Get The Ludes! Leonardo DiCaprio Needed Help For One Crucial Scene In 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'

As we all know, Leonardo DiCaprio has singlehandedly become a prominent environmentalist and one of the greatest acting talents of his generation. Yet, as the old saying goes, everyone needs help sometime, and when it came to filming The Wolf of Wall Street, it seems that ol’ Leo was no exception to this rule.

Leonardo DiCaprio Needed Help For One Crucial Scene In 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'

Among its many witty barbs, boobs, and narcotics, The Wolf of Wall Street’s funniest and most memorable sequence took place when crooked stockbroker Jordan Belfort’s (DiCaprio) tries to return home from his country club and prevent his associate, Donnie (Jonah Hill), from inadvertently spilling his illegal secrets to the FBI. The catch in all this is that Jordan has ingested a lot of Quaaludes, and is struggling to do, well, anything!

Gurning and wildly wriggling around on the floor, the prolonged sequence is a master class in comedy, but it turns out that Leo needed some advice on how you act and feel when you’re chasing the magic dragon. Having never taken the drug himself, DiCaprio called upon the real-life Jordon Belfort to demonstrate the effects for him, which Belfort described in a recent interview with the New York Post:

“Leo had never done drugs, so I showed him what it looks and feels like when you are high on Quaaludes, I...started crawling around. [Then] we were both on the floor, drooling.”

The thought of DiCaprio and Belfort both rolling around on the floor is sure to start many of us chuckling. And, along with taking notes from "The Drunkest Guy in the World," it's clear Leo certainly went to the right person for help. After all, we know just the kind of lifestyle Jordan Belfort led, thanks to #MartinScorcese's movie. In fact, Belfort has asserted that it was even more depraved in reality!

Thankfully though, Jordan has been sober since he suffered a near-fatal overdose some 20 years ago, yet the fact remains that if anyone were to know what the ‘ludes feel like, it’d be Wolfie himself. Some readers may suspect that this is just a daft Hollywood tale that’s been embroidered for effect, but that’s actually not the case. In fact, Leo confirmed the legitimacy of Belfort’s tale in an earlier interview with the Daily Mail:

"[Jordan] crawled around the floor to re-enact the stages of getting high. He wasn't the greatest actor, but he certainly gave me the inspiration..."

And what’s even funnier than simply imagining Belfort and DiCaprio drooling and rehearsing together is the fact that the two grown men unwittingly previewed the scene to one of Leo’s family members:

“[Leo’s] father walked into the room [as we practiced] and asked us what the f – – k we were doing.”

Hilarious stuff! I don’t know about you guys, but knowing just how Leo and Jordan prepared for this scene somehow makes it even funnier! However, I’m not surprised that DiCaprio went straight to Belfort for tips, since he’s shown time and time again that he takes his craft very seriously. DiCaprio’s refusal to break character when he’d badly slashed his hand on the set of Django Unchained is still talked about, as is the fact that he ate raw meat on the set of The Revenant, despite being a long-time vegetarian.

It's clear that Belfort's lessons and DiCaprio's dedication paid off though, since the Lude scenes are undoubtedly priceless, and they've since become beloved by movie fans everywhere. Though after hearing about his antics on The Wolf of Wall Street, I can now only wonder what kind of method acting DiCaprio will go through for Stan Lee or the Joker — if he ever gets to play them, that is!

(Sources: The New York Post, The Daily Mail)