47 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' Facts That Prove There Is No Shortcut To Success

'The Wolf Of Wall Street' is centered around the greed present in Wall Street and the rise and fall of Jordan Belfort.

Martin Scorsese bought the story onto the silver screen with a stellar cast and it was something that only an acclaimed director like Scorsese could achieve. This article will brief you through some amazing behind-the-scenes facts and much more about the movie.

A movie coming straight from the heart of the stock market world, 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' makes for an illuminating, exciting, abashed, exhausting, shameless, and entertaining film. Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Hollywood's favorite, Leonardo DiCaprio, the film leaves a mark on its viewer about the dark side of the stock market world.

This movie shows a kind of Robin Hood in reverse that builds himself a fortune from various, sundry corners of life. The wolf is Jordan Belfort, who becomes notorious and rich after coming from a low and humble background.

This movie showing the highs and lows in a person's life is sure to make you sit on the edge of your seat as you experience all the confusing, exciting, nerve-wracking, and nervous moments along with the characters.

Keep reading this article to find out some behind-the-scenes facts, trivia facts, casting revelations, and more unheard facts about the blockbuster movie, 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'.

'The Wolf Of Wall Street' Plot

The movie, 'The Wolf of Wall Street' was one of Leonardo Dicaprio's finest performances and collected around $392 million at the box office. The movie had a great cast and was a major success. A lot went behind making this film but let's first try and understand some facts about the crux of this famous movie.

• One of Hollywood's best films, 'The Wolf Of Wall Street', is based on one of the most infamous brokers, Jordan Belfort's memoir, which gives the audience a peek into his life during the Wall Street days.
• The film, directed by Martin Scorsese, is about Jordan Belfort, who intends on creating a fortune by defrauding millions from investors.
• The movie is set in 1987 when Belfort takes an entry-level stockbroker job in a Wall Street brokerage firm.
• Jordan Belfort then gets trained on various cut-throat selling techniques.
• Then comes a major decline in the market, due to which Belfort loses his job and starts working for pettier businesses and sells penny stocks.
• While in his 20s, Belfort establishes Stratton Oakmont, his own firm, after gaining a higher commission on penny stocks. Belfort sells IPO stocks with estimated returns and a penny in his firm.
• Belfort builds a huge business empire as he trains his employees on effective selling techniques and presents himself as a polished entrepreneur.
• Jordan Belfort also works alongside Donnie Azoff and other brokers to defraud many investors and illegally earn millions of dollars.
• Donnie Azoff (played by Jonah Hill) is shown to be Belfort's right-hand man who is even more fraudulent in nature. He is a wealthy and wise person who quits his daily job after a dinner conversation with Jordan Belfort and joins him to launder investors' money.
• But the movie slowly starts showing the darker side of success as Belfort blurs the line of ethics within trading as he quickly succumbs to the world of corruption and crime.
• As the movie goes towards the climax, the FBI and SEC start trailing him due to his fraudulent activities.

Cast Of 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'

To create a movie the stature of 'The Wolf Of Wall Street', a list of top-notch actors is definitely a must. Here are some fun facts about the casting of the movie.

• Leonardo DiCaprio steals the show as he plays the character of Jordan Belfort, who defrauds many investors using his tactics. DiCaprio won several accolades for his criminally good performance.
• Naomi Lapaglia, who is Belfort's model wife, was played by Margot Robbie, who delivered a great performance in the movie.
• Matthew McConaughey was cast to play the influential stockbroker, Mark Hanna, who influenced a young Jordan Belfort in his early days. McConaughey was appreciated for his acting as a mentor figure to Belfort.
• Kyle Chandler plays agent Patric Denham, an FBI agent who trails Belfort's criminal history. In contrast to several other criminal-minded characters, Denham is a law-abiding man in the movie.
• Rob Reiner was cast to play Max Belfort, who is Jordan Belfort's father. The character of Max Belfort is that of a perpetually annoyed male figure in the home, which was played brilliantly by Rob Reiner.
• Did you know that the part of Max Belfort was, in fact, offered to Alan Arkin, but he passed on the role to Rob Reiner?
• Jon Bernthal plays the part of a drug-dealing friend Brad Bodnick who is the quintessential criminal friend to the criminal protagonist.
• Jon Favreau gives a great cameo in the movie as he plays Manny Riskin, an overworked lawyer who is assigned to Jordan Belfort.
• Cristin Milioti was cast to play the first wife of Belfort, Teresa Petrillo. Petrillo is a hairdresser and she stays loyal to the unfaithful character of Belfort.
• Jean Dujardin was given the role of Jean Jacques Saurel who is a corrupt swiss banker. Saurel's character has a misleading and crooked smile.
• Leonardo DiCaprio was captivated by the character of Jordan Belfort immediately when he read the memoir published by Belfort in 2007. He wanted to play the character and also believed that the then-recent financial scam could be more relatable from Belfort's perspective.
• Did you know that Amber Heard and Blake Lively were offered the role of the second wife of Belfort before Margot Robbie was cast for the role?
• Julie Andrews was offered the role of the on-screen aunt of Robbie, but she rejected it. The role was played by the James Bond actress Joanna Lumley.
• A very interesting piece of trivia about 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is that the private investigator hired by the real Jordan Belfort played himself in the movie!
• Another interesting Hollywood fact is that Jake Hoffman, who is Dustin Hoffman's son, played the role of Madden.
• Margot Robbie, who played Jordan's second wife, a model, was named Naomi in the movie, but her name in real life is Nadine.
• Another character's name that was changed from the real-life person was Patricia, who was Nadine's aunt. In the movie, her name was changed to Emma, but the reason for this change is not really known.
• Were you aware that before Martin Scorsese was on board for this movie, according to Empire Online, Ridley Scott was keen on directing 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' with Brad Pitt playing the main protagonist, Jordan Belfort?

