BY TRISTAN BRONCA Winning his first academy award gave him the biggest platform in the world with an important message to get across . But a slip-up during the speech , suggests that the line between acting and activism is thinner than we imagined .
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URING HIS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH for what may have been the longest-overdue award for “ best actor ” in the history of the Academy Awards , Leonardo DiCaprio made a mistake . You , like millions of other people watching the show , may have missed it but someone caught it . Someone was bound to catch it .
First some background . The moment Leo took the stage was the most-tweeted-about moment in the history of the awards show with more than 440,000 tweets being sent out every minute ( the previous record was 255,000 set in 2014 when Ellen Degeneres tweeted her famous selfie ). This is a big deal . Whether you had Twitter or not , it was impossible to be someone who watches movies and not know what was happening .
“ Leo is too polished to stumble on stage or become overly emotional ,” wrote one Esquire blogger ahead of the event . “ We ' d all like to see Leo break down , but it ain ' t gonna happen .”
Indeed he didn ’ t . When they announced his name , his expression didn ’ t betray a hint of the relief or joy he must have felt in that moment . He has practiced this . He admitted practicing this after he lost the Oscar to Jamie Foxx in 2005 . “ Anyone who says they don ’ t practice is a liar ,” he said .
He began with a few remarks about the other nominees ’ performances . He thanked his supporting cast , his co-star ( and friend ) Tom Hardy , and the visionaries at the helm of the Revenant . Then , at the point in the speech where normally the orchestra plays every other award-winner except the actors , directors , and best-picture winners off the stage , it was there that �eo ’ s gaffe came .
LASTLY I JUST WANT TO SAY THIS : Making the Revenant was about man ’ s relationship with the natural world … our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow . Climate change is real , it is happening right now , it is the most urgent threat facing our whole species …
His mistake wasn ’ t in saying climate change is the most urgent threat facing our whole species . Rather , it was his suggestion that the melt at the filming location in Alberta was proof of climate change . It was actually caused by a Chinook , an age-old phenomenon where the wet , warm winds from the Rocky Mountains sweep across the Canadian prairies . Some say the name means �ice-eater� in first nations ’ folklore . Even the locals say it ’ s strange . fredi spring 2016 • 15