This ‘Titanic’ Character’s Death Scene Was Cut Because It Was ‘Too Much’

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Titanic — the blockbuster 1997 film based on the historic ship sinking in 1912 — memorably featured the harrowing deaths of many beloved characters, perhaps none other than Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack Dawson.

While the scene of Rose (Kate Winslet) letting go of the deceased, frozen Jack — surrendering him to the watery depths of the sea — is the moment that fans still get upset about more than 20 years later, there was one character whose death was actually deemed too intense for the final cut of the film.

Actress Alex Owens-Sarno, who portrayed curly-haired Cora — the little girl who dances with Jack in third class — recently shared on the After We Wrap podcast that her favorite part of filming was her own “drowning scene” … one that was “heavily rejected by moms” who watched a test screening.

“Jim [director James Cameron] wanted the scene in the movie. I did my own stunt, it’s a lot,” Owens-Sarno shared on the podcast earlier this month. “[But] when they were showing test audiences, they were like: ‘Not her! We will not watch her die!’ It was way too much, they were like: ‘Absolutely not.'”

The alarming scene — which may have been cut from the final film but lives on as a deleted scene in Titanic‘s bonus features — shows Cora and her parents desperately trying to escape the sinking ship, only to be trapped behind a gate closing off the hallway as the water rushes and attempts to engulf them as they scream for help.

On a more light-hearted note, Owens-Sarno recalled filming with DiCaprio, whom she didn’t realize was famous at the time. To her, he was just “Leo, my friend.”

“I didn’t really know who [DiCaprio] was,” the actress explained on the podcast. “Our first scene that we filmed was this scene that ended up getting cut, and when we went home that day, my mom was like: ‘Do you know who you were on camera with?’ and I was like: ‘Leo, my friend!'”

“At that point he was just my buddy, and it was super fun, he was just kind of flailing me around,” she shared.