Margot Robbie on 1 Thing Martin Scorsese Taught Her That ‘Stuck With [Her] Forever’

Not many actors get to work with renowned filmmakers so early on in their careers. However, when Margot Robbie got the opportunity to audition for a Martin Scorsese film, she did everything in her power to ensure that she would land the role. In order to make an impression on the filmmaker, the Aussie slapped Leonardo DiCaprio in her audition for The Wolf of Wall Street. The risky choice paid off and she ultimately won the part of Naomi Lapaglia. The role would change her life and provide her with a wealth of knowledge that she still references today.

Margot Robbie recalls working with Martin Scorcese on ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’

Robbie was thrilled to be working with Scorcese. While speaking with BAFTA, the Babylon star got candid about being enamored with learning from the director. “We spoke all the time,” Robbie shared of working with Scorcese on The Wolf of Wall Street. “He’d tell stories. I’d like sit at video village, [and] he’d tell stories about like Mafia members and old film stars and all this kind of stuff. So we hung out all the  time.”

What piece of knowledge did the director give the actor that will stick with her forever?

Spending so much time with the filmmaker meant that Robbie was constantly taking in new information. In fact, she recalls one piece of knowledge that she learned from Scorcese that she’s yet to forget. Even a full decade after working with him, she holds on to one particular anecdote he shared about something, he felt, all great films have in common.

“He’d say things throughout the shoot that stuck with me forever,” Robbie explained. “One thing  being — actually, when we were shooting that shot running down the stairs, and he was like, ‘Ah!’  When we were coming up with it, he was like, ‘Ah, it’s a great stairwell.’ And he just  turned to me and goes, ‘Every great movie has a stair shot.’ And I was like, ‘I’ll never forget  that.’ I tell so many directors that. I’m like, ‘Martin Scorsese says every great movie has a stairwell shot. So. Get the stairs in there.'”

Robbie wasn’t expecting Scorcese’s film to change so much of her life

Of course, film advice wasn’t the only way the Scorcese managed to influence Robbie’s life. Working on his film made the actor a household name and launched her career in The United States. Funnily enough, the actor wasn’t expecting the film to change her life so irrevocably. She assumed that people would be so focused on Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance that they’d barely notice her. However, when that wasn’t the case, she had to wrap her head around her newfound fame.

“It’s also that funny thing where you make a film, but it doesn’t come out until a year later,” Robbie shared of The Wolf of Wall Street. “So your life kind of goes on, and then you’re kind of two films deep into something else, and then it gets released, and everyone’s like, ‘Woah, let’s talk about that thing you did a year and a  half ago,’ and you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, ok.’ So I was already into the swing of the next lot of things that I was working on.” Clearly, working on the Scorcese film shifted the course of Robbie’s career. And she left with some lifelong advice also.