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Leonardo DiCaprio has been working in Hollywood for more than three decades. And the former child star continues to find new ways to surprise fans. Over the years, the Oscar-winning actor has worked with some of the biggest directors in history. But few fans likely expected him to team up with the filmmaker behind Anchorman and Step Brothers for Don’t Look Up, a darkly comedic riff on disaster movies. Even more shocking was what happened during production.

Leonardo DiCaprio attends the world premiere of Netflix's ‘Don't Look Up’ | Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Leonardo DiCaprio attends the world premiere of Netflix’s ‘Don’t Look Up’ | Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Leonardo DiCaprio stars in Adam McKay’s new comedy ‘Don’t Look Up’

In Don’t Look Up, DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence star as a pair of astronomers who attempt to warn the world about a comet heading straight for Earth. The film uses this scenario as an allegory for climate change. In both cases, the world — at least according to the film itself — remains indifferent to an impending threat. Given DiCaprio’s environmental activism over the years, McKay’s movie feels much more in line with his interests.

Of course, McKay has also evolved as a filmmaker. His first five films star Will Ferrell, but 2015’s The Big Short saw a different side of the director emerge. The film — and his 2018 follow-up, Vice — aim to bring together comedic elements with dramatic political and socioeconomic stakes inspired by true events. In that respect, Don’t Look Up seems like a look forward to a dark future. Or as its poster states, it is “based on truly possible events.”

The actor went to extremes to save his dogs while filming the movie

However, as extreme as the story in Don’t Look Up might be, DiCaprio found himself in real-life peril while making the movie. During Entertainment Weekly‘s recent Around the Table panel, the cast of the film — including Lawrence and Jonah Hill — revealed how DiCaprio wound up diving into a frozen lake to save his dogs. The actor owns two huskies who lived with him during the movie’s shoot in Boston.

At one point, one of DiCaprio‘s dogs fell into the frozen lake. So he jumped in to save his dog. And, as Lawrence explained, the other dog jumped into the lake as soon as they got the first one out. The two dogs and DiCaprio were even all in the frozen lake at one point. Thankfully, everyone was fine. But as DiCaprio said, “[Living in California] [he] didn’t understand what you do at a frozen lake.

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Leonardo DiCaprio reunites with Martin Scorsese for his next movie

Despite that experience, Don’t Look Up appears to have come together nicely. The film has already earned four Golden Globe nominations, despite mixed reviews from critics. But with a cast that also includes Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, and Mark Rylance, it makes sense for the industry to lavish some praise on the film.

For his next project, DiCaprio will reunite with longtime collaborator Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon. This will mark the sixth film the pair have worked on together since 2002’s Gangs of New York. And the Western crime drama will also reunite Scorsese with another frequent star of his films, Robert De Niro.

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