After several years of Oscar caliber-roles and transformative performances, Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his coveted Best Actor for The Revenant. DiCaprio endured a long, cold production to play the grizzled, vengeful frontiersman in this project, which also landed Alejandro González Iñárritu a Best Director Oscar. And boy, did DiCaprio ever earn this one. He not only suffered through extreme filming conditions but also tolerated a certain rumor like a sport. As the presumed winner, his victory wasn’t unexpected, but folks wondered how DiCaprio would devote his time at the microphone after so many speeches.
DiCaprio didn’t deliver precisely as predicted, but he still landed a special speech that resonated well with his audience. After thanking Tom Hardy, the cast and crew, and old friend Martin Scorsese, DiCaprio zeroed in on his favorite cause, the environment:
“Making The Revenant was about man’s relation to the natural world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now, it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.”
Bravo. DiCaprio fought for this win and used his moment to urge change. Let’s hope he celebrates properly after lifting a glass in so many films.
