The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Trivia
Matthew McConaughey's scenes were shot on the second week of filming. The chest beating and humming performed by him was improvised and actually a warm-up rite that he performs before acting. When Leonardo DiCaprio saw it while filming, the brief shot of him looking away uneasily from the camera was actually him looking at Martin Scorsese for approval. DiCaprio encouraged them to include it in their scene and later claimed it "set the tone" for the rest of the film.
The actors snorted crushed B vitamins for scenes that involved cocaine. Jonah Hill claimed that he eventually became sick with bronchitis after so much inhaling and had to be hospitalized.
The majority of the film was improvised, as Martin Scorsese often encourages.
Wanting to work with Martin Scorsese, Jonah Hill took a pay cut by being paid the S.A.G. minimum, which was $60,000.
Originally, Martin Scorsese offered Margot Robbie to appear wearing a bathrobe during the seduction scene between her and Leonardo DiCaprio. Robbie refused and insisted on doing the scene fully nude; her first in her career. According to Robbie: "The whole point of Naomi is that her body is her only form of currency in this world...She has to be naked. She's laying her cards on the table." Robbie said she had three shots of tequila in succession before shooting the scene to relax. After shooting was complete, Robbie initially fibbed to her family and friends about actually doing the nude scene in order to delay any personal repercussions; claiming C.G.I. was used to superimpose her head on a body-double. She eventually changed her mind and confessed when the film was released.
Martin Scorsese claimed that the sequence of Jordan attempting to get in his car while extremely impaired on Lemmons was improvised on the day of filming, and that it was Leonardo DiCaprio's idea to open the car door with his foot. DiCaprio strained his back during the scene, and was only able to perform the stunt once.
On a routine visit, Steven Spielberg spent a day on the set, watching the shoot of the Steve Madden speech. Martin Scorsese claims that Spielberg essentially codirected the scene, giving advice to actors and suggesting camera angles.
Margot Robbie claimed that her sex scene with Leonardo DiCaprio on a bed full of cash was extremely uncomfortable, as the fake paper bills had sharp edges resulting in multiple paper cuts to her back. DiCaprio later joked that they did hurt but he didn't care. He was in bed naked with Robbie so the bills weren't what he was focusing on.
Jonah Hill had an audible lisp when he first put in the fake teeth to play Donnie. To get rid of this, he spent over two hours on the phone calling random businesses and talking with them.
Martin Scorsese said that there were actual real-life stockbrokers on the set, some of whom actually worked at the real Stratton Oakmont firm.
Martin Scorsese has confirmed that some of the editing is odd on purpose, especially the scenes in which one or more characters are high. Every time Jordan is seen taking drugs, the scenes that follow have continuity issues and often flow oddly.
During the kissing scene between Leonardo DiCaprio and Joanna Lumley, DiCaprio was so nervous that the scene required a reported 27 takes to get it right.
Jordan Belfort coached Leonardo DiCaprio on his behavior, especially instructing him in the various ways he had reacted to the Quaaludes he abused as well as his dope-induced confrontation with Danny Porush.
The word 'fuck' and its numerous conjugations are said 569 times, making this the film with the most uses of the word in a mainstream, R-Rated, non-documentary film, until Swearnet: The Movie (2014) took the record with 935 recorded uses of the word. Thus for a brief time, Martin Scorsese had taken back the record that he had held with Goodfellas (1990) (300 uses) until Menace II Society (1993) surpassed it with 305 uses.
During the search for the right Donnie Azoff, Martin Scorsese had requested a meeting with Jonah Hill, but Hill demanded he audition for the part. It was Hill's first audition in six years.
Ever since he got hold of the book back in 2007, DiCaprio has been focused on turning the depraved tale of Jordan Belfort into a film. However, he wasn't just interested in this story's connection to the most recent collapse on Wall Street, he was also attracted to Jordan's honest and uncompromising portrayal of what he actually experienced.
Martin Scorsese needed a pick-up shot of the "fasten your seat belt" blinking sign for the airplane scene but didn't want to waste time and money on setting up a gimbal. Robert Legato, the effects supervisor, took a reference video of one during a flight with his iPhone to show Scorsese. Upon seeing the footage, Scorsese said "Great. Let's just use that." Thus, the film became Scorsese's first to incorporate footage taken from an iPhone.
Grossing $392 million worldwide, this is Martin Scorsese's highest grossing film of his career.
The real Jordan Belfort supported the film's depiction of excess. His one objection was the film's implication that Stratton Oakmont never did any serious work. Belfort argued that they couldn't have gotten away with their corrupt practices for so long unless they had been delivering on legitimate business most of the time.
