Margot Robbie Was Never The Same After The Wolf Of Wall Street

Not every actor in Hollywood gets to say that their breakout role was in a Martin Scorsese film, but Margot Robbie is one of the few who does. The Australian actress has done a lot in the entertainment industry since "The Wolf of Wall Street" premiered in 2013, from her character-defining portrayal of Harley Quinn in the DC film universe, to 2023's smash hit "Barbie," which blew everyone away at the box office. However, Robbie's transformation from childhood to movie star wouldn't have been complete without her breakthrough performance. 

The actress had already established an impressive career leading up to the Scorsese film, getting her big break on the Australian soap opera "Neighbours" when she was 18 years old. She later moved to America to star in the single-season ABC drama "Pan Am," and had a supporting role in the 2013 rom-com "About Time." It wasn't long before she caught the attention of Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio when she auditioned for the role of Naomi Lapaglia, the second wife (and ex-mistress) of DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort in "The Wolf of Wall Street."

Naomi is a fictionalized version of Belfort's ex-wife Nadine Macaluso, who met with Robbie during pre-production to advise her about playing the role. On her TikTok, Macaluso recounted telling Robbie, "That fear that you feel about that, about speaking your truth to powerful men, embody that, and you'll do a great job." Not only did Robbie follow Macaluso's advice, but her performance in the film changed her life forever. 

Auditions are often nerve-wracking for actors anyway, but it's a whole other level when you're screen-testing opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in front of Martin Scorsese. Leave it to Margot Robbie to make a strong first impression in the audition that changed everything for her. She was simply happy to know that Scorsese had seen her audition tape, let alone be invited to audition with DiCaprio.  

As Robbie told Harper's Bazaar, she felt (rightfully) pressured to stand out in front of her idols, and as the audition was nearing its end, made a hefty decision. "I walk up really close to his face and then I'm like, 'Maybe I should kiss him,'" she said. "'When else am I ever going to get a chance to kiss Leo DiCaprio, ever?'" Robbie didn't do it, but came up with something else that, according to Scorsese, scored her the part: she slapped him. Moments after she left the room, just as she was starting to regret it, she was called back in and enthusiastically offered the role. 

Although the slap was unscripted, it certainly taught Robbie to be bolder about her on-screen acting choices. Years later, when she worked with Brad Pitt on "Babylon," she convinced director Damien Chazelle to let her spontaneously kiss Pitt on screen, despite being called out by Chazelle for just wanting to kiss her co-star. At least Pitt can be thankful that he didn't get slapped like DiCaprio, too. 

As Margot Robbie confessed to Nadine Macaluso prior to filming "The Wolf of Wall Street," she was initially hesitant about the project considering the amount of nudity that would be required of her. In fact, the actress almost had to turn the role down, both because she was locked into her contract with "Pan Am" (which was luckily canceled) but also because she couldn't connect with the character beyond the nudity, thinking that Naomi was just a one-dimensional gold digger.

However, Robbie found her "in" with Naomi by dialing into the character's rage in her audition, telling The Sydney Morning Herald, "She's all p*** and vinegar; she's not taking s*** from anyone. She's wielding that power over him and bringing him [DiCaprio] to his knees. That's badass!" Rather than fight against what could have been an unnecessary nude scene, Robbie opted to use the opportunity to make the moment indispensable, thinking it was more realistic for Naomi to be naked while seducing Belfort rather than clothed for the sake of modesty.

Robbie ended up being the one arguing for doing full-frontal nudity in the now-iconic scene, despite Scorsese offering to let her wear a robe. The way she saw it, Naomi was laying it all out for Jordan in a way that was actually quite powerful and brave. The least Robbie could do, she felt, is channel an ounce of that bravery in front of the camera. 

Despite "The Wolf of Wall Street" being Margot Robbie's first mainstream project, she learned early on that the key to good filmmaking is collaboration. Fortunately, she also got to learn that from being on the set of one of the greatest living directors, an experience she didn't take for granted. During a Q&A for the BAFTAs, Robbie dove deep into the level of input she had on "The Wolf of Wall Street," which was especially integral for one scene in the film where a fight between Naomi and Jordan leads Leonardo DiCaprio's character to crashing a car with his daughter inside.

As Robbie explained, the scene was originally shorter, but a brainstorming session with Scorsese and DiCaprio the night before shooting completely changed it. She recalled (via Deadline), "Our brilliant 1st AD Adam Somner was probably tearing his hair out because out of nowhere we were like, so, we're gonna need to break the garage door of someone's house, break a car window, and destroy a couch." 

