Although released back in 2013, Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street has never really stopped being in the lime light and media. In addition to the acclaim the film was amassed, as well as its star-making moment for Suicide Squad's Margot Robbie, The Wolf of Wall Street has also been the subject of a fair amount of controversy. And now it appears that there's even more behind-the-scenes drama that we were never aware of. This time, the drama is regarding actor Jonah Hill and his role as Donnie Azoff.
Jonah Hill recently appeared on HBO's Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons, where he revealed (via Yahoo) that he actually had to be hospitalized following the filming of The Wolf of Wall Street. It turns out that all the fake cocaine that Hill had to ingest while filming the movie actually messed with his health in a serious way. He said the following:
I did so much fake cocaine in Wolf of Wall Street I got bronchitis for three weeks and had to be hospitalized. It's vitamin powder, but it doesn't matter, because if you ingest that much matter into your lungs, you'll get very sick, and we were just literally doing fake coke for, like, seven months, every day. I never had more vitamin D in my entire life. I could have lifted a car over my fucking head!
Well, that's pretty damn crazy. Hospitalizations can occur every so often during and after film production, but usually they're related to stunts and action sequences that have a higher risk of physical damage. But the consumption of a supposedly harmless prop? That's something else.
Jonah Hill's hospitalization will presumably be a cautionary tale for prop masters, directors, and actors everywhere. Presumably, everyone involved in The Wolf of Wall Street was careful to use the proper non harmful substitute for cocaine. There's a ton of "coke" being consumed during the movie, so a fair amount of the film's ensemble had used the same vitamin powder that Hill did. The real problem here may be the mixture of too many takes and Hill inhaling bumps that were a bit too large. Just because a substance isn't harmful doesn't mean you don't have to be careful when its being consumed massively over the course of months. Food for thought.
This is just the latest in a fairly long list of Wolf of Wall Street controversies. Perhaps the most notable lately is the lawsuit filed by Andrew Greene over his alleged depiction in the Martin Scorsese drama. Greene is a former executive at Stratton Oakmont, the firm which was depicted in the movie. Greene claims that his depiction in the movie (the character Rugrat played by P.J. Byrne) has slandered his name, especially considering some of the craziness that the character participated in throughout the film. In fact, Leonardo DiCaprio has even been called as a witness for the trial.
We're glad that Jonah Hill wasn't harmed too bad during the filming of The Wolf of Wall Street. The actor has done some serious physical transformations for roles, and we're hoping he remains healthy to make us laugh and cry for years to come.
