Margot Robbie, America’s favorite Barbie, might be a household name now, but before her breakout role in The Wolf Of Wall Street, she was just a regular Australian soap opera star, trying to make it big in Hollywood. Her short-lived ABC drama Pan-Am had recently bitten the dust when she was asked to audition for a very high-profile role…opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.
But it was shocking that a relatively unknown actress snagged the role of Naomi Caridi, a real-life model and actress who married Jordan Belfort, the inspiration behind The Wolf Of Wall Street. The 2013 movie chronicled the rise and very steep fall of Jordan Belfort, the entrepreneur/criminal who scammed his way into a bunch of money. Robbie played his girlfriend-turned-wife-turned-ex-wife. In order to prep for her role, Robbie read Jordan Belfort‘s memoir to understand exactly what type of person she was dealing with.
“Obviously, the books helped a lot, because you really get an idea for the world,” the actress said at the time. “I also worked specifically, dialect-related, we worked with Tim Monich. He’s one of the best dialect coaches in the world. We had Tim on set with us all the time and worked prior to filming.” Robbie also listened to recordings of various Brooklyn accents in order to get the tone down.
Not only did the actual source material help, but Robbie took it s step further: she met with Caridi while rehearsing for the role. “I had the choice to meet [Naomi] or not, and I opted to meet her, and I’m really glad I did,” Robbie told IndieWire at the time. “It wasn’t necessarily integral to meet her to form my character because I wasn’t trying to portray her. And I tried to explain that to her — I was creating a character that was in the same situation that she was in, that lived the life that she was in, but I was by no means trying to be her or portray her at that time.”
Just think: if that one Wall Street guy had never manipulated the stock market, we probably would have never gotten a Harley Quinn spinoff. There is always a bright side!