Thankfully, by that point, Robbie had been on set for several months, so she wasn't at all intimidated by the prospect of offering Scorsese her own thoughts or making bold moves, which led to some of the best improvised moments in the movie. As her audition had already taught her, the director was receptive to her ideas, no matter how spontaneous or DiCaprio-endangering they were. 

It didn't take long for Margot Robbie to explode into the mainstream following her performance in "The Wolf of Wall Street." In fact, many were surprised to even learn that she was Australian, considering how pitch-perfect her Brooklyn accent was in the film, which was named by Vanity Fair as one of the best New York accents ever heard on-screen. 

Robbie's performance was praised right down to the line readings, while others rightfully predicted her rise to stardom. Awards Daily called Robbie "ferocious ... funny, hard and kills every scene she's in" and deemed her "Scorsese's best blonde bombshell discovery since Cathy Moriarty in 'Raging Bull.'" Even publications like The Guardian, which criticized the film's length and portrayal of Belfort, singled out Robbie as one of the film's highlights. 

While Robbie was snubbed for major award nods for her supporting role in "The Wolf of Wall Street," the actress walked away with a trophy from the Empire Awards for best female newcomer, and also received nominations at the MTV Movie and TV Awards and Critics' Choice Awards, among other smaller prizes. On the bright side, this wouldn't be the last time that Robbie was the victim of a big Oscar snub.

Like many actors, Margot Robbie had difficulty adjusting to the A-list status that inevitably followed "The Wolf of Wall Street." It was especially the case given that she bared all in the movie and found herself in too deep to turn back. Robbie told Vanity Fair that she hit a real dark patch after "The Wolf of Wall Street" came out, and even thought about quitting acting, confessing, "Something was happening in those early stages and it was all pretty awful, and I remember saying to my mom, 'I don't think I want to do this.' And she just looked at me, completely straight-faced, and was like, 'Darling, I think it's too late not to.'" Thankfully, Robbie followed her mom's advice and persisted. 

Despite feeling much more confident in her ability to handle celebrity, Robbie has still been critical over the invasions of privacy that occur, particularly in Australia with its much more lenient laws against paparazzi. She's admitted that it can be hard at times to not be overwhelmed by the stress and pressure that comes from being in the entertainment industry, especially given how busy it can get. Thankfully at this point she doesn't have any regrets, least of all about "The Wolf of Wall Street." 

The years immediately after "The Wolf of Wall Street" saw Margot Robbie become an in-demand actress, with high-profile projects including "Focus," "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot," and "The Legend of Tarzan." Her celebrity status became just as large as her characters on-screen, thanks to both the attention she got from Scorsese's film, as well as one cameo she made a year later in Adam McKay's "The Big Short," a film examining the 2007 financial crisis.

Robbie was one of many celebrities who cameoed in the film, breaking the fourth wall to explain financial concepts to the audience in ways that were a little more attention-grabbing than, say, watching CNBC. In Robbie's case, she's featured in a bubble bath drinking champagne as she explains subprime mortgages. As she recounted in an actors' roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter, "It was the easiest day of work I've ever done in my life."

McKay himself described the celebs in the cameos as pop culture icons, with Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez among the other celebrities making appearances in the film. It likely didn't take much to convince Robbie to shoot the scene, but considering how quickly it came after "The Wolf of Wall Street," it meant a lot for Robbie to be declared a "pop culture icon" so soon. 

At the after-party for the London premiere for "The Wolf of Wall Street," Margot Robbie, future husband Tom Ackerley, and friends Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr decided to move in together. Not only was the decision life-changing for her romantic future with Ackerley, but the living situation ending up birthing a new avenue for Robbie outside of acting: producing. 

While the years following "The Wolf of Wall Street" were prosperous for Robbie's career, the actress felt creatively stifled by a lot of the roles she was offered, most of which were very similar to Naomi. Even though Robbie was just 24 years old at the time, she wanted to create her own opportunities for stronger female roles, as McNamara told Variety: "She was at a place in her career where she had the ability to set up a company, and wanted to support other female creatives and give them the platform she was getting herself."

The production company founded by Robbie, Ackerley, McNamara, and Kerr became known as LuckyChap Entertainment, and has been the main vehicle for Robbie-led movies like "I, Tonya," "Birds of Prey," and "Barbie," as well as other notable films like "Promising Young Woman" and "Saltburn." The company has been integral in putting more women in front of the camera, while also championing roles for women behind it as directors, writers, and crew members. 

Margot Robbie felt trepidation over playing Naomi in "The Wolf of Wall Street" not only for the lack of modesty involved, but for her reservations regarding the character's depth. She felt a similar way when she signed onto David Ayer's 2016 film "Suicide Squad" to play Harley Quinn, the notorious Joker accomplice who is madly in love with the Batman villain. 

