Leonardo DiCaprio fell ill as he worried about tough movie speech
LEONARDO DiCAPRIO found himself with extra time to prepare for a pivotal speech in his new movie THE WOLF OF WALL STREET after he fell ill on the day he was supposed to shoot the scene.
The actor, who plays real-life stockbroker Jordan Belfort in the Martin Scorsese movie, admits he was nervous about having to learn his lines for the long, high-energy monologue, and then found himself with two extra days to perfect the speech.
He tells The Hollywood Reporter, "I had never had a monologue like that in my life - I mean, (one) went on for four pages. It was amazing. And there was such a lead-up to it, it was almost like an adrenaline dump.
"I immediately got sick. I was supposed to get up there in front of 600 extras and give this giant Braveheart-like speech on greed, and my throat just seized up. I got strep throat.
"Thank God, I got a couple days to rethink all of it and prepare myself, get better."
Co-star Jonah Hill recalls, "I have a great picture of you with all the medicine. He had like 9,000 medicine bottles."