Leonardo DiCaprio says that he and Martin Scorsese were able to 'push the envelope' with their depiction of over-the-top sex, and 'make the movie they wanted to', primarily because the production was financed independently. Scorsese edited some sexual content and nudity to avoid an NC-17 rating at the request of the MPAA.
Leonardo DiCaprio was paid $25 million for his role, a quarter of the film's budget, making him the highest paid star of the year.
For the deposition scenes, the actors were merely instructed by Martin Scorsese to avoid saying anything important, or anything at all. They had the freedom to improvise. Editor Thelma Schoonmaker said that these scenes, some of them 20-minute long, were hysterical due to the things they came up with.
The real Mark Hanna, who was portrayed by Matthew McConaughey, stated he bought 25% of Jordan Belfort's business and worked with him for two more years. This was not depicted in the film.
In an interview with Margot Robbie, she reveals that for the scene where Jordan and Naomi have sex for the first time in her apartment and her dog tries to jump up and bite him, they had trouble getting the dog to jump, so they had to put dog food and chicken livers all over Leonardo DiCaprio's feet and between his toes.
The scene where Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey are having lunch is supposed to take place in a World Trade Center building.
In order to show Jordan's state of mind, director of photography Rodrigo Prieto constantly switched lens types. For scenes where Jordan is in a clear mental state, flat spherical lenses are used, while in sections where he does not, anamorphic lenses are used. Longer focal lenses are used from the stage where Jordan is being pursued by Denham and his team to reflect Belfort's unraveling and the sense of being spied upon.
In the airplane bachelor party scene, actress Maria Di Angelis, who played one of the hookers paired with P.J. Byrne, said that the actress paired with Leonardo DiCaprio had to be replaced because she was shagging him too enthusiastically and realistically. The actors also had to be completely silent while filming it.
Footage of the actual 1991 Hamptons beach party shown in the film with Jordan Belfort and then-fiancée Nadine Caridi ("Naomi Belfort") can be found on YouTube.
This film broke the Guinness World Record for the most swearing in one movie: 681 expletives (equal to 3.81 swears per minute).
Leonardo DiCaprio explained to Ellen DeGeneres that during the Quaalude sequence it took them seventy takes just to get the ham to stick to his face. This was achieved by flicking the ham off a spoon and using K Y jelly in order to make it sticky enough.
Margot Robbie said most of the nursery scene was cut and that if it had stayed in the original length it would've been the most "uncomfortable" scene to watch in the whole film.
The real Jordan Belfort says the model for his get-rich-quick-and-by-any-means ruthlessly unscrupulous disposition was Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (1987).
The initial cut of the film ran approximately four hours. Paramount originally intended to release the four hour director's cut in DVD and Blu-ray but changed its mind and stayed with the three hour theatrical release version.
The cast includes three prominent directors in acting roles: Rob Reiner, Spike Jonze, and Jon Favreau.
An unexpected person to thank for the film's existence is Tommy Chong (one half of stoner-comedy duo Cheech & Chong). Chong was serving a sentence in a Californian prison for selling drug paraphernalia over the internet and he was cellmates with Jordan Belfort, who was serving a 22 month sentence for stock fraud. Belfort told Chong multiple stories from his days as a stockbroker and it was upon Chong's encouragement that Belfort wrote his book The Wolf of Wall Street, resulting in the eponymous film.
Leonardo DiCaprio cited Caligula (1979) as an inspiration for the way he wanted the excess and decadence depicted in the film.
The role of Steve Madden was played by Jake Hoffman, Dustin Hoffman's son.
When Jordan is filming one of his infomercials, he appears on a boat in front of women in brightly colored bikinis. This is a direct homage to Tom Vu's infomercials from the late 1980s and early 1990s, in which people would be invited to his get-rich-quick seminars.
According to Martin Scorsese, the scene where Jordan returns home high on Quaaludes to address Donnie, the island in the middle of the kitchen was originally a hindrance that couldn't be removed since it was filmed in an actual house. He would've preferred to not have been there originally but it ended up working well in the scene since Jordan was unable to move properly being so high and whatever prevented him from getting to Donnie added to the physical humor.
Kenneth Choi gained nearly 25 pounds for his role as Chester Ming.
Production was halted for a week after Hurricane Sandy hit New York in late 2012. Martin Scorsese even denied access to his film facility on Manhattan's 57th Street due to the potential hazards posed by a toppled crane near his building.
Martin Scorsese claims that he didn't meet the real Jordan Belfort until the film's premiere. However, Belfort was on-set with Scorsese present during filming.
