The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
- To accurately portray their role in The Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio spent weeks conducting hands-on research and rehearsing directly with director Martin Scorsese.
- The Wolf of Wall Street utilized mostly practical sets and locations to ground the story, a specific choice insisted upon by Martin Scorsese.
The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American biographical dark comedy film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, a New York stockbroker who founded the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont and engaged in rampant corruption and securities fraud throughout the 1990s. Based on Belfort's memoir of the same name, the film chronicles his meteoric rise from a low-level broker to an enormously wealthy financier whose firm bilked investors out of approximately $200 million, and his equally spectacular downfall involving FBI investigations, drug addiction, and eventual imprisonment. At nearly three hours long, the film is Scorsese's longest feature and was produced on a $100 million budget.
Leonardo DiCaprio delivered what many consider his most dynamic performance, embodying Belfort's manic energy and charisma in a role that required him to perform extended comedic sequences alongside dramatic material. Jonah Hill received an Academy Award nomination for his scene-stealing turn as Donnie Azoff, Belfort's right-hand man. The Quaalude sequence, in which Belfort attempts to drive home while severely impaired, became one of the most talked-about scenes of the year.
The film sparked significant debate about whether it glorified or condemned Belfort's lifestyle of excess, though Scorsese maintained the exuberance of the portrayal was intentional โ designed to make audiences complicit in the seduction of wealth before revealing its hollow consequences. The Wolf of Wall Street earned $392 million worldwide and received five Academy Award nominations.
