Billy Zane wishes Cal and Rose had reconciled in 'Titanic'

NEW YORK, June 28 (UPI) -- Billy Zane wishes Cal and Rose had stayed together in Titanic.

The 50-year-old actor suggested the alternate ending while appearing on Monday's episode of Today. Zane played Cal Hockley, Rose's (Kate Winslet) villainous fiancé, in the 1997 blockbuster.

"He was a little misunderstood," the star said in his character's defense. "I wasn't the iceberg. I did not drown 2,000 people. I got off the boat."

"Yes, [I think Rose made the wrong choice]," he added. "I think he found redemption by the end. I wish he had found her on the Carpathia and was able to right his wrongs."

In the movie, Rose left Cal for Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), who froze to death in the icy waters of the Atlantic. Rose survived the shipwreck and avoided Cal while traveling to New York with the other survivors on the Carpathia.

"Cal wasn't a bad man, he was just a victim of bad programming, raised in a time and in a society that conditioned him how to behave, in business and romance," Zane previously told the Telegraph.

"He was pretty much just following the code he knew and in the end it failed him," he said. "Not in a hundred years would he have thought that Rose would find this young ruffian, Jack, of interest and he didn't know how to handle Jack as a rival. I think that is tragic in a way."

Zane responded to Rose and Jack shippers Monday on Twitter, writing, "Lighten up Cal haters. Was just being contracy, inflammatory and hugely unpopular in my opinions." The actor presently plays Stan on Guilt, which airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Freeform.