Margot Robbie slapped Leonardo DiCaprio at the 'The Wolf of Wall Street' audition
Trying to forge a career in Hollywood? Maybe try slapping your way to the top.
Time's The Most Influential 100 People has been released, a regular feature in which profiles of the honorees are written by other famous people.
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In the case of Australian Margot Robbie, the actress was praised by director Martin Scorsese, the director of The Wolf of Wall Street — the film in which Robbie made her Hollywood breakthrough.
Scorsese tried to answer the question on what Robbie is like by waxing lyrical about her "comedic genius" and "all-bets-off feistiness," reminiscent of classic Hollywood actresses.
But what really convinced Scorsese that Robbie was right for her part in The Wolf of Wall Street was her "unique audacity" — which, well, basically means her giving Leonardo DiCaprio one across the face.
"She clinched her part in The Wolf of Wall Street during our first meeting — by hauling off and giving Leonardo DiCaprio a thunderclap of a slap on the face, an improvisation that stunned us all," he wrote.
Robbie recounted the moment in an interview with Harper's Bazaar back in 2015, where she barely got a word in during an improvised scene between herself and a "phenomenal" DiCaprio.
She had to make her mark in the next scene, an argument between the couple: "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," Robbie said.
So when she was told to come over and kiss DiCaprio, in character as the unstable Jordan Belfort, Robbie did the opposite.
"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," she said.
"And then all of a sudden Marty and Leo just burst out laughing. Marty says, 'That was great!' Leo's like, 'Hit me again!'" Robbie added. It was a slap that forged a career.
Scorsese finished his attempt to explain what Robbie is like with one last quip: "This is not a complete answer to the perennial question, but it's a start. Margot is stunning in all she is and all she does, and she will astonish us forever."
