US actor Leonardo DiCaprio on Friday claimed to feel no nerves at the prospect of claiming his first Oscar for his role in "The Revenant", saying he had "done the work" and could do no more. 

"The one reassuring thing about all this award season stuff is that you have absolutely no control over the outcome," he told BBC radio.

"You've done the work, I do not know why I should be nervous. While you're on the set and you give everything, that's all you can do," he added, after film's British premiere. 

The actor has been nominated four times for the Best Actor award but has never got his hands on the famous statuette.

"The Revenant" is an odyssey of survival and revenge in which DiCaprio ate raw buffalo liver, climbed snowy mountains and bathed in icy rivers as he played the legendary trapper Hugh Glass.

The film, directed by Alejandro Inarritu, is up for 12 Oscars, it was announced Thursday. 

"It feels great, man. It really does," DiCaprio said.

"This is an epic art film. So to have something not only do as good as it's been doing in the box office, but to get having this movie recognised by our peers, it does feel amazing."

On his chances of winning, the 41-year-old said: "It's all this crazy blur, because you're so attached to the process of making a movie. 

"I'm too attached to the movie to really understand or know what's worthy of awards or not."

DiCaprio is up against Bryan Cranston ("Trumbo"), Michael Fassbender ("Steve Jobs") and Matt Damon ("The Martian"). 

English actor Eddie Redmayne received his second consecutive nomination, for his interpretation of a transsexual pioneer in "The Danish Girl".

The Oscars will be awarded in Los Angeles on February 28. 

"The Revenant" was released in Britain on Friday, after opening in the United States on January 8.