After first meeting on the set of Titanic in the ‘90s, Kate and Leo became fast friends, and have maintained a close bond in the public eye for many years since.
From cheering each other on at award shows to gushing about each other in interviews, Kate and Leo have proven themselves to be one of the most beloved duos in Hollywood.
And now, over 25 years since the release of the movie that bonded them for life, Kate is reflecting on her first encounters with her “ferociously intelligent” Titanic costar.
“Once I started working with Leo, we were able to kind of find our own rhythm. And it’s amazing to kind of look back and think about it all over again,” the Oscar winner says in a new behind-the-scenes clip from Titanic’s upcoming 4K Ultra HD DVD release, obtained by Entertainment Tonight.
Recalling a then-21-year-old Leo as a “mess of long, skinny, uncoordinated limbs,” Kate adds that they “clicked immediately, right away.”
“He was just very free with himself, and he had this effervescent energy that was really magnetic,” she continues. “And I remember thinking, ‘Oh, this is gonna be fun. We’re definitely gonna get along.’ And we just really did. We just really did.”
Adorably, Kate recalls in the featurette that Leo was completely “fascinated” while making the iconic movie, obsessing over everything from “the details to do with the boat” to “the lower classes, where those people had come from, how those people had paid for their tickets.”
“He was then very, very smart, very, very curious,” she says. “We connected on so many levels. That sense of focus on the craft and still really caring deeply about that to this day.”
Reflecting on how their friendship has lasted over the years, the clip concludes with Kate revealing that they’re always in contact over the phone.
“And we’ll always just make that call right away. There’s no like, ‘Hang on, I’ll call you tomorrow.’ It’s instant,” she says, adding: “You know, if you think about it, in the world that we live in now, to have friendships that bind you, and that shared history, it’s really something.”
Being that they’re so publicly adoring of one another, fans have theorized that the pair might be “soulmates,” and that the reason Leo is yet to settle down is because Kate is actually “the one for him.”
“I think the reason that friendship works is because there was never any romantic thing,” she also told Marie Claire in 2014. “It’s so disappointing for people to hear that, because in the soap opera of the Kate and Leo story we fell in love at first sight and had a million snogs.”
“But actually we never did,” she added. “He always saw me as one of the boys. I’ve never really been a girly-girl.”
Likewise, Leo — who is notoriously private when it comes to his personal life — gushed about Kate while talking to Esquire back in 2010, describing her as one of his “dearest friends.”
“We have the ultimate trust in each other,” he said.
