"The Revenant", Leonardo DiCaprio's greatest challenge
The actor said that he was wearing moose and bear skins that weighed about 50 kilos when he got wet, a product of having to work in frozen rivers. "Every day it was a challenge not to suffer from hypothermia," he explained in a recent interview.
That of "The Revenant" was such a difficult story to digest and to put on stage that two renowned directors said not before the project was picked up by a very prestigious trio: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Emmanuel Lubezki and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Together they managed to create a very powerful film, both visually and interpretively, focusing on the story of the hunter and adventurer Hugh Glass, left for dead by a group of expeditionaries to the western United States in the mid-nineteenth century and who decides to take revenge later.
Specifically, Glass is attacked by a bear that leaves him almost dead. His companions leave him abandoned and end the life of his son, which pushes him on a path of revenge and fight without respite.
It is, without a doubt, one of those difficult roles to reject, which was first in the hands of Samuel L. Jackson and later in those of Christian Bale, to go to a DiCaprio who at 41 years old has established himself as one of the best actors of their time in Hollywood.
Just as it is shown on the screen to the viewer, this is how hard the film was for its protagonist. According to DiCaprio, "The Revenant" is the most difficult film he has made in his life, and that is saying a lot for an actor with a few titles behind him. "Every day of this movie was complicated," he explained, mainly because of the physical load that the shooting demanded.
The actor said that he was wearing moose and bear skins that weighed about 50 kilos when he got wet, a product of having to work in frozen rivers. "Every day it was a challenge not to get hypothermia," he explained in a recent interview.
In fact, they used a large fan on set to be able to warm up the actor after each take. A way to keep your hands and feet dry and avoid an illness that would have taken an already long shoot. In total, it was a challenging nine months that not many directors were willing to accept.
The fact that the Mexican Oscar winner for best picture last year was at the helm was the ultimate motivation for saying yes. The Italian-born actor understands it more as a chapter in his life than as a movie because of the difficulty that he entailed. "It was epic in every way."
Although it is a noticeably harder cut film than "Birdman," it has enough ingredients to compete at the Oscars next year. In fact, its premiere in a few cinemas on December 25 responds to that intention mainly.
The bets favor DiCaprio to be nominated again for best actor, something that he has already achieved three times, still without winning the award.
The director, who already won the Oscar last year, and his magnificent director of photography, Emmanuel Lubezki, who achieved something historic by taking home the golden statuette for two consecutive years working with two Mexican directors, Alfonso Cuarón, also leave with many options. in "Gravity" and Iñárritu in "Birdman".
With "The Revenant", he has re-signed an excellent work, shot all in hostile territory and in remote settings in Canada and Argentina. That is why it cost a lot to finance it, since, according to Iñárritu, he wasted much of the day trying to get to the designated places. The result, however, seems to have paid off. It remains to be seen if the Hollywood Academy understands this as well.
