Leonardo DiCaprio: “The Wolf of Wall Street” Doesn’t Condone Wild Lifestyle
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Paramount Pictures(NEW YORK) — The Wolf of Wall Street, based on the memoir of wild and scheming stockbroker Jordan Belfort, is a tale of indulgence and excess, but star Leonardo DiCaprio says there’s more to the film than money, partying and sex.
DiCaprio tells Variety that he hopes “people understand that we’re not condoning this behavior, that we’re indicting it.”
He adds, “The book was a cautionary tale and if you sit through the end of the film, you’ll realize what we’re saying about these people and this world, because it’s an intoxicating one.”
The 39-year-old actor tells the magazine he was drawn to the character because of “the severe honesty in which Jordan Belfort portrayed a hedonistic time in his life on Wall Street.”
He explains, “It’s rare when someone is unafraid to divulge how dark they went. With all these people on Wall Street who’ve screwed over so many people since 2008, I became obsessed with playing a character who made me understand the mentality and nature of the seduction of Wall Street and greed.”
DiCaprio also couldn’t pass up an opportunity to work with director Martin Scorsese for a fifth time.
“People — no matter what their attitude is after seeing the film — should understand this is a film that’s outside the box and is very difficult to get done in this day and age,” DiCaprio tells Variety, adding, “That in its own right is commendable.”
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