The Iconic Role That Made Leonardo DiCaprio Physically Ill
Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the most recognizable names in modern Hollywood, and for good reason. The Oscar-winning actor has starred in some of the most iconic films of the 20th and 21st centuries. For some people, he'll always be best known as Jack from James Cameron's "Titanic." However, throughout the 2000s, DiCaprio put together a staggering resume of performances in films such as "Gangs of New York," "Catch Me If You Can," "The Aviator," "The Departed," and "Inception," just to name a few.
Even with this impressive filmography and multiple nominations under his belt, it wasn't until several decades into his career that DiCaprio finally won an Academy Award. He nabbed the best actor prize for 2015's "The Revenant," which saw him playing an early frontiersman in 1820s America as he fights to survive and protect his hunting group and family. According to DiCaprio, the nine-month shoot was incredibly challenging, and he said that enduring the freezing temperatures and shooting extreme sequences, such as ones where his character sleeps in animal carcasses, were "some of the most difficult things I've ever had to do" (via Yahoo). There was one scene, in particular, that even made him physically ill.
DiCaprio became physically ill from eating raw meat in 'The Revenant'
During one particular scene in "The Revenant," DiCaprio's character Hugh Glass is struggling to survive after being left for dead by some of his hunting group. Hugh ends up killing a bison, although he has no means to cook the meat. He is forced to eat the raw bison, which makes him react in a visibly disgusted manner. In an interview with Today, Dicaprio confirmed that this reaction was in fact real, as he had requested there to be actual raw bison meat for the scene. They had originally had a "red gelatinous sort of pancake to eat," according to DiCaprio, but he felt it looked too inauthentic.
DiCaprio said of eating the raw bison meat, "It was completely disgusting [...] My reaction is very much on-screen, which is a nauseating one." It sounds like that bout of nausea had a big impact on the actor, as he followed up the anecdote about the raw bison meat by declaring, "I'll never do that again."