The Oscar drums have begun beating for Leonardo DiCaprio to possibly win his first statue this year for his performance in The Revenant. Needless to say, DiCaprio has a vocal fanbase, and most of them are stunned that the actor hasn’t earned an Oscar statue yet. But at the moment, no one of note has seen The Revenant, so we don’t know if the movie – or DiCaprio’s performance – is awards-worthy. We do know, however, that the actor approached the role with his usual reckless abandon, making extreme sacrifices to achieve reality in the part.
Yahoo Movies has exclusive images from The Revenant on its page today, as well as insight into the filming of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s latest drama (a follow-up to his Oscar-winning Birdman). Production designer Jack Fisk, raving about DiCaprio, said there’s a scene where the actor’s character has to eat a wild bison’s liver in order to survive. Only, DiCaprio’s a vegetarian, and so,
He had to eat the liver, I think he threw up afterward… he was so into it. It made me really appreciate the extent to which he’ll go to make things right.
Leonardo DiCaprio isn’t one of those actors who you hear goes Method during a film, demanding that people on a set only talk to him as if he’s in character, or refusing to break out of personality in between takes. But for a vegetarian to actually eat a bison’s liver in order to get a scene done properly… that’s hardcore. I eat all sorts of meat, and I’m not sure I’d eat a bison’s liver. Kudos to DiCaprio for staying in the moment, and giving Inarritu the footage that he needs to craft a potential masterpiece.
In The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a man injured by a bear attack who is robbed by his companion (Tom Hardy) and left for dead. Only, he doesn’t die. He survives the attack, then mounts a mission of vengeance against the men who wronged him. Severely. The movie looks compelling as hell, and another masterful technical exercise for Alejandro Inarritu, who demanded that they shoot the entire movie by natural light, in extreme conditions. Look at this glorious footage:
Can the movie finally earn Leonardo DiCaprio an Oscar? Who knows? He’s currently the one actor most analysts want to win a trophy, mainly because they feel that he should have earned it for previous performances in movies like Django Unchained, The Wolf of Wall Street, Shutter Island, The Departed, Gangs of New York… etc. The Revenant is expected to open in theaters on December 25. Be on the lookout for the bison-liver scene.
