14 DAY TRIAL // “The Wolf of Wall Street,” the latest collaboration of director Martin Scorsese and his favorite actor Leonardo DiCaprio, wasn’t as big a hit with critics as expected, but it fared very well at the box office. It also scooped several prestigious awards already so, yes, by all means, it was a risk worth taking.
This applies especially for Jonah Hill, who admitted on Howard Stern that he practically accepted to shoot the movie for peanuts – he was that eager to be in it.
“@jonahhill tells @howardstern that he did the 7 month ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ shoot for $60,000 [€44,264] because he wanted the role so bad,” a tweet from the Sirius XM station allegedly reads.
This kind of money might seem like a fortune to us (that’s because it is, of course) but, for an actor of Hill’s caliber and particularly for a film as big as this one, it’s slim pickings. You could almost say that Hill did the movie for free, knowing that he worked on it for 7 months in a row.
Then again, the role did earn him another Oscar nomination: he’s up for Best Supporting Actor at the March 2014 ceremony and, even if he doesn’t win, the kind of exposure and prestige that comes with the distinction is several times better than a bigger paycheck.