Footage of one of Jordan Belfort’s actual house parties that inspired a ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ scene has resurfaced online.
In the video posted to YouTube by Comp Guy, Belfort can be seen standing on a balcony giving a speech about the success of his business. It’s a cocky speech to a crowd that’s ready to applaud the man that is no doubt funding their wild drug habits.
In the description of the video, Mr Guy writes that the video was taken in “the summer of 1991 - a few months before the infamous Forbes Magazine article" - one that criticised Belfort for his wild ways, but also shot him to a new level of fame.
Martin Scorsese's 2013 film recreated one of Belfort’s lavish beach house parties in one memorable scene. It starts with Leonardo Dicaprio’s Belfort screaming to the crowd - far more intensely than the real-life footage, but just as confidently - before he eventually meets his second wife, Naomi (played by Margot Robbie).
In the real-life footage, Belfort is already with his second wife, whose real name is Nadine. She can be seen at the four-minute and fourteen seconds mark of the video, quickly appearing to receive a kiss on the cheek from her multi-millionaire husband.
So apart from the intensity of the speech and the identity of Belfort's wife, the movie scene is pretty true to life (including not being suitable for younger audiences).
Commenters on the resurfaced footage are full of people commending DiCaprio’s portrayal of Belfort, as well as a couple of people claiming that were at the party.
“This party was friggin awesome,” wrote one person. “I was there and can say that the descriptions in Jordan's book of these parties were pretty spot on from my hazy recollections.”
“Leo should’ve won that Oscar!” said another.
“The accent from Leo DiCaprio is spot on!” a third added.
Despite definitely being sensationalised for the sake of cinema, it is pretty nuts to see actual footage of one of the world's most infamous party animals before it all came tumbling down.