The cameo by Sharon Jones performing Goldfinger, the title theme to the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964), at Jordan and Naomi's wedding is a reference to Jordan Belfort's actual wedding where "Nobody Does It Better", the theme song from another Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), was performed.
Mark Hanna is an actual stockbroker who eventually also went to prison for securities fraud, but many other names in the movie have been changed: Jordan Belfort's partner Danny Porush (who also was later imprisoned) is renamed Donnie Azoff; lawyer Ira Lee Sorkin, who later would defend Bernie Madoff is Manny Riskin; FBI agent Gregory Coleman is now called Patrick Denham; and Nadine Belfort is now Naomi Belfort.
This is the first film for producers Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland under their Red Granite banner. According to them, they decided to finance this film as a challenge in response to the idea that no studio was willing to finance an explicit, over-the-top sex-laced film with a large budget (produced at around $100,000,000). Aziz and McFarland were formerly investment bankers, and the bulk of the funding came from their investors' contacts in Mid-West Asia. One company in particular, a development fund called 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) led by the Malaysian then-Prime Minister Najib Razak (and Aziz' stepfather), contributed an alleged $64 million. This was following mediation by Malaysian businessman Jho Low who had befriended Leonardo DiCaprio and learned of the difficulties of financing the movie through traditional means. Ironically enough for a film about financial corruption, both Razak and Low later got embroiled in a scandal when they were charged of siphoning 1MDB money to their own accounts to finance their lavish lifestyles (Low even went into hiding). The producers finally paid $60 million in a settlement over charges that the film had been financed by embezzled investor money.
Olivia Wilde auditioned for the role of Naomi Lapaglia, but was deemed too old to play Leonardo DiCaprio's wife, even though he's actually ten years older.
Just like their characters in the film, Jonah Hill (Donnie Azoff) and Jake Hoffman (Steve Madden) also grew up together as childhood friends.
Another Goodfellas (1990) and Boardwalk Empire (2010) character connection is former N.Y.C. super-cop and now-prominent private investigator Bo Dietl, appearing as himself as Jordan Belfort's real-life P.I., and recreating an actual diner meeting at East Harlem's infamous and exclusive mob/celebrity insiders' restaurant, Rao's.
Although this was originally announced as Martin Scorsese's first non-3D movie to be shot entirely digitally, it ended up being mostly shot on film. Shooting outside at night was done with digital cameras to minimize the need for extensive lighting.
Rob Reiner's first live-action feature-film fictional role (i.e., not appearing as himself) since Alex & Emma (2003).
Chris Evans and Joseph Gordon-Levitt auditioned for a role.
Blake Lively and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley were considered to play Naomi. Teresa Palmer and Amber Heard auditioned for Naomi before Margot Robbie was cast.
During a heated argument between Jordan and Naomi, Jordan keeps reiterating "Who, who?" after which Naomi mimicks him sarcastically saying, "Who? Who? What are you, a fuckin' owl?" This was the precise line Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) used while interrogating Alan Marciano (Hank Azaria) in Heat (1995).
The movie's opening scene showing the Stratton Oakmont TV advertisement is a direct homage to the iconic Dreyfus Fund TV spots in 1958 that famously featured a lion.
On the first day of production, the handle of a prop briefcase being carried by Leonardo DiCaprio broke and almost caused the actor to be hit by a period car on set.
Prior to 2019's The Irishman (2019) (3hr 29m), this was the longest movie directed by Martin Scorsese.
The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2007 Blacklist; a list of the 'most liked' unmade scripts of the year.
Julie Andrews was considered to play Aunt Emma, before Joanna Lumley was cast. Miss Andrews had undergone a titanium ankle implant and was convalescing at the time of the role offer.
Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker edited the film in Scorsese's house.
When Jordan's first wife catches him with Naomi, it is revealed that they are residents of Trump Tower.
The license plate number (RFK 575) visible on the front of Jordan's yellow Jaguar that he parks at the Greek diner when he first meets Donnie is the exact same plate number also used in at least three other previous films: The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), Final Destination (2000), and Zoolander (2001).
While a law student in the mid-80s, screenwriter Terence Winter worked part-time as a legal assistant in Merrill Lynch's equity trading department, an experience which provided some background for this movie.
When Jordan Belfort shows up at a gritty Long Island strip mall answering an advertisement for brokers, he enters a store-front with a sign above it touting "Robert Mancuso Accounting." This is an insider's nod to veteran camera assistant Bobby Mancuso, who not only worked on "Wolf" but on two other major releases the same year: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013).
