The Wolf of Wall Street was Leonardo DiCaprio‘s pet project. After reading Jordan Belfort’s book of the same name in 2007, he became obsessed with turning the book into a film and portraying Jordan. He got his wish in 2013, having worked with Martin Scorsese (for the 100th time) to make the film into the outlandish, excessive masterpiece that it is. It is Scorsese’s highest grossing film to date, but obviously not Leo’s. There was so much more to this movie than money – although we know Jordan & Co. loved money too! See which facts you didn’t know about The Wolf of Wall Street.
1. The Quaalude scene, where Jordan is trying to get into the car, was heavily improvised. Martin Scorsese said it was Leonardo DiCaprio’s idea to use his foot to open the door.
However, the move caused Leo to injure his back and what we saw in the movie was the only take of that shot.
2. Margot Robbie got paper cuts all over her back during the scene where she and Leonardo DiCaprio are having sex on the bed with money.
Apparently the bills were crisp, with sharp edges.
3. Olivia Wilde recently admit that she auditioned for the role of Naomi Lapaglia, but was considered too old to play Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife, even though he’s actually ten years older than her.
4. Jonah Hill made Leonardo DiCaprio throw up while filming their final scene together in the movie.
When they’re eating sushi, Jonah Hill’s Donnie was supposed to say yes to eating the yellowtail, but he said “no buddy, that’s all yours” and Leo went with it and wound up eating almost 70 pieces of raw yellowtail, which had him throwing up off-camera.
5. The nude seduction scene between Margot and Leo was not written that way.
Martin Scorsese offered Margot a robe for this scene, but Margot believed that Naomi was all about her body and offered to do it nude, the first nude scene in her career. She had three shots of tequila before filming and then fibbed to her family about the nude scene, only telling them right when the film released.
6. Jon Bernthal actually punched Jonah Hill in the face and broke his fake teeth.
The scene where Brad punches Donnie just didn’t look right to Scorsese, so he asked Jonah if he’d be up to get hit for real. Jonah didn’t want to seem like a wuss, so he said yeah and Jon hit him so hard, the teeth he had to wear for the film broke.
7. When Leonardo DiCaprio and Joanna Lumley kiss, Leo was apparently so nervous for the scene, it required 27 takes to get it right.
8. Matthew McConaughey’s chest beating scene was added on the spot. The chest beating is part of McConaughey’s warm up ritual and when Scorsese saw it, he added the moment.
When you see Leo looking at the camera, he’s really asking for approval from Scorsese and then he later encouraged them to keep it in the film, as he believed it set a tone for the film.
9. The dance that Leo does at Jordan and Naomi’s wedding was not choreographed.
Leo came up with it on the spot! Leo told Ellen Degeneres when he was younger he was very into street dancing and that he could pop & lock it.
10. Jonah Hill was so desperate to work with Martin Scorsese, he took a considerable pay cut and only banked the required $60,000 by S.A.G.
11. On the flip side, Leo made $25 million for his role (he also served as producer), which was 1/4 the film’s budget.
12. Jonah also met with Scorsese to discuss the part, but insisted that he audition for the role. It was his first time auditioned for a role in over 6 years.
13. The actors got their vitamins in while filming! Any scene where someone was snorting cocaine, they were really snorting crushed B vitamins.
14.It took 70 takes to get the ham to stick to Leo’s face during the Quaalude scene. Apparently they had to use KY jelly to make it sticky enough.
15. A goldfish pooped in Jonah Hill’s mouth.
16. Before Joanna Lumley appears (who was a Bond girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), the Bond theme from Goldfinger (1964) can be heard playing by the band at the wedding scene.
