Margot Robbie says Martin Scorsese has 'one shot' that makes a good movie great
Margot Robbie has revealed the shot that Martin Scorsese told her all great movies have.
Robbie may be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood now, but she was just starting out – having featured on Neighbours for a few years – when she got her big breakthrough on Scorsese's much-loved 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street.
The Aussie was only 22 at the time, yet she made a big impact on the movie, both on and off the screen.
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Speaking at a special Bafta: Life In Pictures event in London on Tuesday (22 November), she reflected on making amendments to the script with Scorsese.
"The tone had been set that it was a bit of a free-for-all," the 32-year-old said. "It was like the crazier you are, the more Marty will like it. And the more screen time you're going to get."
She added: "We spoke all the time. I'd sit at video village, and he would tell stories about the Mafia and old film stars, but he didn't actually give direction."
During these conversations, there was one pointer from the 80-year-old that stuck with her.
She said: "We were shooting the shot where I'm running up the stairs, and he turns to me and goes, 'Every great movie has a stair shot'.
"I've told so many directors since that Martin Scorsese says every great movie has a stairwell shot, so get the stairs in there."
The Wolf of Wall Street tells the story of controversial stockbroker Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, with Robbie playing Naomi Lapaglia, Belfort's second wife in the film.
The movie is chockablock with memorable scenes, one of which wasn't even in the script.
The scene in question sees Naomi chase an intoxicated Jordan down the street, as he crashes a car with their daughter inside.
It came about after Scorsese, DiCaprio and Robbie got together the night before and played around with ideas, taking inspiration from Belfort's autobiography.
"What happened previously in the script was that I walked into his office and said I want a divorce. And that was it," Robbie said.
"We started riffing, and we locked ourselves in a room until like three in the morning and came up with all of that. And the sex scene that comes before that.
"Our brilliant 1st AD Adam Somner was probably tearing his hair out because out of nowhere we were like, so, we're gonna need to break the garage door of someone's house, break a car window, and destroy a couch."
Robbie's role featured numerous sexual scenes, including a full-frontal nude scene, and she has previously admitted she was apprehensive about the scenes being immortalised on the internet.
However, when Scorsese suggested diluting things for her comfort, she made the brave decision to turn him down, in favour of preserving the integrity of the film.
Speaking to The Telegraph in 2014, she said: "I think nudity for the sake of nudity is shameful. If they've put it in just so that a girl gets her top off, then that's disgusting. And you can always tell.
"But I also think it's disgusting when someone would have got naked in real life, in the film they conveniently leave their bra on, or hold up the bed sheet. Seeing someone being choreographed into being covered up irritates me just as much."
Topics: Film and TV, Margot Robbie, Martin Scorsese
Jake Massey