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Margot Robbie was certainly a working actor long before she booked a role in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. Back in her home country of Australia, Robbie starred in the popular soap opera, Neighbours. However, playing Naomi Lapaglia would make her a household name in the U.S. But playing Naomi was not without its challenges. In fact, Robbie found it difficult to connect with her character at first. One thing that helped? Fake acrylic nails.
Margot Robbie didn’t originally like her character in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’
Robbie fought hard for her place in The Wolf of Wall Street cast. Working with a renowned director like Martin Scorsese is something that most actors dream about. Being in the film also gave the Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood actor the opportunity to work with seasoned actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey. But as thrilled as Robbie was to book the job, she admits that she initially didn’t like her character at all.
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While speaking with The New York Times, Robbie spoke of her initial hesitations about her character. “She seems like a gold-digging slut, to be honest,” the Suicide Squad actor admitted. However, as Robbie kept filling out the character with her coach, she began to find more compelling things about Naomi. Once that challenge was surmounted, Robbie focused her attention on nailing Naomi’s accent. Interestingly enough, focusing on nails helped Robbie find Naomi’s brassy Brooklyn voice.
How nails helped the Aussie actor embody her character
“She goes, ‘Pretend like you just had your nails painted,’” Robbie shared of the advice she got from her coach. “And all of a sudden like I’m talking like [a Brooklyn native.] Oh, I’m doing the accent, all because of the nails.” But the importance of the nails didn’t stop there. The I, Tonya star even requested long acrylic nails for the entire time she was filming The Wolf of Wall Street. This, she feels, attributed to Naomi’s unique idiosyncrasies.
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“You end up doing everything different,” Robbie shared of wearing the nails. “You can’t tuck your hair back the way you would. You can’t wipe away tears the way you would, because you’ve got nails that are an inch long. All your mannerisms change easily when you have inch-long acrylic nails.”
What other preparation did Robbie do for ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’?
It’s certainly interesting that Robbie credits nails for a chunk of her performance in The Wolf of Wall Street. Of course, that’s hardly the only preparation that the Aussie did for the film shoot. She also read the book that the film is based on. Furthermore, she met up with Nadine Caridi, the model on whom her character is based. This, Robbie shared, helped her realize that she wasn’t playing her character too big.
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“Had I not met them, I would’ve thought that the character I was doing in the film was so melodramatic and so unrealistic,” Robbie said of Caridi and other women with similar lifestyles. “But then once I meet them it’s like, ‘Wow, I’m doing a dulled-down version of this.’” Robbie certainly did her prep work for The Wolf of Wall Street. And her dedication to the film, despite her initial disdain for Naomi, certainly worked in her favor.
