Will Poulter’s dream was to meet Leonardo DiCaprio, and in his new film “The Revenant,” the 23-year-old British thespian not only got to meet the superstar but to share the screen with him.
“They say don’t meet your heroes, but after my experience with Leo, I don’t believe in that anymore. I’m so grateful,” Mr. Poulter recently told The Washington Times. “Working with him and getting to got know him surpassed all my expectations better than I could have ever imagined.”
Based on a true story, “The Revenant” stars Mr. DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, a member of a 19th century frontier hunting and exploration party. When Glass is attacked by a bear, the rest of his party, believing they cannot help him, leave him for dead. Mr. Poulter plays Jim Bridger, one of the party who is then haunted by the hard-to-kill Glass.
While even now still a young man, Mr. Poulter amassed acting credentials long before “Revenant” director Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu cast him as Bridger. He was but 13 when he starred as an English boy emulating his cinematic hero in 2007’s “Son of Rambow,” and he displayed significant comedy chops alongside Jennifer Aniston, Ed Helms and Jason Sudeikis in “We’re the Millers.”
“I look back at ’Son of Rambow,’ and I think, wow, what an amazing introduction to the film industry,” Mr. Poulter said. “The Revenant,” however, is “entirely different for so many reasons. Did I think I would be working with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Alejandro at this stage of my career? No, absolutely not.”
Mr. Inarritu, fresh off his best director Oscar for helming last year’s best picture winner, “Birdman,” made no bones about the treacherous outdoor conditions that awaited his cast in northern Calgary, Canada. The Mexican filmmaker and his crew had only limited amounts of daylight per day and were haunted by punishing cold, but the auteur insisted on using as much real light and practical special effects as possible.
“For me, growing up in London, I hadn’t experienced anything in that realm before,” Mr. Poulter said of working in the Great White North. “It made things difficult, but I think from an acting perspective, it actually reduced the acting challenge. It actually meant that we didn’t have to suspend our disbelief and we could just kind of react to the elements as these [characters] would.”
Despite the natural challenges, Mr. Poulter enjoyed the on-location work of “The Revenant,” which he said Mr. Inarritu intended as a throwback to the epic outdoor filmmaking that was especially common in the 1950s and ’60s, when studios sought ways to lure audiences back to theaters as television took over.
“To be able to, in this day and age, when we’re a little too reliant at times on CGI and technology, return to that kind of filmmaking approach was amazing and a very rare opportunity,” he said. “I think the authenticity of the experience translates well on screen.”
Mr. Poulter was both excited and nervous about acting alongside Mr. DiCaprio and Mr. Hardy, but he said that the set was tremendously collaborative and his more seasoned fellow actors soon put his mind at ease.
“As soon as I came to discover how welcome of my suggestions and input they were, those fears started to ease slightly,” he said. “And I think the challenge of shooting the movie was such that there wasn’t actually room for my anxiety on set.
“We would shoot in very limited windows of light per day, and we’d rehearse meticulously and choreograph absolutely every single micro-element of the scene from the timing of picking up a prop to the delay of a head turn to the crack of an eye line a couple of feet from camera. Every single thing you could have imagined was scientifically, mathematically plotted out prior to the sort of brief window where we’d actually capture it. I didn’t have time to doubt myself in a way, which was strangely gratifying.”
“The Revenant” opens in the District Friday. After globetrotting to both the film’s set and promote the movie worldwide, Mr. Poulter will have two projects bowing in 2016. He is also rumored to take over from Tim Curry the monster Pennywise in the proposed remake of Stephen King’s “It.”
While thankful for the chance to act alongside Messrs. DiCaprio and Hardy, he would still like to share the screen with other idols like Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Jim Carrey and Joaquin Phoenix.
“All of these guys been very inspirational to me,” Mr. Poulter said. “Most of these guys I haven’t had the opportunity to meet or work with yet, and I hope I get a chance to.”
• Eric Althoff can be reached at twt@washingtontimes.com.
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