Earlier this month a bizarre rumour circulated online, which claimed that Leonardo Dicaprio's character is raped by a bear in his new film The Revenant. The rumour started when The Drudge Report published an article which stated that the movie ‘features a shocking scene of a wild bear raping Leo DiCaprio!', a scene which doesn't actually take place in the film. 

Leonardo DiCaprio in The RevenantLeonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass in The Revenant.

The article went on to say that in one scene, ‘The bear flips Leo over and thrusts and thrusts during the explicit mauling.’ It then followed up the claim with an uncited quotation which stated, 'He is raped -- twice!'

More: Leonardo DiCaprio Reveals How He's Cheated Death THREE Times

Of course Leo isn’t actually raped by a bear in the movie and it seems the actor was just as confused as everybody else when the story came out. Speaking at the film’s Hollywood premiere DiCaprio said, "I have no idea where these ridiculous things come from, and what you do when you hear stuff like that? It's absurd. It's absurd.”

In the film DiCaprio plays frontiersman Hugh Glass, who survives a bear MAULING and is then left to fend for himself after being abandoned by his teammates. During filming DiCaprio went all out to authentically portray Glass’ time in the wilderness, which even included eating raw bison.

"It's something that I won't repeat, that's for sure," DiCaprio told E! News. "We submerged ourselves in the elements for this film. We really wanted to create something incredibly authentic so these types of adventures lend themselves to taking chances like that.”

More: No. Leonardo DiCaprio Was NOT Raped By A Bear In 'The Revenant’

"You want to be as authentic as you possibly can with every decision that you make and that resulting in me biting into something that was pretty disgusting and my real reaction is on film and up there onscreen.” The Revenant hits US theatres on January 8th.

Watch the trailer for The Revenant below: