Try not to laugh too hard when you read the next statement, as it's based on a true, strange story: Olivia Wilde was too old to play the role of Naomi in The Wolf Of Wall Street. We were pretty taken aback ourselves, but sure enough Wilde herself recently spun the story of how one fateful audition closed one door, but opened another.
Wilde was recently a guest on The Howard Stern Show, and as usual Howard's interviewing prowess helped uncover something we wouldn't have known before. In this case, Olivia Wilde told him the story of how she found out about the true reason she was rejected the role of Naomi Lapaglia, Jordan Belfort's second wife in The Wolf Of Wall Street. The details are as follows:
I had heard for a part that I was 'too sophisticated'... I'd found out later that they'd actually said 'old.' … I did not [audition for Vinyl] because I had auditioned unsuccessfully for The Wolf Of Wall Street. That's the one I was 'too old' for.
Interestingly enough, Olivia Wilde's personal trajectory was much more aligned with Naomi's real life counterpart, Nadine Caridi. For reference, Caridi married Jordan Belfort in 1991, which would have made her 29 years old when she married The Wolf Of Wall Street protagonist.
Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese's film shot between August and September 2012, which would have put Wilde at 28 years old and Margot Robbie, the actor who eventually won the role of Naomi, at 22 years old, during the time of the shoot. So by the numbers, Olivia Wilde would have been a better pick than Margot Robbie. To further seal the deal, check out the below photo of Wilde's role in Her, which actually filmed around the same time-frame as The Wolf Of Wall Street did.
However, despite the circumstances, there's a massive silver lining to the events that transpired. If Olivia Wilde was cast in The Wolf Of Wall Street, she would have been more than up to the task of playing Leonardo DiCaprio's foil in the Academy Award nominated film. But then again, if Margot Robbie didn't win the role of Naomi, she probably wouldn't have gotten the big break that lead to her being cast as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. Though when it comes to Wilde's role on Vinyl, she might have still been cast as one of the show's leads after playing the leading lady in Scorsese's Wall Street dramedy. Still, you can't argue with the result that eventually panned out.
You can watch Olivia Wilde in Vinyl, which airs Sunday nights at 9 PM EST on HBO; and you can see Margot Robbie in either Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, which is currently in theaters, or in Suicide Squad, which opens on August 5th.
How did Margot Robbie get the part? Believe it or not, it involves slapping Leonardo DiCaprio. More details ahead...
Desperate to do something in her Wolf of Wall Street audition to stand out, Margot Robbie laid one one Leonardo DiCaprio. And we don't mean a kiss. The actor admitted in an interview that instead of kissing him, she slapped him...
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 as we mentioned, she decided to take a different approach...
Get her full audition story (and Leo's response) here.
Other stories you may like...
- Olivia Wilde's not the ONLY actor who was told she was too old to play the love interest of a significantly older male actor. Get the story here.
- Find out how Helen Mirren feels about Hollywood preferring to cast young actresses HERE.
- Watch the Lane Bryant ad that was too racy for network TV HERE.
