For his latest film, The Revenent – in which he stars as an 1820s American frontiersman who’s left for dead by his fellow travellers after a bear attack – he took method acting to a whole new level.
To prepare for the role Leo camped in the freezing wilderness, sleeping inside animal carcasses, feasting on raw bison and swimming in frozen rivers. Because of course he did.
I can name 30 or 40 sequences that were some of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. Whether it’s going in and out of frozen rivers, or sleeping in animal carcasses, or what I ate on set. [I was] enduring freezing cold and possible hypothermia constantly.
Before adding: “I certainly don’t eat raw bison liver on a regular basis. When you see the movie, you’ll see my reaction to it… It says it all. It was an instinctive reaction.”
According to the The Independent it was an extremely difficult shoot, with crew members leaving throughout. Most of the filming took place in the coldest, most remote parts of Canada and Argentina, and the actor toldYahoo the experience profoundly changed him.
And another thing that might be changing is Leo’s Oscar status. The 40-year-old is hotly tipped to win the coveted award this time round, and to be honest, he’s earned it on insane dedication alone.