Sometimes American artists get their due in foreign countries before they find it in our own. France, for instance, recently gave Kristen Stewart a César, its Oscar equivalent. Not to be outdone, Russia — or at least a few people in a small part of Russia — is giving Leonardo DiCaprio something like an Oscar. According to a state news agency, translated by the Washington Post, a group of filmmakers from Yakutia (in eastern Russia) are collecting donations to build a trophy for the star of The Revenant. More than 100 people have contributed to the project.
Women who donate their jewelry, which will be melted down for gold and silver, are told that they should only donate half, so that “one half will be with Leonardo DiCaprio and one half with them,†as they would be “somehow connected with the actor.†The “Yakut Oscar,†which will be awarded regardless of whether Leo wins an Academy Award this year, will resemble the real thing in most respects. However, it will wield a Choron, a three-legged goblet that is a symbol for peace, rather than a sword. The organizers promise they will make sure the prize makes it to Leo.
The Russian people love Leo, and this is not their first attempt to give him a prize. After he lost out on Best Actor for his role in The Wolf of Wall Street in 2014, a group of bodybuilders in Chelyabinsk sent him a cast-iron trophy, though it’s unclear whether he ever received it (maybe his Russian doppelgänger nabbed it instead?). Leo, meanwhile, has shown support for Russia, meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2010 over a tiger conservancy project, and even going as far as to say that he’d like to play the oft-shirtless Russian leader in a film. Well, if The Revenant doesn’t get him that Oscar …