The movie line Matthew McConaughey stole from Leonardo DiCaprio
In 2013, Martin Scorsese delivered one of the most entertaining three-hour films of all time, The Wolf of Wall Street. Despite its lengthy runtime and depraved content, it’s almost impossible to look away from the Jordan Belfort-inspired effort, thanks to its swift pacing, slick style, and consistently captivating ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Though the film became iconic as a whole, there was one scene that sparked more discussion than any other. Amidst excessive expletives and flashy displays of wealth, one of the movie’s most-talked-about moments took the form of a business meeting between DiCaprio’s Belfort and Matthew McConaughey’s Mark Hanna.
Early into the film, we see the two acting stalwarts sitting at a skyline restaurant, their conversation punctuated by Hanna’s unforgettable hums and intermittent martinis. While discussing the unpredictable nature of the stock market, McConaughey states, “It’s all a fugazi – you know what a fugazi is?”
McConaughey deliberately pronounces the word wrong, prompting DiCaprio to correct him. Dismissing his correction, he continues, “Fugazi, fugazi, it’s a whazy, it’s a woozy. It’s fairydust. It doesn’t exist. It’s never landed. It is no matter. It’s not on the elemental chart; it’s not fucking real.” Effortlessly delivered, it seems that this is yet another McConaughey-ism akin to his humming ritual, but the idea actually came from DiCaprio.
McConaughey recalled the experience of working with Scorsese and DiCaprio to Rolling Stone, dubbing it “pretty intimidating” due to their pre-existing collaborative relationship. However, he found the experience “quite musical”.
“In my mind, the perfect set is when everybody is free enough, creatively, to steal from one another,” he continued, “Even better, when you steal from someone and then you give it back to them in the scene.” With the “fugazi” line, McConaughey did exactly that.
He continued to explain: “I stole some things from Leo – he told me a joke when we first met and I stole it. That whole ‘fugazi’ bit. He told me about it, and I said, ‘I’m going to mispronounce that for the fun of it.’ Everybody is always talking about that scene, and I made that decision just seconds before we shot it.”
This last-minute decision resulted in one of the most memorable moments in the film and one of his most iconic performances. Though McConaughey appeared in just three scenes, his performance in The Wolf of Wall Street has been widely remembered, seemingly effortless despite the pressure of working with industry giants and making people doubt their pronunciation of “fugazi” ever since.
Revisit the scene below.
