Leonardo DiCaprio says that ‘Revenant’ bear scene ‘was incredibly difficult to do’
“The Revenant” director Alejandro Iñárritu, left, and Leonardo DiCaprio in the press room at the 2016 Golden Globe Awards.
To be sure, Leonardo DiCaprio thought Jonah Hill made for an excellent bear during the 73rd Golden Globes -- “That was amazing,” he said. But the bear that audiences see in DiCaprio’s much talked about scene from “The Revenant” was a beast of a different kind.
Asked by a reporter backstage about the process of making the gory assault scene, in which the bear savagely attacks DiCaprio, the actor said he wasn’t supposed to talk in great detail about the process that he and “Revenent” director Alejandro Iñárritu used to complete the scene.
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“Alejandro watched over 100 different bear attacks,” DiCaprio, joined by Iñárritu, did offer. “What he creates in that sequence is almost like virtual reality. It awakes the senses. I think that sequence will go down in the history of cinema as an amazing visceral, tactile sequence that makes people feel like they were there. It was incredibly difficult to do.”
The brutal action sequence initially blew up the Internet when it was mistaken as a sexual assault shortly after the film was screened for critics.
Iñárritu added: “Leo went through very hard, physical demands to make this every trick possible. … I used it in order for us to have the audience witness something they would never witness in real life.”
“The Revenant” scored four Golden Globe nominations, including best actor (DiCaprio), best film director (Iñárritu) and best score (Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto) and best drama film.
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