98 Fun Facts About Wolf of Wall Street

Who directed The Wolf of Wall Street?

Martin Scorsese. When the project stalled he made Shutter Island with DiCaprio instead, then returned to it and out-grossed that film to set the box-office record of his career.

Wolf of Wall Street writer Terence Winter created which HBO drama?

Boardwalk Empire. Winter began adapting Belfort's memoir in 2007, three years before that series aired; the film then stalled for so long that his show reached the screen first.

Which market crash costs the young Belfort his first Wall Street job?

Black Monday. With no Wall Street firm hiring after the crash, he takes a job at a Long Island boiler room and discovers the 50 percent commissions on penny stocks.

Which actor plays Belfort's chest-thumping mentor Mark Hanna?

Matthew McConaughey. Mark Hanna was a real broker whose name the film kept: Belfort's memoir credits him with the same crude lunchtime lessons, and he too was later convicted of stock fraud.

What respectable-sounding name does Belfort give his boiler-room firm in 1989?

Stratton Oakmont. Behind the blue-blooded name was a penny-stock shop that began as a franchise of a tiny brokerage, run out of a friend's car dealership.

In the film, which magazine's exposé brands Belfort 'The Wolf of Wall Street'?

Forbes. The real 1991 article called him a twisted Robin Hood who robbed the rich to pay himself, but its writer never used the wolf nickname that the film credits to the magazine.

Jonah Hill's character Donnie Azoff is based on which real co-founder of Belfort's firm?

Danny Porush. The character was renamed after he threatened to sue, and he calls the memoir a distant relative of the truth and the film a distant relative of the memoir.

Which shoe company's IPO makes Belfort a fortune in three hours in 1993?

Steve Madden. The designer went to prison for his part in the stock fraud, yet his company kept him on its payroll as creative and design chief while he was behind bars.

In whose name does Belfort open his Swiss bank account?

Naomi's Aunt Emma. As a British citizen she sits beyond the easy reach of US investigators; the real aunt, Patricia, did carry money to Switzerland for Belfort.

How do Brad's wife Chantalle and her parents carry Belfort's cash onto flights to Europe?

Taped to their bodies. Chantalle's family hold Swiss passports, so they can make the trip again and again; Belfort's real friend with Swiss in-laws did much of his smuggling too.

Which long-banned quaalude does Belfort's voice-over call 'the Holy Grail' when Donnie produces a bottle?

Lemmon 714. The old pills seem to do nothing, so the pair swallow more, and the delayed hit arrives while Belfort is at a country club pay phone.

Which car does Belfort wreck while crawling home on quaaludes?

A Lamborghini Countach. The film upgraded the wreck: by Belfort's own account, the car he smashed up on the drive home that night was a Mercedes.

The real yacht Belfort lost in a storm off Italy once belonged to which fashion designer?

Coco Chanel. Belfort, high at the time, insisted his captain sail into rough seas; the yacht went down and everyone aboard had to be rescued by the Italian navy.

Who is arrested in Miami and then hands Belfort to the FBI in a plea deal?

Swiss banker Saurel. Belfort's narration marvels that of the thousands of bankers in Geneva, his was the one careless enough to be arrested on American soil, in a case unrelated to him.

While wearing a wire for the FBI, how does Belfort warn Donnie to say nothing?

Slips him a written note. It tells Donnie not to incriminate himself, but the slip of paper ends up with the FBI, and an agent holds it up when he comes to arrest Belfort.

What does Belfort do for a living after prison in The Wolf of Wall Street's final scene?

Hosts sales seminars. The emcee who welcomes DiCaprio to the stage in that last scene is the real Jordan Belfort, making a cameo in his own life story.

What does Belfort ask people to sell him in The Wolf of Wall Street's most quoted challenge?

A pen. He springs the test on his first recruits and repeats it in the closing shot, but he did not invent it: the challenge is an old job-interview exercise.

Which director appears uncredited as Dwayne, the boss of the Long Island penny-stock firm?

Spike Jonze. He got the part through the casting director the film shared with his own Her: she had heard him read lines opposite auditioning actors and decided he could act.

Which independent company stepped in to finance The Wolf of Wall Street after a major studio dropped it?

