Leo says it was colder filming “The Revenant” than that icy final scene in “Titanic”

It’s no secret that the filming of The Revenant was no walk in the park. Film crew members of the Alejandro González Iñárritu-directed feature quit or were fired in droves with many lodging complaints over massive delays and poor working conditions.

But now, Revenant star Leonardo DiCaprio (who’s in hot pursuit of his first Oscar for Best Actor) is even admitting that making the film was pretty terrible at times. In a People interview on the red carpet of the BAFTA Awards, the 41-year-old Hollywood veteran said that filming the Revenant in the icy parts of Canada and Argentina was worse than his time spent floating in icy waters at the end of Titanic.

“This is pretty cold, this whole experience,” he told the interviewer.

Iñárritu agreed, saying, “I think everyday we struggled with different conditions, we had to adapt and had to surrender to the circumstances, something that in a way was beneficial to us to learn about nature. And the way that Leo and all the actors were reacting – and acting is reacting – and when you have those elements around you it always enhances the performance.”

But being the class act that he is (at least when he’s not vaping at an awards show), DiCaprio refused to disparage the entire ordeal and says it was ultimately worth it.

“We knew we weren’t going on a tropical vacation in Hawaii and the Maldives, we were going to be submerged in the wilderness like this,” he said. “But at the end of the day we have a great piece of art to show for it, so we’re all excited to be here.”

A great piece of art, indeed. With the Oscars less than two weeks away, Dicaprio and Iñárritu have been pretty unstoppable on the awards circuit, claiming the Best Actor and Best Director Awards, respectively, at the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes with most predicting the duo will also sweep the Oscars. Kind of makes all that cold and frost worth it, right?