Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is in Beijing to promote "The Revenant," the movie that earned him his first Best-Actor win at the recent Oscars. He talked about climate change and China’s relationship with renewable energy.

U.S. actor Leonardo DiCaprio attends a promotion activity for his movie "The Revenant" in Beijing, capital of China, March 20, 2016. Oscar-winning epic "The Revenant" has been put on the screen in China since March 18. [Xinhua]

This is the first time DiCaprio has promoted a film in China. At the press conference, he recounted the hardships he had to face while filming.

"There was many different sequences that were incredibly challenging. I think that what was so unique about this movie, which is different than any other movie that I have ever done in my career, was the fact that we rehearsed all day long for eight to nine hours a day," DiCaprio said.

"And then we would only shoot the film in natural light, which gave us about an hour and a half to two hours a day as the sun was setting, to be able to put on film everything that we worked on for the entire day.

"So that gave us a lot of adrenaline and added a lot of tension to the film-making process, and it give us an excitement, but it was a challenge to try to pull out some of the very complex sequences that the director wanted us to do within that hour-and-a-half time frame."

DiCaprio is one of the most popular Hollywood actors in China, mainly because of his performance in "Titanic," one of his few films that have been shown in mainland cinemas.

The actor and environmentalist, who called for action to combat climate change during his Oscar acceptance speech last month, was optimistic China could shift toward renewable forms of energy to reduce carbon emissions.

"As we all know, the United States and China are the two biggest contributors, and I think that China has made radical movements forward as far as alternative energy and ways to be sustainable," DiCaprio said.

"I really think that China can be the hero of the environmental movement, they can be the hero of the climate change movement. They have an opportunity to change the world, and I have all the confidence in the world that that is their intention."

"The Revenant" opened with an impressive U.S.$33 million in its first three days in China, lifting the worldwide total to nearly U.S.$500 million.

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