The scene in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ co-directed by Steven Spielberg
As if being directed by one of cinema’s most legendary directors wasn’t enough, the cast and crew of The Wolf of Wall Street ended up getting two for the price of one when Steven Spielberg descended onto the set for what was supposed to be a flying visit.
He rose up the ranks at around the same time as Martin Scorsese, albeit for completely different reasons, considering Jaws became the biggest box office hit of all time the year before Taxi Driver offered an incendiary character-driven story, but they’ve remained friends ever since.
A three-hour epic full of sex, drugs, profanity, and debauchery is hardly in Spielberg’s typically sentimental wheelhouse, but he nonetheless showed up to poke around The Wolf of Wall Street during the Steve Madden scene, and he was even cajoled into doing a spot of directing, too.
“Well, he came on the set the day we were shooting the speeches,” Scorsese told The Hollywood Reporter. “He said he came in to say hello, and he stayed the whole day and was helping me, saying, ‘I think you should move the camera.'” Jonah Hill may have already been a star at the time, but he still couldn’t believe his eyes.
“We would go back to get notes, and they were sitting next to each other. It was insane,” he said, something that wasn’t lost even on a long-tenured A-lister of DiCaprio’s calibre and standing, with additional pressure being put on the performers knowing there wasn’t just one, but two icons of directing casting their gaze over the proceedings.
“That was like a double-whammy for everyone on set,” DiCaprio acknowledged. “Everyone who had to act that day was like, ‘Spielberg and Scorsese are watching me? Jesus Christ!'” Fortunately, nobody let it go to their heads, with the Steve Madden scene standing out as one of the most memorable in a movie that’s packed full of them from beginning to end.
Ironically, that was the first time either of the two filmmakers had visited each other’s set since Scorsese swung by Catch Me If You Can, which starred DiCaprio. Not only that but shooting on the biographical crime caper began just three months after the actor had finished up his first collaboration with his future muse on Gangs of New York, with Spielberg taking a decade to return the favour.
It must be daunting enough as it is for any on-camera talent working with Scorsese for the first time, so it’s understandable that there may have been more than a few sweaty brows and clammy hands when they turned up to shoot their scenes on The Wolf of Wall Street that day, only to discover that Spielberg had decided to join in on the fun.
