Billy Zane believes his Titanic character has been judged too harshly.

In the iconic 1997 movie Billy played the role of bad guy Cal Hockley, the wealthy son of a steel tycoon who boards the passenger ship with his fiance Rose Bukater. Cal shows his rage after he finds out Rose has been seeing working class artist Jack Dawson.

However, Billy sympathises with his character in the film. The movie is about the passenger ship which sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg on a voyage from Southampton to New York.

"I'm not the iceberg, come on I didn't kill 2,000 people. I was just a little heartbroken," he told Cover Media at last night's London premiere of Titanic 3D.

The actor adds his character was just upset when he didn't get his way. He says Cal is also a coward who is afraid of water.

"If you noticed my character never really gets wet," he said.

"He was a bit like a cat, I figured he would rather step on top hat or a woman's wig before he would get wet."

Billy is pleased the picture has been transformed into 3D. He thinks the new version will create more emotion within moviegoers.

"I think the film is worthy of a rerelease in 2D," he said.

"The 3D dynamic adds a wonderful distraction that you can allow yourself to be hooked by the wonderful theatrics and the fantastic work by the actress."

The new 3D version is set to be released worldwide from April.