Red Granite. A film about financial fraud was itself allegedly paid for with stolen money: prosecutors said the company's funds had been looted from a state investment fund.

How much did Jonah Hill say he was paid for The Wolf of Wall Street?

$60,000. Hill wanted the part so badly that he took the union minimum and asked for the contract that same night, so nobody could change their mind before he signed.

Which actress says she lost a Wolf of Wall Street part for being 'too old', though DiCaprio is nine years older?

Olivia Wilde. She says the feedback first reached her as 'too sophisticated', which she took as a compliment until she learned the word actually used was 'old'.

The Wolf of Wall Street set a Guinness World Record for the most what in one film?

Swear words. Guinness counted 506 uses of a single expletive, about 2.8 a minute, but the record fell within a year to Swearnet: The Movie.

What was Chance, the four-year-old chimpanzee in The Wolf of Wall Street, taught to do for his scenes?

Roller skate. He glides through the trading floor in a suit, a scene that led the group Friends of Animals to call for a boycott before the film had even opened.

Where does Belfort fly his brokers by jumbo jet for his bachelor party?

Las Vegas. The mid-air party on the way there was not in the memoir: DiCaprio heard about it in his own meetings with the real Belfort and brought it to the director.

Which cartoon hero is on TV when Belfort saves Donnie from choking?

Popeye. As the sailor downs his spinach on screen, Belfort snorts cocaine to cut through the quaaludes, then gets up and revives his choking partner.

At which awards did DiCaprio win Best Actor for playing Jordan Belfort?

The Golden Globes. His three-hour fraud epic competed in the Musical or Comedy category, and he told the room he never thought he would win Best Actor for a comedy.

The Wolf of Wall Street was the first major Hollywood release sent to US cinemas entirely without what?

Film prints. It went out only as digital files, as its studio became the first big one to abandon the reels of 35mm film that cinemas had relied on since movies began.

Cinemas in which country showed The Wolf of Wall Street with about 45 minutes cut out?

The UAE. Viewers there complained the censored version was almost impossible to follow, while Kenya's film board went further and banned it outright.

On which holiday did The Wolf of Wall Street open in US cinemas?

Christmas Day 2013. It had been due in mid-November, but the first cut ran well over three hours, and the trims that followed also spared it an NC-17 rating.

How long did the real Jordan Belfort serve in prison for his stock fraud?

22 months. His sentence was four years, but he had worn a wire and testified against his own partners and brokers, and the time came off for it.

Which comedian bunked beside the real Belfort in prison and urged him to write his memoir?

Tommy Chong. He was inside for selling bongs online, and he laughed so hard at his neighbour's Wall Street stories that he pushed him to write them down.

In voice-over, Belfort rages that God chose which restaurant chain to bring him down?

Benihana. The man who gave him up to the FBI had been arrested for laundering drug money in a case involving the chain's founder, Rocky Aoki.

How did Belfort's first business, selling meat and seafood door to door, end?

In bankruptcy. By his own account the firm was shifting 5,000 pounds of beef and fish a week when it ran out of capital, and its broke young owner went looking for work as a stockbroker.

Jordan Belfort quit which graduate programme on its first day after the dean said it was no longer a route to riches?

Dental school. He had paid for his studies by selling ices on a Long Island beach as a teenager, then walked out when the dean announced that the golden age of dentistry was over.

What nickname does Belfort give his second wife, Naomi?

The Duchess. In full she is the Duchess of Bay Ridge: the real wife behind the character was born in England but grew up in that corner of Brooklyn.

In Belfort's rundown of a quaalude high, which phase comes after the 'tingle' and the 'slur'?

The drool phase. The real Belfort coached DiCaprio through each stage in person, part of the weeks the actor spent with him collecting details for the film.

Donnie startles Belfort early on by admitting that his wife is also which relative?

His cousin. The detail was not invented for laughs: the real partner behind Donnie did marry his first cousin, though the two later divorced.

What did the cast snort as fake cocaine, in such amounts that Jonah Hill ended up in hospital?

Vitamin powder. Hill says months of daily fake drug-taking gave him bronchitis, though he joked that he had never had so much vitamin D in his life.