Jordan Belfort's real-life business partner was actually named Danny Porush, not Donnie Azoff. Porush threatened to sue Paramount Pictures if he was depicted in this film.
The white car Jordan drives under the influence is a Lamborghini Countach. Back in the 1980s this car didn't meet the safety requirements in the US with its original design, so it had to be specially modified with additional bumpers. The one that is seen in the movie has these additional bumpers on. Today, any car older than 25 years old is exempt from design legislation in the US, so the Countach can be used freely without the bumpers.
Ridley Scott was asked to direct this movie.
The first major studio film to be released exclusively in digital video in the United States and Canada. No thirty-five-millimetre prints were struck for these markets, but were for countries where digital projection is not as extensive.
The first Martin Scorsese film to be shot with anamorphic lenses since Bringing Out the Dead (1999).
The gray Jaguar in which Jordan and Donny are driving to the auto shop which they want to rent, is the same Jaguar that stands outside the diner seen through the windows where Jordan and Donny first meet. The shots of the yellow Jaguar are filmed later and the car can not be seen through the window during the scene.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, and Jean Dujardin have all won a Best Actor Oscar: Dujardin for The Artist (2011); McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club (2013) in the same year that DiCaprio was nominated for The Wolf of Wall Street; DiCaprio later won for The Revenant (2015).
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
Alan Arkin turned down the role of Max Belfort in favor of Grudge Match (2013).
Gene Hackman was considered for the opening voiceover.
Matthew McConaughey is noticeably thinner than normal; he had just come from filming Dallas Buyers Club (2013), where he had lost 47 pounds for the role. He can even be seen gaining weight throughout this film.
Margot Robbie filmed her first-ever nudity and sex scene with Leonardo DiCaprio in this film and she found the experience to be uncomfortable. "There isn't an option," Robbie said in an interview with Vanity Fair. "It's just like, this is what you need to do, get on with it. The sooner you do it, the sooner you can stop doing it."
The Buscemi TV clip also connects with the movie's broader link with two HBO series The Sopranos (1999) and Boardwalk Empire (2010), since "Wolf" includes Martin Scorsese, Terence Winter, and actors Cristin Milioti, Jon Favreau and Chris Caldovino.
The diner that Jordan and Danny meet in is named Kacandes, after Executive Producer Georgia Kacandes.
The couple who are seen walking through security at the airport behind Aunt Emma are Irwin and Margot Winkler.
In the conference room, the main characters sing "One of us", a reference to the 1932 movie "Freaks". Olga Baclanova was the lead actress in that film and also in the 1929 film "The Wolf of Wall Street".
When "The Wolf of Wall Street" was released in the Philippines the movie had two cuts, an R-16 version, with a lot of deleted scenes, an and R-18 uncut version.
The Joanna Lumley role was first offered to Eileen Atkins.
Jonah Hill received his second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in this film, which Spike Jonze plays a very small role in. Coincidentally, two years earlier, Jonah Hill received his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Moneyball (2011), which Spike Jonze also plays a very small role in.
The scene on board the yacht in the storm is reminiscent of DiCaprio's scene in Titanic. He says to Naomi, "I've got you," and is also positioned behind her whilst holding onto the railings, as in the final scenes of Titanic.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill appeared in Django Unchained (2012), although they did not share scenes together.
One of three Jonah Hill movies in consecutive years with Street in the title, coming between 21 Jump Street (2012) and 22 Jump Street (2014).
In the movie, Margot Robbie willingly chose to appear nude and even refused Martin Scorsese offer that she could wear a bathrobe instead. Robbie explained that her character Naomi "has to be naked" when seducing Jordan as her body is her only form of currency in the world.
Leonardo Dicaprio Was Paid $25 Million Dollars For His Role. Jonah Hill On The Other Hand Was Paid $60,000 Dollars For His.
The clip from The Equalizer (1985) is of Steve Buscemi, who played Archie in The Equalizer: Re-Entry (1987).
Some of the blues songs playing in the movie, such as Spoonfull and Smokestack Lightning, were performed by Howlin' Wolf (real name: Chester Arthur Burnett).
Jonah Hill also rectally smuggles drugs onto a flight in Get Him to the Greek (2010).
On the first episode of "Rocky and his Friends", aka "The Bullwinkle Show", November 19, 1959, Mr. Peabody, the genius dog, relates his life story, and says that during his time as an investor he was known as the Wolf of Wall Street.
Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey have played the lead role in a Christopher Nolan movie. DiCaprio did in Inception (2010) and McConaughey did in Interstellar (2014).
Writer Jacob Sullivan worked 10 days on the film in an unspecified position.
