James Cameron remembers the time he almost hit Harvey Weinstein with his 'Titanic' Oscar

Even before his downfall, Harvey Weinstein had a habit of pissing people off.

Case in point: James Cameron recently recounted the time he nearly hit Weinstein with an Oscar statue – 19 years ago.

Cameron revealed to Vanity Fair that he and Weinstein almost came to blows at the 1998 Academy Awards (i.e., the one where Titanic won all the Oscars).

The two began arguing on the main floor of the Oscars theater, just as music started playing to let attendees know they needed to return to their seats before the live televised feed began.

At one point, according to Cameron, he was about to hit Weinstein with the award he'd just won. While Cameron didn't quite get there, Weinstein surely would've been hurt if he had – those things weigh 8.5 pounds.

So, what was it that had Cameron so heated? He was standing up for his friend and fellow director Guillermo del Toro, who was coming off of a terrible experience with the Weinsteins on his first American movie, Mimic.

Cameron explained:

Harvey came up glad-handing me, talking about how great [The Weinstein Co.] were for the artist, and I just read him chapter and verse about how great I thought he was for the artist based on my friend’s experience, and that led to an altercation.

Del Toro has made no secret of his dislike of Weinstein. Speaking last month at the BFI London Film Festival, del Toro stated that he "really hated" working with Weinstein on Mimic.

"Two horrible things happened in the late nineties: my father was kidnapped and I worked with the Weinsteins," said del Toro. "I know which one was worse. The kidnapping made more sense. I knew what they wanted.”