Comedy Star of 'The Revenant' Parody Shares His Take on the Film, Discusses Oscar Predictions

With the Oscars just days away, TheBlaze reached out to comedian Jeff Ayars, co-creator of “The Lost Leonardo DiCaprio Outtakes From ‘The Revenant,’” to hear his thoughts on the film that received 11 Academy Award nominations.

Ayars shared that when he and fellow comedian Dan Rosen saw “The Revenant,” they were “taken by the cinematography of the film.” And though the two are typically big DiCaprio fans, they thought his latest film seemed “almost like a torture marathon.”

Earlier this month, Ayars and Rosen posted their parody on YouTube, which depicts Leonardo DiCaprio (Ayars) shooting some of the most dramatic scenes from the film.

Ayars told TheBlaze that though DiCaprio is an accomplished actor, “The Revenant” was not his best work. In his view, the emotions expressed in the film are too familiar.

“I saw the same pain in 'Inception' and in 'Shutter Island' when he’s thinking of his wife,” Ayars said.

Ayars and Rosen shot “The Lost Leonardo DiCaprio Outtakes From ‘The Revenant,’” in the Connecticut wilderness of Greenwich and Stamford, where they filmed their spoof of “American Sniper” last year. The parody calls attention to and exaggerates the similarities between Hugh Glass and other DiCaprio characters.

The video also highlights the fact that DiCaprio doesn’t actually speak much in “The Revanant,” unless you count grunting, screaming and crying.

In Ayars’ words, “Any actor can crawl into a dead horse.”

“All of this stuff Leo was doing didn’t speak to his unique skill set as an actor,” Ayars said.

Image source: YouTube

Ayars and Rosen enjoyed speculating about the source of DiCaprio’s motivation: Was it the director? Was it his own desire to win another Oscar? Probably not, they reasoned.

As far as predictions for this weekend go, Ayars said he believes “The Revenant” will claim Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography.

Ayars shared his favorite scenes from the film: The beginning and the end. He said the film’s opening scene, “with the natives and the fire, arrows — all that sort of stuff ... wide shots from character to character,” was “one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen in a film.”

He was also impressed by the final fight scene between Tom Hardy and DiCaprio.

“In the theater, I noticed in that final scene with Leo and Hardy ... in the middle of that climactic battle there’s this beautiful lighting sweeping across the mountains,” Ayars said. “I don’t know if that was an intentional move on behalf on the director, but if it was, it’s a work of art.”

Ayars shared that his favorite character in the film was Tom Hardy.

Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio attend the premiere of 20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises' "The Revenant" Dec. 16 in Hollywood. (Getty)

“I think he created an evil character that I couldn’t see everyone playing,” he said.

Ayars and Rosen, who met in college while studying art and film, co-founded the comedy site Cannibal Milkshake.

Looking forward, Ayars shared that he hopes the group will continue to expand and gain recognition for their “artsy” productions, as well as their commercial projects.

“It would be cool if one day Cannibal Milkshake was a production company,” Ayars said, but at the moment, he described the site as “a cool-comedy community.”

Watch “The Lost Leonardo DiCaprio Outtakes From ‘The Revenant’”: