Leonardo DiCaprio Reflects on Filming 'Titanic' With Kate Winslet

— -- Leonardo DiCaprio is looking back at his experience filming "Titanic" with Kate Winslet and revealing how the role transformed his career.

In an interview with Deadline, "The Revenant" actor explained why the 1997 James Cameron film was "an experiment" for both him and his co-star.

"Titanic was very much an experiment for Kate Winslet and I," said DiCaprio. "We’d done all of these independent movies. I loved her as an actress and she said, 'Let’s do this together, we can do this.'”

"We did it, and it became something that we could’ve never foreseen," he continued.

DiCaprio, who was just 22 when "Titanic" came out, admitted that he didn't quite grasp the enormity of the film he was making at the time.

"People said, 'Do you realize how big of a movie this is?' I said, 'Yeah, it’s big. It’s a big movie,'" said DiCaprio. "They’re like, 'No. No. No, it’s the biggest movie ever,' and I’m like, 'Well, what does that mean?'"

He continued: "I knew there was an expectation of me to do a certain thing at that point, and I knew I had to get back to what my intentions were from the onset."

DiCaprio, 41, agreed with the notion that he could have had any part he wanted after "Titanic," but said that he's always wanted to make "different" types of movies.

"I had forged by then exactly what type of films I wanted to do," said DiCaprio. "I used [my fame] as a blessing, to make R-rated, different kinds of movies, to throw the dice a little bit on things I wanted to act in. People would want to finance those movies now. I’d never had that, before 'Titanic.'"