What did Jonah Hill Experience on set of ‘Wolf on Wall Street’ almost
Martin Scorsese’s recent and excessive film, Wolf on Wall Street has shocked and awed audiences across America. When JOnah Talks about working with Martin Scorsese on “The Wolf of Wall Street” he explains how he never called the critically acclaimed director “Marty” instead he remained in awe that he was able to work with the great director.
Jonah Hill portrays real world ‘Donnie Azoff, a fast-talking, morally unhinged, crack-smocking, stock market hustler who makes the “Wolf on Wall Street” an amazing ride. While actor just turned 30, he is still amazed by the fact that he was able to work with the great director.
The actor spoke with The Wrap.com about working on the upcoming feature film. One of the things
“I mean, there are moments when I watch the film and think, I’m in a Martin Scorsese movie. I’m on drugs in slow motion in crazy ‘Casino’ sunglasses in a Martin Scorsese film. This is the best. Stop the tape right now, I want to ‘Groundhog Day’ this for the rest of my life.”
“They sent me the book and the script, so I read both a few times,” said Hill. “And Donnie just popped off the page to me, even though he’s someone I genuinely dislike. I met with Leo first, and I said, ‘I have to play this part. I’m the best person in the world to play this part. I know who this person is within society. He’s what’s wrong with society. He’s an animal, he doesn’t care about people’s feelings, he will do anything to further himself in the things that are not important, and I’m dying to play that.’
“About two days before the movie started, Leo and I went to dinner with Jordan Belfort, and I still was missing one key element of Donnie. You know, Jordan just seems to want to be a cult leader – he seems to be obsessed with having power over everybody, having that god-like stature. But Donnie doesn’t want that. He wants the more primal things – the money, the drugs, the women. And I asked Jordan at dinner, I said, ‘How do you feel about what you did to these people’s lives?’
“And he said, ‘At the time I just kind of blocked it out. And if I could do it over again and become rich without hurting anybody, I of course would.’ And then he’s like, ‘Jonah, your character, heliked the fact that he was hurting people.’ And that, to me, opened everything up, of why this person does the things that he does. And it disturbed me. The sickness of enjoying doing that to people is really sadistic.”
The film features the excessive lifestyles of Belfort and Azoff in one particular scene where Hill’s character masturbates to what would become Belfort’s second wife.
“As an actor, that’s probably the most extreme thing you can see yourself do onscreen,” said Hill with a grin. “But I think it was important to show. It really happened, first of all. And second of all, this film is a complete copout and a disaster if you do not show the actual depravity of what went on.
“The biggest challenge of that scene was that it’s a big party scene, so you have a lot of background extras who don’t know the context. So I just asked them, ‘Please take this seriously.’ It’s hard not to laugh at such a ridiculous, insane action, but I had to take it as seriously as it was to this person.
“To do a scene like that in a broad comedy would be to be shocking, and I wouldn’t do it. Whereas this wasn’t to be shocking, it was trying to show what these people actually did. And that was important to me. If they were willing to do it in real life, and I wasn’t willing to do it as an actor, then I don’t deserve to be playing the part.”
“What I loved about this movie is that it felt grimy, it felt slimy, it felt criminal.”
For the full interview, which is incredible visit TheWrap.com. If you have not seen The Wolf on Wall Street make sure to watch! Wolf on Wall Street is in theaters now.
