If we ever found ourselves in the same room as Leonardo DiCaprio, chances are slapping him would be the last thing we’d want to do. But when Margot Robbie faced the Oscar-winning actor in her audition for The Wolf of Wall Street, that’s exactly what she did—and as you know, she snagged the lead female role.
“She clinched her part during our first meeting, by hauling off and giving Leonardo DiCaprio a thunderclap of a slap on the face, an improvisation that stunned us all,” director Martin Scorsese tells Time Magazine for its 100 Most Influential People issue.
The Australian beauty explains her decision to smack Leo, citing the mere 30 seconds left in her audition to impress the director and the gang. “‘It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, just take it,'” she recalls telling herself when she reenacted a scene in which Leo’s character undermines hers.
“I walk up really close to his face, and then I’m like, ‘Maybe I should kiss him. When else am I ever going to get a chance to kiss Leo DiCaprio, ever?'” she says. “But another part of my brain clicks, and I just go, Whack! I hit him in the face. And then I scream, ‘F*** you!’ And that’s not in the script at all.”
We’re not sure we would have gone for the wallop, but it certainly worked for Margot, whose career has done nothing but skyrocket since.
