiring new extras all the time and repeatedly having to fit them for clothes and coach them in proper 1912 mannerisms, a group of 150 "core extras" was hired who would stay with the picture through the entire production. They and other performers learned proper 1912 behavior in a 3-hour course from Lynne Hockney, who was also the film's choreographer. Hockney also produced a video "Titanic Etiquette: A Time Traveler's Guide", which was then left playing continuously in the wardrobe department.


Many of the "core extras" used for the movie took on characteristics of actual survivors -one scene where two little girls are loaded onto a lifeboat and he says "its only for a little while" is based on survivor testimony of one of the girls who survived.


On the final night of shooting in Nova Scotia, one or more pranksters mixed PCP (angel dust) into the clam chowder served to the cast and crew. 80 people were taken ill, many hospitalized with hallucinations. Bill Paxton felt listless for two weeks after the incident.