The Wolf of Wall Street himself, Jordan Belfort, says he had to to teach Leo DiCaprio how to act on drugs because the Oscar winner has never taken any.
‘Leo had never done drugs, so I showed him what it looks and feels like when you are high on Quaaludes,’ Belfort, 55, told The New York Post.
‘I… started crawling around. We were both on the floor, drooling. His father walked into the room and asked us what the f*** we were doing.’
The Wolf of Wall Street had to teach Leo DiCaprio (pictured in the movie) how to act on drugs because the Oscar winner has never taken any
DiCaprio played Belfort, the hard partying, corrupt banker in the Wolf of Wall Street
Belfort (pictured) says he has regrets from those hedonistic days on Wall Street – although the drugs were never one of them
DiCaprio said he got it all on tape.
‘Or rather, the lost Jordan tapes,’ the Oscar winner joked to the Daily Mail in 2014.
‘He crawled around the floor to re-enact the stages of getting high. He wasn’t the greatest actor, but he certainly gave me the inspiration,’ he added.
The moment was captured in one of the most celebrated scenes of the movie, where Dicaprio’s Belfort, as high as a kite on Quaalude tranquilizers, gets from the lobby of a country club, down some steps and into his Lamborghini – a moment celebrated as a master-class of physical comedy.
The movie showed DiCaprio’s Belfort repeatedly getting high on drugs
In one of the most celebrated scenes of the movie, where Dicaprio’s Belfort, as high as a kite on the Quaalude tranquilizers, gets from the lobby of a country club, down some steps and into his Lamborghini, is a mini Fellini movie in itself
The actor, who is known for his wild yacht parties with beautiful women, has spoken previously about how his poor upbringing had put him off drugs for life.
‘Never done it,’ DiCaprio said about drugs, US Weekly reported in 2014. ‘That’s because I saw this stuff literally every day when I was three or four years old. So Hollywood was a walk in the park for me… I’d go to parties and it was there and, yeah, there’s that temptation,’ he admitted.
‘Hollywood is a very volatile place where artists come in and they essentially say they want to belong. It’s incredibly vulnerable to be an actor and also get criticism at a young age when you’re formulating who you are,’ he added. ‘We’ve seen a lot of people fall victim to that, and it’s very unfortunate.’
The star was brought up by his mother Irmelin in an L.A. neighborhood near Hollywood Boulevard which had a ‘major prostitution ring on my street corner, crime and violence everywhere.’
DiCaprio (pictured in a scene from the Wolf of Wall Street with Jonah Hill), who is known for his wild yacht parties with beautiful women, has spoken previously about how his poor upbringing had put him off drugs for life
Belfort is also off the hard stuff and has been sober for 20 years following a near-fatal overdose (pictured is DiCaprio as the banker in Wolf of Wall Street with Jonah Hill)
But seeing where drugs could lead, the actor made a conscious decision not to go down that path.
Belfort is also off the hard stuff and has been sober for 20 years following a near-fatal overdose.
He also served 22 months in prison after pleading guilty to stock fraud and money laundering in 1999.
Belfort, who was born in the Bronx, is still working to pay back the victims he defrauded, and his book, subsequent movie rights and public speaking go towards that. He still lives a luxurious life however, with a Manhattan Beach home in California, Mercedes, making speaking engagements, up to 150 a year, which can pay $100,000 per day.
He says he has regrets from those hedonistic days on Wall Street – although the drugs were never one of them.
‘If I could change things so that I didn’t lose people money, I would go back. But I’d keep all the hookers and drugs… That was my life.’