For fans of “The Wolf of Wall Street”, the story of Jordan Belfort a former stockbroker whose rise and scandalous fall in the financial world became legendary left many wondering just how much of the film was true to life.
The film, directed by Martin Scorsese, painted a picture of debauchery, complete with dizzying scenes of Wall Street chaos, drug-fueled parties, and extravagant lifestyles.
Now, Belfort’s ex-wife, Dr. Nadine Macaluso, who inspired Margot Robbie’s character Naomi Lapaglia, has come forward with surprising revelations about the accuracy of one unforgettable scene.
Dr. Nadine Macaluso first met Belfort at one of his notorious parties, a memory she recalls vividly to this day.
Describing the event, Nadine said, “I was, I guess, 22 years old and modeling, and my boyfriend at the time said, ‘You want to go to this party in Westhampton in this house on the beach?’ and I was like, ‘Sure.’”
What she didn’t realize was that this seemingly casual gathering would turn out to be unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.
Nadine remembered entering the lavish beach house only to find a crowd acting, as she puts it, “really weird.”
“Little did I know, they were all Quaaluded out,” she explained, referencing the popular sedative often featured in the movie.
As the night went on, things only became more bizarre, and Nadine quickly found herself in an environment that was both surreal and unsettling.
Surrounded by people with their spouses, she noticed that party-goers were behaving in shocking ways.
“They were with their wives and they were like, just making lewd and weird comments,” Nadine recalled, explaining her growing discomfort.
In the film, Robbie’s character Naomi is introduced at a similar party, where she catches Belfort’s eye amidst the chaos of the night.
In a bold move, DiCaprio’s Belfort approaches her, but it’s Jonah Hill’s character, Donnie Azoff, who takes the shocking spotlight by exposing himself at the party.
While moviegoers may have thought the scene was exaggerated for dramatic effect, Nadine has now confirmed otherwise.
“That scene where someone actually exposes himself to me was true. And I actually got terrified by that,” she shared.
In a moment of pure panic, she begged her boyfriend to leave, saying, “I’m 22. And I said to my boyfriend at the time, ‘We have to leave this party,’ and we left right away.”
As for how accurately the rest of the film mirrors reality, Nadine offered an intriguing perspective: “I think that if you look at it through Jordan’s lens it was really accurate.”
She continued, “I think that if you look at it through my lens it wasn’t, and that makes sense because that was actually how our marriage was.”
Though she doesn’t see her own life in the character of Naomi, she praised Robbie’s portrayal, even revealing that Robbie initially hesitated over the explicit role.
“In the middle of dinner, she said to me, ‘I’m really scared of being naked and all the s3x scenes,’” Nadine recounted.
It seems Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” may indeed reflect more truth than embellishment, at least from Belfort’s viewpoint.
For Nadine, however, the film only scratches the surface of a marriage that was as tumultuous and surreal as Hollywood portrayed it to be.
Featured Image Credit: (Paramount Pictures) (Instagram/@margotrobbielookalike)
