Shot chronologically on an 80-day schedule that took place over a total principal photography time period of nine months. This unusually long production time was due to the cold weather conditions, the remoteness of the locations and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu's and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's aesthetic plan to shoot only with natural light for maximum realism. Only a few shooting hours were available every day and had to be carefully planned in advance.
The film was shot only with natural light but with only one exception, according to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki: a campfire sequence at night where the wind was causing the fire to pulse in a distracting way. "We had to lay a bunch of light bulbs around the fire to create a cushion of light," Lubezki admits. "That's all the light we used." [16 Dec. 2015, Variety]
Due to production being behind schedule, the snow melted during the location shoot in Canada before filming was complete. With summer rapidly approaching, there was no choice but to relocate the entire production to southern Argentina, where there were similar wintry conditions.
Leonardo DiCaprio chose to devour a raw slab of bison's liver, even though he is vegetarian. He also had to learn to shoot a musket, build a fire, speak two Native American languages (Pawnee and Arikara), and study with a doctor who specializes in ancient healing techniques. DiCaprio calls it the hardest performance of his career.
Alejandro G. Iñárritu was insistent that computer-generated imagery not be used to enhance the film, stating, "If we ended up in greenscreen with coffee and everybody having a good time, everybody will be happy, but most likely the film would be a piece of shit."
Leonardo DiCaprio: [Immersed in water] In this film, Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is shown in several scenes involving water. In a long sequence, Glass is swimming in the rocky river to get away from danger and start his journey. The scene before he comes across a herd of bison, he's standing in a river catching a fish. And much later, after being rescued and brought to Fort Kiowa, there's a brief scene where he's bathing as he pours water all over himself. See also Romeo + Juliet (1996), Titanic (1997), The Beach (2000), Inception (2010), Shutter Island (2010), The Great Gatsby (2013), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019).
