11 While filming the intense dinner scene in the movie Django Unchained, Leonardo DiCaprio slammed his fist on the table, breaking a glass and cutting his hand severely. However, DiCaprio never broke character and finished the scene, with his bloody hand making it to the final cut of the film.
DiCaprio, who played the role of the main antagonist in Django Unchained, injured his hand during one of the most climactic scenes of the film. Calvin Candie, the power-thirsty plantation owner who Leo portrays, confronts Django (Jamie Foxx) and Dr. Shultz (Christoph Waltz) when he learns that the two have managed to pull an elaborate scam on him so that they can rescue Django’s wife (Kerry Washington), a slave on Candie’s large plantation. While the scene was being shot, DiCaprio unintentionally slammed his hand into glass and cut it. Even as his hand bled profusely, DiCaprio improvised and kept going. At one point, he even smeared the blood on his hand onto Washington’s face to establish dominance. Tarantino chose to keep this and the scene made it to the final cut of the movie.(source)
12 To prepare for the role of The Revenant’s protagonist, Hugh Glass, DiCaprio subjected himself to the harshest possible conditions, slept in animal carcass and ate raw bison liver.
Pushing the envelope so far as method-acting is concerned, DiCaprio left no stone unturned as he prepared to take on one of the most challenging roles of his life. To do justice to the story of Hugh Glass, DiCaprio had to shoot in -25C temperatures and travel to remote locations in Canada and Argentina to film for a measly 90 minutes. The actor, who is a vegan, also ate raw bison liver and spent the night in an animal carcass.(source)
13Leonardo DiCaprio and, his Titanic co-star, Kate Winslet helped pay the nursing home fees for the last Titanic survivor so she wouldn’t have to sell anymore Titanic mementos to raise cash.
Millvina Dean was only two years old when the ill-fated British ocean liner sank after colliding with an iceberg on April 15, 1912. She was the youngest of the 705 survivors and lived to be the last survivor of the tragic sinking. Before she passed away in 2009, she was living at a nursing home in Southampton. Unfortunately, Dean was struggling to pay the fees for the nursing home and had to sell several mementos from the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. So, Leo and Kate pledged their support to a fund that would subsidize Millvina’s nursing home fees. At the time, they said that they hoped Millvina Dean would be able to rest a little easier knowing that her future was secure.(source)
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14 The critically-acclaimed actor is also a champion for the cause of climate change and an environmental activist.
It was only when Leo made his Oscars acceptance speech that people sat up and took notice of his efforts in trying to increase awareness about climate change. At the awards, the actor grimly pointed out that
“…climate change is real, it is happening right now, it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.”
However, the actor has supported the cause for a long time now and, to that end, set up the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998. He has donated $30 million to the foundation, addressed the United Nations about the dangers of climate change in 2014 and even joined the People’s Climate March in Manhattan in the same year. The actor is currently working on a climate change documentary that took him to Baffin Island in the Arctic, last year. His massive celebrity status allows him to highlight these issues, even as he actively seeks out solutions to the very real threat of climate change.(source)
15 Aside from 3 Golden Globe awards, Leonardo DiCaprio had never won any major awards for his work. That was until his much-delayed Oscar win, this year.
DiCaprio was nominated for an Oscar four times, before he finally took home the Best Actor award for The Revenant. He won the Golden Globe thrice for his roles in The Aviator, The Wolf of Wall Street and, most recently, for his portrayal of fur trapper, Hugh Glass, in The Revenant. However, the true testament to Leo’s acting prowess is the love and appreciation the 41-year-old has received for his work, world over.(source)
