Excess, success, money, drugs: Leonardo DiCaprio plays corrupt New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort in Martin Scorcese’s latest offering – ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’.
It is a biographical black comedy – Belfort was indicted in 1998 for securities fraud and money laundering. After cooperating with the FBI, he served 22 months in federal prison for a so-called pump and dump scheme, which resulted in investor losses of approximately $200 million.
Centred around the corporate greed of the 1980s, the movie contains scenes with nudity, drug use and outrageous partying.
At the movie’s premiere in New York, DiCaprio explained how he went about playing the role.
“I kind of approached this as a Roman emperor during the fall of the Roman Empire. And when you take on that mentality and you basically say these characters are incredibly hedonistic and they give in to every possible temptation and they have no regard for anyone except themselves.’‘
‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ is DiCaprio’s and Scorsese’s fifth film collaboration.
Also at the film’s New York premiere, director Rob Reiner spoke about the DiCaprio/Scorsese relationship.
“They have insane respect for each other and it is a real collaboration. It’s one of those perfect marriages with actor and director. They’re constantly exchanging ideas. They’re totally comfortable with anybody coming up, or somebody saying, ‘Ooh, I don’t like that.’ Nobody is holding onto ideas. It’s a free flow of ideas.”
And what of Scorsese? Will he work with DiCaprio a sixth time?
“If we can get excited about it together that’s really good, you know. That’s the thing. It’s the inspiration really,” Scorsese said.
The movie has already been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards.
‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ goes out on general release on December 25.
