In case you thought your boy was effing around this awards season, I'm here to tell you that he decidedly is not: Leonardo DiCaprio says The Revenant was difficult film, and his interviews about the movie so far make it clear the actor considers this a magnum opus. Even though the film about real-life 1820s fur trapper Hugh Glass doesn't even come out until Dec. 25, DiCaprio's name is already on pretty much every shortlist out there for a presumed Best Actor Oscar nod, and everyone says this is his year. However, the dude has been burned before. Many a time, in fact, which is why it seems like, based on the statements he's been giving of late, he's taking no chances of having it happen again. Since the voting itself is out of DiCaprio's hands, he seems to be hedging his bets the only way he knows how: by making it painstakingly obvious how miserable this shoot was, aka how much work he put into it, aka how deserving he is of that lil golden statue.
To be fair, the Alejandro Iñárritu-directed project does sound especially punishing, but I don't think it's any accident how often this particular topic has been coming up in interviews. For example, in DiCaprio's recent conversation with Wired, he used the term "grueling" to describe the process, and, when the interviewer asks if there were moments when DiCaprio wondered why he was putting himself through it, here's his response: "Moments? Every single day of this movie was difficult. It was the most difficult film I’ve ever done. You’ll see, when you see the film — the endurance that we all had to have is very much up on the screen."
Yikes. I haven't heard someone this miserable about a process since Kim Kardashian describing her first pregnancy. But, seriously, I thought DiCaprio might be exaggerating slightly before I read on: "The hardest thing for me was getting in and out of frozen rivers. Because I had elk skin on and a bear fur that weighed about 100 pounds when it got wet. And every day it was a challenge not to get hypothermia."
Um, OK, yes. I'm filling out my nomination form for DiCaprio as we speak. We give added weight to actors who go through the wringer for a role all the time, whether they gain or lose weight, transform their physical appearances entirely, or do something else to prove how badly they want it, so yeah, DiCaprio should probably be a shoe in at this point.
Oh, and now you're gonna tell me they had actual EMTs on set, DiCaprio had to eat raw bison liver, and the shoot stretched on for nine months? Honestly, once they announce the other nominees, everybody should probably just drop out of the race out of respect. If I've learned anything from this interview, it's that somebody needs to cut DiCaprio a break. If all this effort doesn't earn him an Oscar, what will?
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