14 DAY TRIAL // Those who went to the cinema and saw “The Wolf of Wall Street” learned that all the debauchery and hedonism were actually based on real events, that occurred in the life of stockbroker Jordan Belfort.
Seeing as how the movie enjoyed incredible success, people were eager to get Belfort's opinion on what “really” happened, but after the movie premiered, Jordan was oddly quiet.
Granted, he wasn't portrayed as a do-gooder, but many people actually sympathized with him, despite his flaws. Now, Belfort, opens up for the first time, to give his impression on “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Jordan regrets his portrayal in the movie but, overall, is proud of the finished product. Naturally, he has mixed feelings about that period of his life: “it's a bittersweet situation,” he says in an interview with ET, as the video below can confirm.
The one thing Jordan is keen to clear up is the fact that, as opposed to the movie, no one lost their life savings in his financial schemes. If any money was lost by investors, it was from wealthy people that could afford it.
“It's just not true, it’s a fallacy. We were calling wealthy people... when I was there we were calling very wealthy people and you weren’t losing people’s life savings, that wasn’t the model. By the way, that doesn’t make it any better. So, a few people lost money, that’s bad enough, but we weren’t taking people’s life savings,” Jordan insists.
Speaking on his portrayal in the movie, Jordan has nothing but kind words for Leonardo DiCaprio. He says that Leonardo was very scrupulous, and was calling him constantly to ask about one thing or another in regards to his role.
Apart from being on the set, Belfort even took the time to go over the script with Leo, line for line, to offer to the actor a grasp on things as close to reality as possible.
All that work put in now seems to have paid off, as Scorsese's film is one of the most successful productions this year, already having won some Golden Globes as well as having its sights firmly set on the Oscars.
For DiCaprio, playing the controversial Belfort that went on to achieve great wealth by the end of the '80s and early '90s, only to lose it all in a couple of years, is the best chance of landing the coveted Oscar for Best Actor.
Though the film has been blasted by critics and some moviegoers for portraying a little too graphically the hedonistic lifestyle Jordan and his friends indulged in, “The Wolf of Wall Street” is considered a great movie.