The Bear From ‘The Revenant’ Speaks Out About Having His Face In Leonardo DiCaprio’s Butt

If Leonardo DiCaprio wins the Academy Award for Best Actor next month, as he’s expected to, then I think it’s only fair his scene-partner gets an Oscar, too. Not Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, or Forrest Goodluck. But the bear.

Glenn Ennis has been a stunt person since the early 2000s, appearing in everything from Air Buddies to Man of Steel, but he’s received the most attention of his career for not raping DiCaprio. The 51-year-old Canadian, who is 6-foot-4 tall, spoke to Global News about playing a “big Smurf bear”:

In rehearsals, I would wear a blue suit with a bear head. Obviously that doesn’t make it into the film, and the CGI guys paint the bear in. Alejandro [G. Iñárritu] was adamant that the blue bear moved just like a real bear would move, and it was essential that it had the same nuances that a bear would have. Even though it was a big Smurf bear, it still had to be as authentic as possible. (Via Global News)

Ennis wasn’t the original choice to play The Revenant‘s fuzzy breakout star. “They had two people from the States doing some of the rehearsing,” he said, but “one of them had to go to the hospital for exhaustion.” As for that scene:

If you notice the bear head in the picture, they wanted the bear mouth to be right on his lower back. I was supposed to grab his jacket with my hand to make it look like the bear’s jaws were pulling it. In order to have the bear’s jaw in the small of his back, basically my face was in his butt. My face was in Leo’s butt for a fair bit of time. I can see how that’s someone’s fantasy, but it wasn’t mine! (Via)

He went places no man, only 23-year-old models, has gone before. Ennis thought the whole bear rape rumor was “bizarre,” which is underselling it. We’re talking about a likely-Oscar-winning movie that went massively over budget, where the director had to ask an actor if his genitals were fine while he was being dragged naked across the cold ground, and the thing it will be remembered for the most in 20 years is, “You mean the bear rape movie?”

What a time to be alive. Even with bear taxes at an all-time high.

(Via Global News)

Now Watch: A Timeline Of That ‘Leo DiCaprio Raped By A Bear’ Rumor

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