All Warmed Up for You, Sir

What it's like to share a bathroom tent with Leonardo DiCaprio in the Arctic Circle

If you spend much time in Los Angeles, everyone has at least one celebrity story, especially if you work in the film business. My story, with Leonardo DiCaprio, took place far away from the City of Angels in the Arctic Circle. 

Leo was on break from filming “The Revenant” in a long untrimmed beard, in the Arctic for filming on both his film “Before the Flood” as well as the National Geographic film “The Last Ice”.  

The author and Theo Ikummaq during a break in aerial filming on “The Last Ice” an Emmy-award winning film from National Geographic.

I lived in an un-heated tent for a month while filming the aerials. Every day, I would see Arctic wildlife, from narwhals to polar bears and seals. The entire crew, whether pilots, grips, camera operators or movie stars, all shared the same bathroom tent with its singular white toilet, just a thin translucent white fabric separating the occupant from the harsh cold of the barren Arctic landscape.

Icebergs, filmed by the author, floating just north of Baffin Island from“The Last Ice” an Emmy-award winning film from National Geographic.

“Click, crunch, click, click” the stones made a distinctive sound as I walked across the rocks tumbled smooth by a million years of glacial activity. While we were surrounded by ice and snow, the tent village was set on a field of rocks. I made my way to the bathroom tent, trying my best to minimize the sound of my footsteps in the early morning. I hoped that I would not need to wait, not only was the morning extraordinarily cold but I had waited as long as I could in the relative warmth of my sleeping bag.

Aerial scene of narwhals filmed by Ron Chapple using a Cineflex 5-axis gyrostavilized camera during production of “The Last Ice” an Emmy-award winning film from National Geographic.

“F@k!, that’s cold” I gasped as my bare skin contacted the toilet seat. The seat was so cold. The kind of cold that jolts through your body like a bolt of lightning and makes you wonder if there was the least bit of moisture between you and the seat, that you might be forever stuck until the spring thaws. The problem was, this was summer — as warm as it was going to get. The sun was already in the sky twenty-four hours a day.

As I was wrapping up my morning business, I could hear the “click, crunch” sound in the distance announcing the presence of another person. The sound became louder, and I knew these footsteps were on a mission, a mission to the same location that I now occupied. Soon, the sound stopped. I quickly surmised that there must be someone standing not far from the bathroom tent, anxiously waiting their turn.

The bathroom tent, shared by the National Geographic crew, on the production of the “The Last Ice” in the Arctic Circle.

I finished up as quickly as I could, not wanting to keep the next person waiting. As I pushed back the tent flap, there was a man in a grizzled beard, just six feet away, not looking too happy. As our eyes locked, all I could think to say to Mr. DiCaprio, was “All warmed up for you, sir”.