Wolf of Wall Street says his life of debauchery ‘worse’ than in film

Posted on March 4, 2014

Jordan Belfort, who was jailed for 22 months for securities fraud, admits that the Oscar-nominated film based on his memoir had no need to exaggerate the sex and drugs

The controversial figure whose memoir formed the basis of Leonardo DiCaprio’s unhinged stockbroker in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street has revealed his debauched life of sex and drugs was “even worse” than shown in the film.

Jordan Belfort made the admission in a candid interview with the Hollywood Reporter days before this year’s Oscars ceremony, where Scorsese’s controversial film is up for five prizes. The 51-year-old, who served 22 months in jail for securities fraud between 2004 and 2006 after setting up the discredited Stratton Oakmont brokerage and penny stock “boiler room” in Long Island, said Terence Winter’s screenplay had not needed to exaggerate his outrageous existence.

“The drug use and the stuff with the hookers and the sales assistants and the sex in the office … that stuff is really, really accurate,” said Belfort. “In some respects, my life was even worse than that. Although I’d say I did more quaaludes than cocaine.”

Scorsese’s film includes a number of scenes in which Belfort and his cronies imbibe quaaludes, a long-banned sedative with apparent devastating consequences if taken in high doses. The Wolf of Wall Street has been criticised by disability-rights groups for a scene in which DiCaprio reaches “cerebral palsy stage” while under the influence of the drug. Belfort admits in the interview that this might be his fault.

“I spent hundreds of hours with Leo doing everything you could imagine, from hanging out socially to showing him what it’s like to be on drugs,” he said. “I took him through the stages and I was rolling on the floor in his house as he was filming me.”

However, the former broker, who now works as a motivational speaker, said a scene at the end of the film where Belfort attacks his wife is fictionalised.

“I never punched my wife in the stomach,” he said. “It was more of a struggle where she grabbed onto my leg and I kicked out. I was out of my mind. I was at the lowest point of my life. I’m not trying to minimise it; it was awful what I did. But it was under the [influence] of massive quantities of drugs.”

Belfort has been criticised for benefiting financially by at least $1m from the sale of the screen rights to his life story, despite the fact that he has paid only $11.6m out of the $110.4m he was bound over to pay victims as part of his sentencing in 2003. The former broker told the Hollywood Reporter he believes he is no longer obliged to pay 50% of his income in restitution, as US justice department officials have stated.

“It’s the most idiotic thing ever,” he said. “If they have a judgment against me, they can freeze my assets.”

Belfort has found himself at the centre of a high-profile awards season conversation over whether The Wolf of Wall Street deserves Oscars recognition. The daughter of a man linked to the discredited financial schemes depicted in the film has attacked Scorsese and DiCaprio for glamorising a lifestyle of “fun sexcapades and coke binges”. The director and star also found themselves heckled at an Academy screening last year, and producers have faced criticism from an animal-rights group calling for a boycott over the use of a live chimp in one of the film’s scenes of Wall Street excess.

DiCaprio, who will be hoping to take his first Oscar on Sunday night, has defended the film as a “cautionary tale”.