Leonardo DiCaprio does not get raped by a bear in Alejandro G. Inarittu’s The Revenant, but a rumor that the actor did got so much attention that the director actually commented on it.
Earlier this week, the conservative news site Drudge Report ran a headline that read, “DICAPRIO RAPED BY BEAR IN FOX MOVIE,” with no indication that site owner Matt Drudge had even seen the film himself.
Drudge even included an apparent quote that read, “He is raped - twice!” and linked to a Showbiz411 report. In that report, columnist Roger Friedman wrote that, “the bear flips Glass over on his belly and molests him – dry humps him actually – as he nearly devours him.”
The Drudge post went viral, forcing distributor 20th Century Fox to issue a statement, insisting that there is “clearly no rape scene with a bear.”
“It's almost a Saturday Night Live skit. It's fantastic,” Inarritu told The Los Angeles Times. The Birdman director then used the incident as a chance to give his take on the media.
“What's unbelievable is the validation. When I first saw it I thought it was a joke,” Inarritu told the Times. “But then it gets validation, and the studio actually has to release a statement that there was no bear rape. It's like a crazy mad comedy.”
He also noted that there have been countless incorrect stories about the film, which really was difficult to shoot.
“There have been a lot of stories about this movie that haven't been true,” the director explained. “Leo's beard had fleas, that was one that went all around the world. We just need [Donald] Trump to say the raping bear was Mexican and we'll be done.”
The Revenant opens in limited release on Christmas Day before going wide on Jan. 8.