Shelley Winters gained 35 pounds for the part of Belle Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

Shelley Winters gained 35 pounds for the part of Belle Rosen in
"The Poseidon Adventure" (1972).

Afterward, she complained that she was never able to get back to her
original weight, no matter how hard she tried. Even though her
character is presented as an elderly, retired woman, Winters was only
51 years old when the film was made. Ernest Borgnine was actually
three years older than Winters, despite the fact that his character
treats hers like a old woman.

Winters trained with an Olympic swim coach so that her character, who
is a former award-winning swimmer, would come across more
realistically in the underwater scenes.

The original script called for Gene Hackman's character Rev. Scott to
send Mrs. Rosen on her underwater mission, and for her to be trapped
and needing rescuing by him. Hackman decided that his character would
never ask her to do this, and suggested their characters' situations
be reversed. Director Ronald Neame agreed, and they persuaded Winters
that this was, indeed, better for her character.

According to Borgnine and Neame, Winters loved playing gin rummy. To
keep her occupied during breaks in filming, Jack Albertson, who played
her husband, would play gin rummy with her. According to Borgnine,
Albertson ended up winning $260,000 from Winters. Both Borgnine and
Neame said Albertson never got paid. Despite their game attempt to
portray happily married seniors, Albertson once told a fan that he
couldn't stand working with Shelley Winters: "The happiest moment
making the movie for me was when she died."
 
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