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Robbie expressed that she didn't connect with the role immediately. "I just didn't understand how she could be such a badass and then fall to pieces over some guy," she said. "Fans seem to really love that about her." However, after some recommendations from her acting coach, Robbie began looking at the character through the lens of toxic, co-dependent relationships. 

From that point on, Robbie not only fell in love with Harley Quinn, but also felt an extreme amount of pressure to do her justice, given that this was the character's first live-action portrayal. It helped that, thanks to "The Wolf of Wall Street," she already had experience with the Brooklyn accent that Harley is known for, finding it one of the easier American accents to perform since Australians also drop the "r" in their words. 

As Margot Robbie's star continued to rise throughout the 2010s, she began to feel disdain towards the way Hollywood had begun to portray her as a sex symbol. She thought that the label of "blonde bombshell" undermined her work as an actress, telling the Chicago Tribune, "I really hate that you can do a project with people like Martin Scorsese and some of the best filmmakers in the world, and some of the DPs I've worked with and editors and things that, and the whole thing gets completely swept aside with one comment like, 'Blonde Bombshell Sizzles the Screen!'"

However, as the entertainment industry has proven time and time again, the best way to overcome such a label is by making fun of it. Margot Robbie got a chance to do that in 2016 when she hosted "Saturday Night Live," which featured many sketches that allowed her to use her beauty for the purposes of humor. One example was the sketch "Live Report," in which Robbie played the stunningly gorgeous wife of Mikey Day's mediocre, befuddled news anchor, Matt Schatt.

Another sketch, "The Librarian," found Robbie playing a sexy librarian who turns out to be a lot less attractive than library patrons expected her to be. The episode certainly proved that Robbie could do much more than just be a "bombshell," and made her one of the best first-time hosts in "SNL" history. 

While "The Wolf of Wall Street" is the best on-screen breakthrough an actor could hope for, Margot Robbie spent a long time after the film trying to shake off its reputation. As she told Wonderland magazine (via The Independent) about playing Naomi, "I was acutely aware that the line in the screenplay was 'the hottest blonde ever,' I'm clearly not the hottest blonde ever ... I was just terrified that people would see the movie and think 'Eugh! She's not that great.'"

In the years after the Scorsese film, Robbie sought roles that would challenge not only her, but the audience, which led her to the biopic "I, Tonya." She played controversial figure skater Tonya Harding, who was far from unattractive, but allowed Robbie to play a role that was about more than just her looks. Her preparation to play Harding involved some of the most commitment Robbie had undertaken in her career to that point, with months of studying figure skating and Harding's accent. 

She eventually proved the behind-the-scenes doubts about her ability to pull it off wrong: Not only did Robbie walk away from "I, Tonya" with maybe her best performance to date, despite it being far from her biggest movie of all time, but it also made her a first-time Oscar nominee for best actress the following year. 

One of the benefits of playing Naomi in "The Wolf of Wall Street" was that Margot Robbie got to spend a lot of time acting opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, with many of her scenes featuring their two characters either having sex or engaged in screaming matches with each other. Robbie certainly considers herself lucky for the opportunity, telling People magazine, "He has always been my favorite actor and he became this wonderful big brother. He took me under his wing and always looked out for me, which is really nice." 

However, she had to temper her friends' expectations that she was going to be swept off her feet by getting physical with DiCaprio on-screen, which wasn't the case considering how awkward it is to film nude scenes. Still, she considered working with DiCaprio a challenge, not because of typical celebrity ego, but because he was acting at such a level that Robbie had to elevate her game. Robbie has now had the pleasure of working with DiCaprio twice, given that the two also appeared in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," albeit with limited screen-time together. 

2023 was a huge year for Margot Robbie, as she both produced and starred in the blockbuster hit "Barbie," a film that saw her much more involved behind the scenes even before she ever stepped into the character's high heels. Despite the attention she got for her looks in "The Wolf of Wall Street," Robbie initially signed onto "Barbie" as a producer, and had no intention of playing the title role until director Greta Gerwig signed on. Even then, she didn't think she could pull it off without Gerwig's encouragement and collaboration.

Nowadays, Robbie credits "The Wolf of Wall Street" with paving the path for her success with "Barbie," telling Deadline in anticipation of the Scorsese film's 10-year anniversary, "I feel there was a seismic shift in my life 10 years ago with 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' and now, after everything with 'Barbie' this year, it feels like this past decade has been wild, far beyond anything I could ever have dreamed for myself." If that film showcased Margot Robbie as Hollywood's next big talent, getting to make "Barbie" was proof that slapping Leonardo DiCaprio might have been the greatest split-second decision in the history of cinema.