Kate Winslet Explains Why Kissing Leonardo DiCaprio in “Titanic ”Was“ ”'a Mess': 'Not All It's Cracked Up to Be'

"I would end up looking as though I'd been sucking a caramel chocolate bar after each take because his makeup would come off on me," Winslet recalled

Kate Winslet was living many a Leonardo DiCaprio fangirl's dream as his character's love interest in Titanic — but behind the scenes was a different story.

"My God, he’s quite the romancer, isn’t he?" said the Regime actress, 48, in a video for Vanity Fair, while watching the famous "I'm flying!" scene in the movie that occurs just before her character Rose and DiCaprio's Jack share their first kiss.

"No wonder every young girl in the world wanted to be kissed by Leonardo DiCaprio," Winslet continued of her costar and longtime friend, though she quickly went on to admit of the smooch, “It was not all it’s cracked up to be.”

As the Academy Award winner explained, "We kept doing this kiss, and I have a lot of pale makeup on and I would have to do our makeup checks — me, on both of us, between takes — and I would end up looking as though I had been sucking a caramel chocolate bar after each take, because his makeup would come off on me."

"And he just looked like there was a bit missing from his face, because there was this big pale bit from all my makeup getting onto him," she recalled. "Oh God, it was such a mess.”

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Related: 18 Celebs Get Really, Really Honest About Their Best (and Worst) On-Screen Kisses

Aside from makeup issues, "I look at that and I just see how much I couldn't breathe in that bloody corset," Winslet said, as she watched Rose walking across the deck of the ship toward Jack.

"This was a nightmare, shooting this," she continued of their "flying" scene. "Because Leo couldn't stop laughing, and we had to reshoot this about four times because [director James Cameron] wanted a very specific light for this, obviously, and the sunsets kept changing where we were."

"This was a section of the ship — it wasn't part of the actual whole ship set that we had," the Mare of Easttown star explained. "We had to climb up a ladder to get to it, I remember. Hair and makeup couldn't reach us."

"Now, what you wouldn't know, because Leo looks completely natural, but he had to lie on sunbeds; there’s a lot of fake tan makeup going on," Winslet said. "So I have got hidden in [one side of my dress] his makeup and brushes and sponge, and [mine] in the other side. And between takes, I was basically redoing our makeup."

Related: Never-Before-Seen Titanic Set Photos Show a Young Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet

Titanic was a massive success at the box office, where it made over $2.2 billion worldwide on a $200 million budget. The film also starred Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Suzy Amis Cameron.

And despite production challenges, Winslet told Vanity Fair that she feels "very proud" of the 1997 epic, which nabbed 11 Academy Award wins from 14 nominations.

"It is that film that just keeps giving," she said. “Whole other generations of people are discovering the film or seeing it for the first time, and there’s something extraordinary about that.”

"Doesn't mean that people don't get me to try and reenact this every time I'm on a flipping boat, which does my head in," she joked. "Every time, without fail."

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