A champion chuckwagon driver spent eight months watching a Hollywood actor’s every move as the cameras rolled in Kananaskis a year ago.
High River area’s Jason Glass was one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s three stunt doubles in The Revenant – a film that won three Golden Globes this month and is up for 12 Academy Awards on Feb. 28.
“I had to be ready, standing right there at all times if I had to do something instead of him,” Glass explained. “When it was my turn I had to watch his movements and mirror him without asking many questions. You’ve got to pay attention and be ready at any minute.”
The adventure-survival film, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, focuses on frontiersman Hugh Glass, played by DiCaprio, who embarks on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s when he’s mauled by a bear and left for dead by his hunting team.
The story is based on Michael Punke’s The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge.
While Glass was hired to do just horse-related scenes, that soon changed.
“I finished off the last several months of the show after the other guys got hurt and had to leave,” he said.
Glass entered the role with 25 years of experience performing stunts in such films as Inception, The Incredible Hulk, Romeo and Juliet and Hell on Wheels, but the job doesn’t become easier.
“It was long days,” Glass recalls. “It was a very difficult shoot. They were very particular on what they wanted to capture.”
Filming began in the Kananaskis and Rockies in September 2014 and ended in April 2015.
Most of Glass’ time was spent in DiCaprio’s shadow.
“He’s very professional,” he said. “He’s a very focused guy. He was super polite.”
Once The Revenant hit the big screen on Jan. 8, viewers couldn’t differentiate between DiCaprio and Glass.
“Riding a horse bareback and trying to look like another person doing it is always difficult,” Glass said. “He’s getting shot at, he’s wounded, he’s tired, he’s sick. You’ve got to try to put yourself in his character and try to make it look like he would after he’s injured and attacked by a bear. You can’t look like a professional rider.”
Christian Fraser, who grew up in Okotoks, was part of the 35-men stunt team involved in the film’s initial battle scene, filmed in the Bow River west of Cochrane.
For three weeks in early fall they rehearsed the scene until mid-afternoon and when the lighting was perfect filming began until the sun went behind the mountains.
“It was intense,” said Fraser.
“The director wanted to have total chaos going at all times. With only two coordinators you have to improvise with your native counterpart. They didn’t have time to coach you. They wanted it to look real and gritty with lots of wrestling, lots of kicking up dust. They couldn’t get us dirty enough. The wardrobe had to be soaked and caked in boot polish and everything else.”
Fraser was taking a break from his career as a stuntman when the call was made.
“It’s an up and down business and I have children and it’s hard to wait by the phone all the time,” he said. “I was doing some stuff here and there when a friend called me said, ‘This is a pretty good deal and they need lots of guys.’”
It wasn’t just the extras and stuntmen who were getting dirty for the scene.
“The actors were in the thick of it with all of us,” Fraser said. “They are getting wet and cold and muddy, especially when it gets to the end of the day and the sun starts dipping and they are trying to get that last shot in.”
Longview area brothers Guy and Dusty Bews were among the stuntmen in the battle scene, with Guy having worked previously with DiCaprio in Romeo and Juliet.
“He sticks mostly to himself,” he said of DiCaprio. “He’s a pro at what he does. I’ve worked with Tom Hardy a couple of times now. He’s got some stamina and he’s full of piss and vinegar but he’s down to earth and a good guy, too.”
Guy has 28 years experience as a stuntman on such films as Interstellar, Brokeback Mountain and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He also worked as the stunt coordinator for Fargo and Klondike.
Guy spent hours in the frigid Bow River for the battle scene, with most of that time rehearsing rather than filming.
“I was in the river getting shot off the boat,” he said. “I thought, if I’m going to do this all day long I’ve got to reserve my strength because I don’t want to look like crap when the cameras turn on. Being a stunt performer is like being a professional athlete in a way.”
Guy also helped the crew with safety components involving cliffs, rivers and horse scenes.
“One guy gets shot off a horse with nothing on but a loin cloth,” he said. “We tried to make the ground as soft as we could. He went off the horse 17 times that day.”
With The Revenant up for numerous awards, Guy can’t help but feel a sense of pride.
“As a stunt performer I’m proud of it, but I’m a small piece of that whole pie.”
