Leonardo DiCaprio slept inside an animal carcass and ate raw bison for The Revenant

'I can name 30 or 40 sequences that were some of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do'

Expect plenty of bloody violence Leonardo DiCaprio's next film The Revenant (20th Century Fox)

Many actors claim to 'method act': a technique in which the person attempts to put themselves through the feelings and life experiences of their character.

In the majority of cases, this means an actor will put on an accent, read the novel the film is based on and possibly talk to their characters real life counterparts.

Leonardo DiCaprio has taken things to the next level for his role in The Revenant. To prepare, the actor not only camped out in the wilderness: he slept in an animal carcass, ate raw bison and went for regular swims in frozen rivers.

“I can name 30 or 40 sequences that were some of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do,” he told Yahoo Movies. “Whether it’s going in and out of frozen rivers, or sleeping in animal carcasses, or what I ate on set. [I was] enduring freezing cold and possible hypothermia constantly.”

It has been reported that the shoot was particularly difficult, with crew members leaving at certain points throughout.

“What we were trying to pull off was so incredibly ambitious, and [director Alejandro Gonzales] is vigilant and incredibly specific about what he wants up on screen, and he won’t accept anything less.

“So along the way, if we had departments that didn’t agree or departments that didn’t work correctly with the situation… I wasn’t privy to exactly what went on.”

DiCaprio is hotly tipped to for an Oscar. If the award was done on dedication alone, he would be head and shoulders above the competition.

The Revenant reaches UK cinemas 25 December.