The Wolf Of Wall Street's Margot Robbie: I loved being punched by Leo DiCaprio
A STAR was born when Margot Robbie scorched up the screen opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Wolf Of Wall Street. With the DVD out now, the Aussie bombshell tells us about drugs, goofing around with the guys and rolling with the punches... literally.
Twelve months ago nobody had heard of Margot Robbie.
But all that changed when she went toe to toe with Leonardo di Caprio, and flaunted her incredible curves, in last year's smash hit The Wolf Of Wall Street.
Before she shot to stardom, the Aussie actress had done the obligatory stint on Neighbours and then headed to Hollywood, quickly landing a role in the cancelled TV drama Pan Am and a supporting part in last year’s Richard Curtis rom-com, About Time.
But Robbie almost turned down her star-making role in The Wolf Of Wall Street over her concerns about all the nudity.
“For a while, I thought, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t do it'.
"One day, I realised, if I say no to this, someone else will get the part — and no one else can play this role! I have to do it, which means I have to do nudity, and that’s fine.”
Robbie plays Naomi Lapaglia, the promiscuous wife of real-life shady New York stock-broker Jordan Belfont (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Martin Scorcese’s epic biopic of the central character at the heart of stock market excesses in the early 1990s.
In the end, the biggest challenge wasn’t all the nudity, it was the scene where Naomi is punched by her husband. A scene that became one of the actress's favourites.
“There are so many scenes that shock people, and I am really excited for people to be so shocked by them.
"The part where Leo (DiCaprio) punches me in the stomach, got a really massive reaction. I was so happy because I remember when we were trying to think of a way for him to physically harm my character Naomi, we were trying to think of something you have not seen in a film before.”
Despite all the punching, Robbie actually spent much of her time on set trying to keep a straight face.
“A lot of the cast are comedic actors and they are also really funny in real life. We were allowed to do a lot of improvising so a lot of the scenes ended up being more hilarious than they did on paper.
I could not believe what we were shooting!
“The Quaalude scene when the guys [Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill] get home - that was ridiculous. It was hilarious; I would be in the background of the shot trying not to laugh. I could not believe what we were shooting.”
Despite this, she warns that having sex (or pretending to) on a pile of cash is not as much fun as it seems.
"I got a million paper cuts on my back from all that money! It’s not as glamorous as it sounds. If anyone is ever planning on having sex on top of a pile of cash: don’t.”
Although 23-year-old Robbie was only a toddler at the time of the events in the film, she believes its themes of greed, uncontrolled markets and stock-market excess are universal.
“I found the whole story fascinating just because the themes are still relevant in any era. The sheer magnitude of what they got away with is quite astounding and just how unapologetic they were, and how ruthless they were and somehow you still root for them at the end of the day.”
The Wolf Of Wall Street is out now on DVD and Blu-Ray