Which actress plays Naomi, the model who becomes Belfort's second wife?

Margot Robbie. She clinched the part at her audition by improvising a slap across DiCaprio's face, an unscripted move that left the room in dead silence.

Which Friday Night Lights actor plays Patrick Denham, the FBI agent pursuing Belfort?

Kyle Chandler. His character stands in for a real FBI agent who tracked Belfort for years, though by Belfort's own memoir the two first met at his arrest, not on the yacht.

What does Donnie grab from a young broker's desk and eat to punish him for slacking?

His goldfish. Unlike much of the film, this one happened: the real partner behind Donnie has admitted that he swallowed a colleague's pet fish.

After the yacht sinks, what destroys the plane sent to fly the group on to Geneva?

A seagull in the engine. Coming straight after the shipwreck, the explosion strikes Belfort as a sign from God, and he finally tries to get sober.

The 22-year-old Belfort starts his Wall Street career as a broker at which firm?

L.F. Rothschild. There a senior broker takes the rookie to lunch and shares the first rule of the job: nobody knows where a stock is going, so move the client's money into your own pocket.

Which editor said 'we've lost the battle' when The Wolf of Wall Street was to be shot digitally?

Thelma Schoonmaker. Film won a reprieve: in camera tests the director kept preferring the film versions, so most of the picture was shot on celluloid after all.

After his bribe fails on the yacht, Belfort mocks agent Denham for riding home on what?

The subway. The jibe returns near the end, when the agent who caught him reads of the sentence while riding the train home, just as Belfort had sneered.

In The Wolf of Wall Street's brief prison scene, what is Belfort shown doing?

Playing tennis. The cushy picture is true to life: a fellow inmate recalls cracking up whenever Belfort came back from a game, since they were, after all, in jail.

Producer Riza Aziz allegedly funded The Wolf of Wall Street with money stolen from which country's 1MDB fund?

Malaysia. Aziz is the stepson of the prime minister who controlled the fund, and after that government fell both men were charged over the missing money.

What CinemaScore grade did opening audiences give The Wolf of Wall Street, the lowest of any film showing that week?

C. The Los Angeles Times put the low mark down partly to marketing that worked too well, pulling in opening-day crowds the film was never made for.

Which animal, the symbol of Belfort's firm, prowls the office in the commercial that opens The Wolf of Wall Street?

A lion named Handsome was borrowed from a wildlife sanctuary for the shoot, because the big cat is the emblem of the firm in the film.

The Australian actress cast as Naomi in The Wolf of Wall Street won the part by improvising what in her audition?

A slap landed on DiCaprio himself during a fight scene, and the unscripted blow earned her a breakthrough film role.

Which famous film director plays Max Belfort, Jordan's hot-tempered father, in The Wolf of Wall Street?

Rob Reiner made his name behind the camera, directing This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally.

Which rapper's track powers the trailer for The Wolf of Wall Street but is never heard in the film itself?

Kanye West's Black Skinhead drove the trailer, but the film's music supervisor wanted blues and early rock and roll, so the song was left out.

In The Wolf of Wall Street, Belfort is on a payphone at what kind of place when his quaaludes finally kick in?

A country club is where Belfort takes the call, because his private investigator has warned him the FBI is tapping his phones.

Before college, Jordan Belfort and a friend earned $20,000 selling what from coolers on a Long Island beach?

Italian ice, scooped from styrofoam coolers for sunbathers at Jones Beach, was the teenage Belfort's first money-spinner.

Which Hollywood star did DiCaprio outbid in 2007 for the screen rights to Jordan Belfort's memoir?

Brad Pitt lost the bidding war, and DiCaprio then waited six years to play Belfort on screen.

The Wolf of Wall Street soundtrack lost the Grammy for best compilation soundtrack to which Disney film?

Frozen and its sing-along songs beat a compilation that ran from the blues of Elmore James and Bo Diddley to Billy Joel.

Which stock-market scheme makes Belfort and his brokers rich in The Wolf of Wall Street?

Pump and dump means hyping cheap shares you own and then selling at the peak, so ordinary investors are left holding the losses.

