Margot Robbie is looking back at her full-frontal nude scene in The Wolf of Wall Street.
While appearing on the Talking Pictures podcast with Turner Classic Movies’ Ben Mankiewicz, the actress reflected on starring in the 2013 Martin Scorsese film alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. The role — as Naomi Lapaglia, the wife to DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort — marked Robbie’s breakout film role when she was in her early 20s.
In the movie, Robbie has a full-frontal nude scene, one she said she pushed for even when Scorsese offered an alternative option.
She recalled Scorsese suggesting she could cover up, saying, “Maybe you can be wearing a robe if you’re not comfortable.” However, Robbie didn’t feel that would be true to the character.
“But that’s not what she would do in that scene. The whole point is that she’s going to come out completely naked — that’s the card she’s playing right now,” Robbie said.
Robbie also took matters in her own hands during her audition for the film. In one of the scenes, Robbie said it ended with DiCaprio’s character telling her to kiss him — but the actress had other ideas.
“I thought, ‘I could kiss Leonardo DiCaprio right now, and that would be awesome. I can’t wait to tell all of my friends this.’ And then I thought ‘nah’ and just walloped him in the face,” Robbie said. “It was dead silent for what felt like an eternity but was probably three seconds.”
Scorsese and DiCaprio approved of the choice, bursting into laughter.
“They just burst out laughing. Leo and Marty were laughing so hard. They said, ‘That was great,’” Robbie said. She also laughed while recalling thinking, “You’re going to get arrested, I’m pretty sure that’s assault or battery. Not only will you never work again, actually you will go to jail for this, you idiot. And also why did you have to hit him so hard? You should have done it lighter.”
Despite the film being her breakout role, Robbie recalled feeling like she was just going to be “one small part in this big circus”
Citing Titanic as the film that always makes her cry, and she listens to the film’s theme music if she needs to cry in scene, Robbie said it was almost a life imitating art moment as she recalled listening to the music to prepare to film an emotional scene with DiCaprio.
“There was the big, crazy scene after I ask for a divorce and stuff. And Kate Winslet came to visit set, to visit Leo that day,” Robbie remembered. “I was in the room next to them, listening to the Titanic soundtrack trying to stay in sad, teary mode. And then I saw Kate Winslet and Leo walk past. It was very surreal.”
The Wolf of Wall Street went on to receive five Academy Award nominations.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Robbie also looked back on starring in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, a film that she still isn’t sure why audiences didn’t like.