Margot Robbie says her ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ nude scene was her idea

My“The Wolf of Wall Street” was three-time Oscar nominee Margot Robbie’s breakout film, and she was not shy about making a memorable first impression on director Martin Scorsese, star Leonardo DiCaprio, or the audience. In an appearance on the “Talking Pictures” podcast, Robbie told host Ben Mankiewicz that it was her idea to go full-frontal nude for a scene where her character, Naomi, seduces her future husband, DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort, for the first time. 

Recalling her experience working on the film, Robbie said that Scorsese told her that she could wear a robe if she wasn’t comfortable with the nudity, but she decided that wouldn’t be true to the character. “That is not what she would do in that scene,” she said. “She would not put a robe on. The whole point is that she’s going to come out completely naked. That’s the card she’s playing.” She said that she was very worried for her family to see it, though. That was her biggest concern, even more than how she came across in the film.

She described the atmosphere on set as one that encouraged bold choices. “It felt like such a sink-or-swim scenario,” she said. “It was so many people bringing it all the time, every day on set,” with DiCaprio setting a high bar and expecting the other actors to keep up with him. “It was very apparent to me, like, ‘I gotta get in there, or I’m not in this at all,’” she said. “And then when you’re on the set, everyone’s got that mentality. Everyone’s one-upping each other with the craziness. You’d be in the makeup trailer and some of the guys would come in and be like ‘Jonah [Hill] just ate a goldfish — I’m gonna do this in my scene!’” They all felt pressure to do something crazy to stand out. “It really was this feeling of, like, if you want to be in this movie, you’ve got to make yourself known on screen.”  

She also recalled auditioning for the film. She taped an audition her managers made her redo five times, and then Scorsese called her in to read in-person. During that audition, she slapped DiCaprio in the face, which wasn’t in the script. The script called for her to walk across the room and kiss him, but she improvised a crazier moment. “I thought, I could kiss Leonardo DiCaprio right now, and that would be awesome. I can’t wait to tell all of my friends this. And then I thought… nah. And just walloped him in the face,” she said. “It was dead silence for what felt like an eternity but was probably three seconds, and then they just burst out laughing. Leo and Marty were laughing so hard, they said ‘that was great.’” She joked that in the moment, she thought she was going to go to jail for battery and never work again, because she hit him so hard. 

“The Wolf of Wall Street” was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. 

Elsewhere in the interview, Robbie shared her belief that 2022’s “Babylon,” which flopped on initial release, will be re-evaluated as a classic in the future. “I know I am biased because I am very close to the project and I obviously believe in it, but I still can’t figure out why people hated it. I wonder if in 20 years people are going to be like, ‘Wait, “Babylon” didn’t do well at the time?’ Like when you hear that ‘Shawshank Redemption’ was a failure at the time and you’re like, ‘How is that possible?’”