Which 2002 historical epic first paired DiCaprio with the director of The Wolf of Wall Street?

Gangs of New York began a partnership that made The Wolf of Wall Street the pair's fifth film together.

The director of The Wolf of Wall Street first left the project to make which DiCaprio film instead?

Shutter Island pulled him away after he had already worked on the script, and he returned only when an independent backer revived the film.

The Wolf of Wall Street won none of its five Oscar nominations, losing Best Picture to which film?

12 Years a Slave took Best Picture, making Steve McQueen's drama the first film by a black director to win the top prize.

Which Walking Dead actor plays Brad Bodnick, the drug dealer recruited to Belfort's new firm?

Jon Bernthal had just finished playing Shane Walsh on the zombie drama when he joined Belfort's crew as Brad.

Which Marvel film director appears in The Wolf of Wall Street as Belfort's lawyer, Manny Riskin?

Jon Favreau, who launched the Marvel film series by directing Iron Man, plays the attorney trying to keep Belfort out of prison.

In The Wolf of Wall Street, Belfort orders his yacht captain to sail through a storm toward which Riviera resort?

Monaco was meant to be a back door into Switzerland, letting Belfort dodge border patrols on his way to rescue his hidden millions.

Off which Mediterranean island did Jordan Belfort's real yacht sink in 1996, with everyone aboard rescued?

Sardinia's east coast is where the yacht went down, after Belfort insisted on sailing into high winds and waves smashed a deck hatch.

What name did the real Jordan Belfort give his luxury yacht, in honour of his second wife?

Nadine was the real name of Belfort's second wife, a model he met at a house party; the film calls her Naomi instead.

Which Absolutely Fabulous star plays a British relative of Naomi in The Wolf of Wall Street?

Joanna Lumley, television's hard-drinking Patsy Stone, got the part only after the first choice turned it down through injury.

In The Wolf of Wall Street, Belfort and Donnie launch their brokerage from what kind of humble premises?

An auto repair shop houses the firm until its first successes pay for a proper office and a grander-sounding name.

Jordan Belfort was born in the Bronx but raised in Bayside, a neighbourhood of which New York City borough?

Queens is where Belfort grew up, the son of Max and Leah, whose real names survive in the film.

Jordan Belfort earned a college degree in which subject before ever selling a single stock?

Biology was Belfort's degree, earned at American University in Washington, D.C., far from any trading floor.

The real Jordan Belfort, born and raised in New York, served his federal prison sentence in which state?

California's Taft Correctional Institution, a low-security federal prison in Kern County, held Belfort a continent away from the scene of his crimes.

Max and Leah Belfort, Jordan's parents in The Wolf of Wall Street and in life, shared which profession?

Accounting was the family trade, and the film keeps the couple's real names while renaming almost everyone else around Jordan.

Which French actor plays the corrupt Geneva financier who hides Belfort's money in The Wolf of Wall Street?

Jean Dujardin had recently become the first French actor to win the Best Actor Oscar, for the silent film The Artist.

Which actress plays Teresa, the first wife Belfort leaves for Naomi, in The Wolf of Wall Street?

Cristin Milioti became far better known the same year as the long-awaited title character of How I Met Your Mother.

Which British actress turned down a role in The Wolf of Wall Street while nursing an ankle injury?

Julie Andrews, the star of Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, later said she would have loved the part but was not ready to return to work.

Which British director was offered The Wolf of Wall Street in 2010, while its eventual director was busy elsewhere?

Ridley Scott was the studio's pick, but the project stalled and stayed on the shelf for two more years.

Which Hollywood studio released The Wolf of Wall Street in US cinemas, with rivals handling much of Europe?

Paramount took the US, Canada and Japan, while the independent producers sold the rest of the world to other distributors.

The Wolf of Wall Street was its director's first feature after which 3D family adventure of 2011?

Hugo, a gentle tale of an orphan living in a Paris railway station, could hardly be further from Belfort's world of drugs and fraud.

Before The Wolf of Wall Street, the Australian actress who plays Naomi spent three years on which soap opera?

Neighbours cast her as Donna Freedman from 2008 to 2011, after which she left Australia to try her luck in the United States.

