Margot Robbie has admitted that she became so engrossed during her audition for The Wolf Of Wall Street that she actually slapped her eventual co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, across the face. Like, really hard. However rather than being completely offended by the assault, DiCaprio was hugely impressed, and it eventually led to her being cast in Martin Scorsese’s opus on greed and capitalism.
Robbie recalled this incident to Harper's Bazaar, the publication that she graces the front cover of this month. The 24-year-old Australian actress, who despite her scant years has showcased an on-screen intensity and savvy that suggests she is well on her way to being a firm member of the Hollywood elite, stated that she slapped DiCaprio as she was desperate to do something that would make her stand-out. I’ll leave her to tell the rest of the delightful tale:
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, ‘Fuck you!’ And that’s not in the script at all. The room just went dead silent and I froze.
After thwacking arguably the most recognisable actor on the planet square in the face Robbie admitted that she feared she was either about to be arrested or told that she would never work in Hollywood again. Thankfully the complete opposite happened, and rather than being furious both Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio burst out laughing. In fact, DiCaprio enjoyed being struck by Robbie so much that he asked her to "Hit me again!"
As you all probably know, Robbie was eventually cast as Naomi Lapaglia, the second-wife of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort in The Wolf Of Wall Street, who is allegedly described in the screenplay as "the hottest blonde ever."
This was a rather big step up for Robbie. The Australian had previously honed her craft working on the Australian soap opera Neighbours, before appearing in the short-lived American drama Pan-Am, and making a brief turn in Richard Curtis’ About Time.
However since starring in The Wolf Of Wall Street she hasn’t looked back, and she’s now followed this up with her own leading turn opposite Will Smith in Focus, which promises to shoot her even further up the Hollywood echelon.