Jordan hires his father to work at his firm with him. Director Martin Scorsese cast his parents in several of his films.
The movie features a brief shot filmed on an iPhone. Scorsese needed a shot of the "fasten your seat belt" sign for the airplane scene. Robert Legato, the effects supervisor, took a video of one during a flight on his iPhone and showed Scorsese who said "Great. Let's just use that."
During the kissing scene between Leonardo DiCaprio and Joanna Lumley in the movie, DiCaprio was so nervous that the scene required a reported 27 takes to get it right.
During the movie, actors snorted crushed B vitamins for scenes that involved cocaine, Jonah Hill eventually became sick with bronchitis after so much inhaling and had to be hospitalized.
In order to work with Martin Scorsese for the movie, Jonah Hill took a pay cut by being paid the S.A.G. minimum, which was $60,000 compared to Leonardo DiCaprio who was paid $25 million.
The classic Hmm Hmm scene in the movie where Matthew McConaughey teaches [link=nm0000138 to Hmm was an improvised scene. Here Di Caprio is said to be looking at Martin Scorsese for approval.
In the movie, the scene where Jonah Hill eats a goldfish was filmed with a real goldfish with animal handlers on set - he was allowed to keep it in his mouth for 3 seconds but obviously not allowed to swallow it / eat it due to animal cruelty laws.
In the movie, during the scene in which Jordan and Naomi have sex for the first time in her apartment, they had trouble trying to get her dog to jump onto the bed and bite him. So, they had to put chicken livers between Leonardo DiCaprio's toes.
Director Cameo
Martin Scorsese: the voice of John, the first client, to whom Jordan sells Aerotyne I.N.D. penny stocks.
Spoilers
The real Jordan Belfort appears in a brief role in the film's final scene, introducing his cinema stand-in Leonardo DiCaprio. As accurately portrayed, Belfort is now a motivational speaker who previously served 22 months in federal prison for stock fraud.
The scene where Brad punches Donnie is real, in fact Jon Bernthal hit Jonah Hill so hard that the prosthetic teeth he was wearing split and flew out of his mouth. Martin Scorsese then proceeded to film Hill's face swelling in real time.
Jonah Hill wore a prosthetic penis while masturbating at the party. The surprised reactions from the actors and extras were genuine.
Margot Robbie has revealed that she accidentally slapped Leonardo DiCaprio more violently than she intended to while auditioning: she got a little lost in the moment, slapped his face and said "Fuck you". There was a stunned silence on the set and then all of them burst out laughing, but she feared that DiCaprio would sue her for it. She apologized, but he was impressed with her courage and asked her to hit him again.
Although the real Jordan Belfort was supportive of the film, and accepting of his negative portrayal, he disputed the film's depiction of the end of his second marriage. Although he admitted to having hit his wife during a fight, he claims that it happened earlier during the height of his drug addiction, and that their break-up occurred without incident when he was clean and sober.
When Jordan Belfort is interviewed by the FBI agents on his yacht, he hands one of them a list of guests at his wedding. The names on it are actually names of the film's crew members.
The gay orgy was one of the scenes that had to be toned down to earn an R rating. V.F.X. supervisor and second unit director Robert Legato shot footage of a chair in a lobby, then had artists digitally insert the chair into the scene, to avoid displaying the men's genitals.
Jonah Hill wanted to eat a real goldfish because he wanted everything to be real. Everyone was working so hard on this movie that he didn't want to be the person who wasn't. Obviously, regulations didn't allow it. They had a real goldfish and three goldfish handlers/wranglers on set. Hill could keep the goldfish in his mouth for three seconds at a time and then they had to put it back in water unharmed.
This film shares similarities with Catch Me If You Can (2002), which also stars Leonardo DiCaprio. Both are based on autobiographies written by men who got caught for fraud, and both end with the protagonist begrudgingly cooperating with the FBI.
When Jordan is talking about Brad's death he says: "He was 35, same age as Mozart. I don't know why I remember that" This is a reference to Amadeus (1984) where Mozart (whose first name was Wolfgang) is repeatedly called "Wolfie" through the film by his wife Constanze. In this film, Jordan is called "Wolfie" repeatedly while in is office and by his friends.
As in Goodfellas or Casino, the main character goes through several make-up changes to emphasize his evolution from an innocent neophyte to a money-crazed, drug-fueled criminal.
Jordan remarks that Brad died at 35 just like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Christine Ebersole, who plays Jordan's mother Leah, played Katerina Cavalieri in Amadeus (1984), a romantic revisionist picture of Mozart's life.