Awards Won By 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'

The 2013 American hit 'The Wolf Of Wall Street', directed by Martin Scorsese, won many hearts and minds with its black comedy about the highs and lows of the stock market world. The movie's screenplay was an adaptation of Jordan Belfort's memoir, which was titled with the same name as the movie. Leonardo Dicaprio stars as the infamous New York stockbroker, Jordan Belfort, who runs a brokerage firm that deals with money laundering and securities fraud in the Wall Street market of the 1990s. Along with Leonardo DiCaprio, the film features other talented actors such as Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, and Jonah Hill in supporting roles. For the amazing movie, it is no surprise that this movie garnered as many awards as it did praise. So let's look at some awards the movie got for its wonderful acting, directing, and filming.

• Various categories in different awards nominated 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'. Particularly Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort was nominated for several best actor awards as well as the adapted screenplay.
• The movie got nominated for five Oscar awards in the category of Best Director for Scorsese, Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Jonah Hill. Unfortunately, not one Oscar was awarded to 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' cast and crew.
• A similar fate was faced at the 67th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA's), where 'The Wolf of Wall Street' was nominated in four categories: Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Film. However, no accolade from the BAFTA's found its way to the film's cast and crew.
• In the 71st Golden Globe Awards, 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' received two nominations for the Best Motion Picture (musical or comedy) and the Best Actor Award (for motion picture comedy or musical). This time, Leonardo DiCaprio won the Best Actor Award.
• The 66th Director's Guild of America Awards, the 66th Writer's Guild of America Awards, and the 25th Producer's Guild of America Awards nominated the film for several other categories.
• The National Board of Review included 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' as a part of their top ten films on the 2013 list. The American Film Institute also did the same.

Facts About 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'

There are so many wonderful and amazing facts about 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' that still never fail to amaze people even after so many years. So check out these read facts about 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' that cover some never before known aspects of the movie and its making!

• This movie had so much swearing that it actually set a Guinness World Record for the most cuss words in a movie!
• The actual footage of the Hamptons beach party of 1991 shown in the movie with Naomi Belfort (Jordan Belfort's fiancee Nadine Caridi) can be watched on YouTube as well.
• Did you know that Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Chris Evans auditioned for the role of Donnie Azoff, but it was ultimately given to Jonah Hill?
• Do you remember the chest-thumping scene with Matthew McConaughey? It was Leonardo DiCaprio who came up with this idea!
• After Jordon Belfort's book got published, there was a fierce bidding war to get the rights of the story. In the end, Warner Bros, along with Leonardo DiCaprio, came together to win the bid for a $1 million payout in 2007.
• Tommy Chong, the stoner icon who was Jordan Belfort's cellmate in the Californian prison, made the story of Belfort take form in real life.
• Tommy Chong inspired Belfort to write the book, and this is how the famous movie 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' was able to be made.
• On one of the episodes of the Howard Stern Show, Jonah Hill said that 'GoodFellas' by director Martin Scorsese was his favorite film and he was desperate to work with him. Jonah Hill even said that he was ready for a pay cut, just to have the opportunity to work with him.
• Martin Scorsese was known to give freedom to actors to improvise dialogues which was his unique style. Scorsese's other critically acclaimed movie 'Goodfellas' was ad-libbed to great extents, and so was 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'.
• The scene in which some characters snorted cocaine was handled quite interestingly. The actors who snorted it were actually inhaling crushed vitamin B! Jonah Hill himself revealed this fact on 'Any Given Wednesday', an HBO series. The drug-taking scenes occur quite frequently in the movie.
• You will be surprised to know that the first cut of 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' was four hours long! Martin Scorsese somehow managed to cut the movie to three hours after a lot of editing.
• Do you know the goldfish scene where Jonah Hill was actually going to swallow it? Well, did he actually swallow, you might ask? The actor did not, as per the rules and regulations, but he desperately wanted to! He reportedly felt it would be his contribution towards making his acting more real, which most of his other co-stars were doing adeptly.
• An interesting piece of trivia is related to Danny Porush and Jordan Belfort's friendship. Well, you could say as they were partners, they were definitely good acquaintances.
• With the insane amount of drugs, cursing, and nudity, it's no surprise that several countries like Nepal, Kenya, Malaysia, and Zimbabwe banned the movie from running in their theatres.
• The excessive and explicit use of profanity made countries such as India cut several scenes before playing it for their audiences. Singapore is reported to have cut certain sex scenes and other religiously profane scenes and then gave 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' an R21 rating.
• Fun fact: Do you think Belfort's yacht actually sinks in the Mediterranean storm in the movie? No, it didn't, but in real life, it did. Jordan Belfort was high on drugs when he told the captain of the Coco Chanel-owned 167 ft yacht (50.90 cm) to take the yacht through a storm.