The Revenant on France 3: how was the impressive bear scene filmed?

Broadcast on France 3 this Monday evening, The Revenant allowed Leonardo DiCaprio to win the Oscar for best actor, thanks to a very physical role and an impressive scene with a bear.

France 3 broadcasts “The Revenant” this Monday, September 25 at 9:10 p.m. Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, this feature film follows a trapper played by Leonardo DiCaprio left for dead in an American forest in the 19th century, who must do everything possible to survive. This incredibly physical and demanding role allowed him to win the Oscar for best actor for the first time in 2016.

In this “survival movie”, an extremely brutal and realistic bear attack scene sticks out. During the sequence, the protagonist, Hugh Glass, is brutally dragged away by the animal before leaving him for dead. And obviously, on the film set, it wasn’t a real bear that mauled Leonardo DiCaprio.

To shoot this memorable scene from “The Revenant”, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu called on the technique of performance capture and the talent of stuntman Glenn Ennis (who previously worked on Fantastic Four, Man Of Steel, Game of Thrones… .). It is the latter who plays the bear, wearing a blue costume and a plastic bear head.

The scene was shot as is, before being digitally reworked to give the impression that a real bear is attacking Hugh Glass. For his part, Leonardo DiCaprio was swung by cables attached to a fake tree. On screen, the result is striking!