Margot Robbie Slapped Leonardo DiCaprio During ‘Wolf Of Wall Street’ Audition

Martin Scorsese has opened up about Margot Robbie’s original audition for The Wolf Of Wall Street, which was so impressive that the legendary director immediately knew that he had to hire the Australian actress for the coveted part.

But what did Margot Robbie do to impress the Raging Bull and Goodfellas director so much? Margot Robbie decided to slap Leonardo DiCaprio during her audition for the film. This was a move that could have immediately brought her Hollywood career to an end but instead was so shocking that it hugely impressed Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio himself.

So much so that they decided to cast Margot Robbie as Naomi Lapaglia. Martin Scorsese recalled Margot Robbie’s casting process for The Wolf Of Wall Street to Time Magazine, admitting that it was one of the most outlandish pieces of improvisation that he’d ever witnessed.

“She clinched her part in The Wolf of Wall Street during our first meeting—by hauling off and giving Leonardo DiCaprio a thunderclap of a slap on the face, an improvisation that stunned us all.”

Margot Robbie previously opened up to Harper’s Bazaar, via The Independent, about her audition process for The Wolf Of Wall Street, revealing that she decided to spontaneously slap the legendary actor. In fact, in the heat of the moment, the Australian actress had to decide whether or not to kiss Leonardo DiCaprio, something that she thought she’d never get the chance to do again or to try and respond as her character would do so. Margot Robbie decided to do the latter, and it went on to push her career up to a higher echelon.

“In my head I was like, ‘You have literally 30 seconds left in this room and if you don’t do something impressive nothing will ever come of it. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, just take it.’ And so I start screaming at him and he’s yelling back at me. And he’s really scary. I can barely keep up.’ And he ends it saying, ‘You should be happy to have a husband like me. Now get over here and kiss me.’ So I walk up really close to his face and then I’m like, ‘Maybe I should kiss him. When else am I ever going to get a chance to kiss Leo DiCaprio, ever?’ But another part of my brain clicks and I just go, Whack! I hit him in the face. And then I scream, ‘F**k you!’ And that’s not in the script at all. The room just went dead silent and I froze.”

Before starring in The Wolf Of Wall Street, Margot Robbie’s most well-known role was in Neighbors, the Australian soap opera that earned her two Logie Award nominations. After making a name for herself in the soap, Margot Robbie moved to the United States Of America where she starred in Pan Am and Richard Curtis’s time-travelling romantic comedy About Time. These performances allowed her to get an audition for The Wolf Of Wall Street, which, as the above story makes clear, the actress managed to attain.

Since then, Margot Robbie’s stock in Hollywood has risen exponentially. Not only did she star opposite Will Smith in Focus, but she took on the iconic role of Jane Porter in The Legend Of Tarzan, too. Margot Robbie’s biggest success was being cast as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, which went on to gross over $745 million at the box office, while the latest rumors are that she’ll reprise the part in Gotham City Sirens. Margot Robbie is currently hard at work playing Tony Harding in I, Tonya, too, which has led some movie experts to predict that she’ll be in the running for a Best Actress Oscar after it’s released in 2018.

[Featured Image by Paramount Pictures]