Leonardo DiCaprio endured plenty of outrageous moments while making ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, but one of the film’s most painful behind-the-scenes stories had nothing to do with the script. According to Jonah Hill, a small change to a line of dialogue led to DiCaprio eating around 80 pieces of raw yellowtail during an overnight shoot.
The incident wasn’t random. Hill admitted it was payback for an earlier moment on set when DiCaprio failed to come to his rescue after Martin Scorsese suggested filming a scene with a real punch to the face. What followed became one of Hill’s favorite memories from the production.
The Real Punch That Started It All
Hill has never hidden how badly he wanted to work with Martin Scorsese on ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. The actor was so determined to play Donnie Azoff that he accepted a dramatically reduced salary just to secure the role. That eagerness to impress Scorsese eventually landed him in a painful situation.
During an interview with ABC News, Hill recalled filming a scene involving a confrontation between his character and a drug dealer. The sequence required the dealer to pull a gun and punch Donnie in the face. After several takes, Scorsese remained unconvinced by the result.
“He’s supposed to pull a gun on me and then he’s supposed to punch me in the face,” Hill explained. “And we’re shooting it, and we do a couple takes… Scorsese’s going, ‘Well, I don’t know. It doesn’t look good. