Man behind Leonardo DiCaprio's Revenant bear attack revealed

Glenn Ennis wears the blue bear suit used in The Revenant. Photograph: Scott Ateah

(THE GUARDIAN) The infamous bear attack scene in the Oscar-nominated adventureThe Revenantinvolved Leonardo DiCaprio, his stunt double, some special effects and a stuntman in a blue suit.

Glenn Ennisis the man in question, who donned a special outfit to help create the brutal sequence that has DiCaprio’s frontiersman mauled, and nearly killed, by a bear. Ennis is a 51-year-old stuntman who has previously worked on films such as Freddy vs Jason and Watchmen.

“In rehearsals, I would wear a blue suit with a bear head,” he said in an interview withGlobal News. “Obviously that doesn’t make it into the film, and the CGI guys paint the bear in. Alejandro [Iñárritu] was adamant that the blue bear moved just like a real bear would move, and it was essential that it had the same nuances that a bear would have. Even though it was a big Smurf bear, it still had to be as authentic as possible.”

The bear attack scene from The Revenant. Photograph: 20th Century Fox

In preparation, Ennis watched videos of bears attacking to study their traits and the ways in which they move. He compared it to “a cat playing with a mouse”.

The scene, which has become the most talked about in the acclaimed film, was the subject of controversy pre-release withan inaccurate reportsuggesting DiCaprio’s character was raped by the bear.

“It was people with no life, I guess, who started that,” Ennis said. “I spent a lot of time rolling around with Leo, but it was all consensual.”

In the film, after DiCaprio is initially attacked by the bear, he plays dead to avoid further injury.Survival expert Ray Mearsclaims that this would probably be an effective way of dealing with the situation.

The Revenant led the pack during last week’sOscar nominations, scoring 12 nods including best picture and best actor.