On December 1, Matt Drudge reported "The Revenant" star Leonardo DiCaprio was raped twice in the movie by a giant bear. The Drudge Report article went viral, but in a recent red-carpet interview, the Golden Globe nominee shut the report down as nothing but an "absurd" claim.
Last Wednesday night during the movie's Los Angeles premiere, the actor told E! News' Zuri Hall, "I have no idea where these ridiculous things came from, and what can you do when you hear stuff like that? It's absurd. It's absurd."
Apparently, the scene which Drudge wrote about actually shows DiCaprio being attacked by a female bear when she felt that her cubs were in danger.
The said scene was described by Drudge as "when the Wolf of Wall Street met the Grizzly of Yellowstone." He even wrote that the "explicit mauling" drove some viewers out of the early screenings.
The film's director, on the other hand, had an unexpected reaction to the report. Director Alejandro Inarritu told The Wrap, "I have to say that my first thought was, 'Oh my god that is a great idea -- why didn't I shoot it like that? That would have been one the most memorable scenes ever. I thought it was brilliant."
While it is now confirmed that DiCaprio was not raped by a bear, he did however experience eating bison liver to make the movie more authentic.
"It's something that I won't repeat, that's for sure," the actor said. "We submerged ourselves in the elements for this film. We really wanted to create something incredibly authentic so these types of adventures lend themselves to taking chances like that."
DiCaprio added, "You want to be as authentic as you possibly can with every decision that you make and that resulting in me biting into something that was pretty disgusting and my real reaction is on film and up there onscreen."
"The Revenant" will be released in limited theaters on December 25. It will be released worldwide on January 8.