The real woman who inspired Naomi in The Wolf of Wall Street later earned a doctorate and built which career?

Psychotherapist became her profession, and she uses social media to teach women how to recognise abusive relationships.

The British-born model who became Jordan Belfort's second wife grew up in which Brooklyn neighbourhood?

Bay Ridge was home after her birth in London, and she went on to model in adverts for beer and chewing gum.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings cover which James Bond theme on The Wolf of Wall Street soundtrack?

Goldfinger, first sung by Shirley Bassey in 1964, is one of just 16 tracks on an album drawn from the 60 or so songs heard in the film.

Which East African country's film board banned The Wolf of Wall Street outright, citing its nudity and debauchery?

Kenya's classification board went on to ban other releases too, including Fifty Shades of Grey and the Kenyan drama Rafiki.

Finance workers reportedly cheered Belfort's antics at an advance screening near which bank's New York headquarters?

Goldman Sachs's building stood near the cinema, and a Business Insider reporter noted cheers at what he considered all the wrong moments.

Belfort's brokerage sued which early online service for libel, in a case that led Congress to pass Section 230?

Prodigy lost because it moderated its message boards, and alarm at that ruling produced the 1996 law shielding websites from liability for users' posts.

Which regulator finally expelled Jordan Belfort's brokerage in December 1996, putting it out of business?

The NASD, the brokers' own industry watchdog, called the firm one of the worst actors in the securities business.

DiCaprio co-produced The Wolf of Wall Street through his own company, named after which ancient Roman road?

The Appian Way lent its name to Appian Way Productions, the DiCaprio company that also made The Aviator and The Revenant.

In The Wolf of Wall Street, a female employee accepts $10,000 at an office party to let colleagues do what?

Shave her head is the deal, and the stunt was real: Belfort's actual firm once paid a secretary the same sum to do it.

The closing scene of The Wolf of Wall Street, featuring a cameo by the real Belfort, is set in which city?

Auckland is the setting, and the host who introduces DiCaprio's Belfort to the audience is played by the real Jordan Belfort.

Which New York writer and wit makes a cameo as a judge in The Wolf of Wall Street?

Fran Lebowitz has twice been the subject of documentaries by the film's director: Public Speaking and Pretend It's a City.

Which real former NYPD detective plays himself as Belfort's private investigator in The Wolf of Wall Street?

Bo Dietl made more than 1,400 felony arrests on the force, and he also played the detective who arrests Henry Hill in Goodfellas.

Jordan Belfort's real brokerage was based not on Wall Street but in which Long Island village?

Lake Success, a Long Island village that briefly housed the United Nations, was the firm's real home; prosecutors noted it was never literally a Wall Street firm.

Which My Name Is Earl actor plays Toby Welch, one of Belfort's founding brokers, in The Wolf of Wall Street?

Ethan Suplee played Randy Hickey in the sitcom, and had earlier appeared in Remember the Titans and American History X.

The Wolf of Wall Street held its premiere at which Manhattan single-screen movie palace, now closed?

The Ziegfeld Theatre hosted the premiere and closed as a cinema just over two years later, reopening as a ballroom.

In The Wolf of Wall Street, Belfort interrupts his own farewell speech to the brokers to announce what?

He is staying, Belfort declares, abandoning the plan to lie low and dismaying the father who had urged him to walk away.

In The Wolf of Wall Street, Belfort bounces back from unemployment at which Long Island penny-stock brokerage?

Investor's Center deals in pink sheet stocks, and Belfort's aggressive pitches and high commissions there earn him a small fortune.

Shortly before The Wolf of Wall Street, the actress who plays Naomi starred in which short-lived US period drama?

Pan Am ran only from 2011 to 2012, and her film breakthrough as Naomi followed the year after.

Which magazine's critic Richard Brody hailed The Wolf of Wall Street as Olympian, then as the best film of the 2010s?

The New Yorker critic had earlier ranked it second among all films of the century so far, behind Godard's In Praise of Love.

Which actor appears in The Wolf of Wall Street only through archive footage of the TV series The Equalizer?

Steve Buscemi never shot a scene for the film; he is glimpsed in an old episode of the 1980s crime drama playing on a television.