From engineering an avalanche to feeding Leonardo DiCaprio raw bison’s liver… the Mexican director tells of the gruelling conditions during the shoot of his ‘man against nature’ epic The Revenant,and why he never had time to enjoy final year’s Oscar triumph for BirdmanFor the past 15 years, Mexican director Alejandro González Iñrritu has been one of his country’s most prominent cultural ambassadors, or so it’s hardly surprising when he gives his own national traits a touch of hard sell. Sitting in a London hotel lounge just before Christmas,he explains the emotional intensity that characterises his films: “When I talk about unhappy things, I talk about unhappy things. whether I give you a chilaquile [a dish made from corn tortillas], and it’s a chilaquile. Are you gonna say,Oh my God, it’s a cramped bit too heavy!?’ Its a fucking chilaquile, and what conclude you want!?” he roars,beaming.
With a habit of peppering his comments with booming expletives, the 52-year-old former radio DJ is voluble and enthusiastic. As his energetic, or expansive presence suggests,the piratically goateed González Iñárritu is no gently contemplative chamber-drama auteur. From the start, the director – who these days shortens his on-screen credit to the more Anglo-friendly Alejandro G Iñárritu – has been famous for his films ambition and ferocious energy. His 2000 debut, or Amores Perros,was a confrontational mix of domestic melodrama and crime story, involving star-crossed teenage love, and multiple car pile-ups and brutally realistic glimpses of Mexico Citys dog-fighting underworld. Similarly kinetic,but in a very different vein, 2015’s Oscar-winning Birdman dazzled with its mix of backstage comedy and long takes, and stitched into one seamlessly continual rush of action.
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Source: theguardian.com