Before 2013, most American audiences had never heard the name Margot Robbie. She was known in Australia for a long-running soap opera, but not much beyond that. Then came Martin Scorsese’s Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street, and within a few months she was one of the most talked-about actresses in Hollywood.
Her part in the film playing Naomi Lapaglia, the second wife of stockbroker-turned-fraudster Jordan Belfort didn’t just showcase her talent. It changed the trajectory of her entire career. Margot Robbie’s Wolf of Wall Street performance is still one of the most cited breakout roles of the 2010s, and there are real, specific reasons why it worked so well.
This article breaks down who Naomi Lapaglia is, what made Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street casting and performance stand out, and why the role still comes up in conversations about her career more than a decade later.
Who Is Naomi Lapaglia?
Naomi Lapaglia is a fictional character based loosely on Nadine Caridi, the real-life second wife of Jordan Belfort, the former stockbroker whose memoir the film is based on. In the movie, Naomi starts as a model Belfort meets and pursues aggressively, and eventually becomes his wife and the mother of his two children.
She’s not written as a passive figure standing next to a powerful man. Naomi pushes back, calls out Belfort’s behavior, and eventually becomes the person who forces the consequences he’s been avoiding for years. She’s glamorous, sharp-tongued, and increasingly worn down by a marriage built on money and denial.
Robbie played her at just 22 or 23 years old, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, in her first major American film role.
Why This Casting Decision Mattered
Scorsese and his casting team saw dozens of actresses for the role. What set Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street apart, according to accounts of the audition process, was that she didn’t play it safe. During one audition scene, she improvised slapping DiCaprio’s character rather than sticking to the scripted blocking. That kind of instinct — reading a scene and trusting her own judgment about how a character would actually react — is part of why she got the part over more experienced actresses.
It’s worth pointing out that this wasn’t a small supporting role tucked into a three-hour film. Naomi is one of the few characters who consistently challenges Belfort rather than getting swept up in his world unquestioningly. That gave Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street material to work with that went beyond “the wife” archetype often found in films about ambitious, morally compromised men.
What Made the Performance Work
A few specific choices stand out when you look closely at Robbie’s performance:
The accent work. Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street is Australian, but Naomi is a Brooklyn native with a distinct regional accent. She trained extensively to get the voice right, and it holds up scene after scene without slipping — something that’s genuinely difficult over a three-hour runtime.
Physical confidence. Naomi is introduced as an object of desire within the film’s world, but Robbie played the character’s awareness of that dynamic rather than just the surface appeal. Naomi knows the effect she has on people and uses it deliberately, which is a different acting challenge than simply looking the part.
The shift over time. Early in the film, Naomi is playful and self-assured. By the film’s later acts, she’s exhausted, angry, and done making excuses for her husband. Robbie tracks that emotional arc clearly, so the character’s eventual confrontation with Belfort feels earned rather than sudden.
Holding her own in a stacked cast. The film is packed with major names — DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Matthew McConaughey. Robbie was the least experienced person in nearly every scene she shared with them, and it doesn’t show in the finished film.
Why It Matters for Her Career
Landing a role in a Scorsese film opposite DiCaprio would be a career highlight for almost any young actor. For Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street specifically, it did three things:
- It proved she could carry serious dramatic weight, not just comedic or lightweight parts.
- It got her noticed by major studios and directors, which led directly to roles in films like Focus, Suicide Squad, and eventually producing credits on projects like I, Tonya and Promising Young Woman.
- It established her as someone willing to take creative risks, including in scenes that required real vulnerability on set.
The film grossed close to $400 million worldwide and became one of Scorsese’s highest-earning releases. Robbie’s performance was frequently singled out in reviews as a standout among an already strong cast, and it earned her a nomination for a BAFTA Rising Star Award the following year.
Common Misconceptions About the Role
“She was just cast for her looks.” This misreads what the character actually requires. Naomi has some of the film’s most pointed dialogue and its emotional turning points. Looks alone don’t carry a three-hour film’s supporting arc.
“It was her first-ever acting job.” Not quite. Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street had already spent years working in Australian television, including a multi-year run on a well-known soap opera, before landing the role. The Wolf of Wall Street was her breakout in American film specifically, not her acting debut overall.
“The role was small.” Naomi appears throughout the film and is central to several of its most memorable and consequential scenes, including the ones that shift the story’s direction in its second half.
Things to Know If You’re Researching or Rewatching the Film
If you’re revisiting The Wolf of Wall Street with Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street performance specifically in mind, a few things are worth watching for:
- Pay attention to how her body language changes between the film’s first hour and its last. It’s a quiet but consistent shift.
- Notice how few scenes she actually shares with Belfort’s inner circle of brokers. Naomi exists largely outside that world, which is part of what makes her perspective on Belfort’s behavior land differently than, say, Jonah Hill’s character’s does.
- The film includes a well-known and widely discussed scene involving Naomi that generated a lot of media coverage after release. Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street has spoken publicly in interviews about finding the experience of filming it uncomfortable, despite how confident the character appears on screen a reminder that a performance of confidence and an actor’s actual comfort level aren’t the same thing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street role her first movie? No. She had prior television experience in Australia, most notably a multi-year role on a soap opera, before this became her breakout American film role.
Who did Margot Robbie play in The Wolf of Wall Street? She played Naomi Lapaglia, the second wife of Jordan Belfort, the film’s central character.
Is Naomi Lapaglia based on a real person? Yes, loosely. The character is based on Nadine Caridi, Jordan Belfort’s real second wife, though details were adapted for the film.
How old was Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street when she filmed the movie? She was around 22 to 23 years old during filming.
Did Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street get an award nomination for this role? She received a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination the year after the film’s release, largely credited to this performance.
Why is this role considered her breakout? It was her first major American film, opposite an A-list cast under a major director, and it led directly to a string of higher-profile roles and producing opportunities afterward.
Final Thoughts
Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street performance holds up because it’s built on specific, deliberate choices — not just star power or good timing. The accent work, the emotional arc, and the willingness to make Naomi a real counterweight to Belfort’s chaos are the reasons this role still gets discussed more than a decade later.
It’s a useful case study, too, in how a single well-chosen supporting role can reshape a career, provided the actor brings enough to the part that it can’t be reduced to “the wife” or “the love interest.”Margot Robbie Wolf Of Wall Street subsequent career, including her producing work and range across comedy, drama, and blockbuster action, traces back in large part to what she did with this one role.
