Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street was based on the autobiography of Jordan Belfort – a broker who made his fortunes from shady sales of penny stocks – and then spent it on drugs, sex, and other indulgences.
That was until he ended up going to prison for his financial crimes…
You may not be too familiar with the real anecdotes from Belfort’s life, but Leonardo DiCaprio did a pretty good job at portraying him in the box office hit. Not forgetting Margot Robbie, of course, who starred as Belfort’s on-screen wife, Naomi Lapaglia.
Let me remind you, (like you need it):
Now, for those of you who’ve seen the film, it’s fair to say the sex scenes are a little more than just steamy. If you’ve still not seen it – check it out this weekend!
At the time of its release, and subsequently in the weeks which followed, an awful lot was made of the nudity within the film across media outlets.
However, Margot Robbie, whose character was extremely provocative, told Yahoo Movies:
If I see it in a character that is using it as a weapon, or a tool or doing it intentionally, like in Wolf of Wall Street, she’s wearing a short dress for a reason, it’s her currency and knows she’s going to get her own, that feels empowering.
When it’s used in a way where there isn’t that level of self-awareness, then it does feel like you’re being taken advantage of and I don’t really vibe with it.
And as much as viewers were shocked, enthralled or even turned on by the scenes, it seems the real wolf, Mr Belfort himself, said his sexual adventures were very different in reality…
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Belfort revealed what he was really like, not only with women, but with his drug-taking too.
In a open and honest interview, he said:
The drug use and the stuff with the hookers and the sales assistants and the sex in the office … that stuff is really, really accurate.
In some respects, my life was even worse than that. Though I’d say I did more quaaludes than cocaine.
However, after seeing the film, and admittedly being blown away by it – as well as DiCaprio’s performance – he made a couple of other revelations.
He continued:
It’s laughable when people say [Scorsese is] glorifying my behaviour, because the movie is so obviously an indictment.
I could have easily been redeemed at the end of the film, because I am redeemed in real life, but [Scorsese] left all that out because he wanted to make a statement, and I respect that.
Even though I’ll be the whipping boy for the world.
A fan of the film, who was clearly impressed with DiCpario and Robbie, recently tweeted:
the sex scenes in wolf of wall street are just iconic
Yes they were definitely iconic – but Mr Belfort actually responded – taking things one step further…
Giving us an insight in to what really happened between the sheets during his days of being a money-maker, as well as quite the Lothario, he responded saying:
It was even better in person
I probably shouldn’t say this, but it would have been great if we’d got to see Margot and Leo portray what really happened beneath the sheets…
Belfort concluded to The Hollywood Reporter:
When I saw [the finished film], I was overwhelmed. I loved it, but it was almost sensory overload. I saw it twice and then my ex-wife and I took my son.
There were a lot of scenes that I wanted to make sure he understood. It was important because my son’s a lot like me. I wanted to make sure he knows what my life is like now.
It was fictionalised at the end: I never punched my wife in the stomach. It was more of a struggle where she grabbed onto my leg and I kicked out. I was out of my mind. I was at the lowest point of my life.
I’m not trying to minimize it; it was awful what I did. But it was under the [influence] of massive quantities of drugs.
There’s always lessons to be learnt in life I guess.
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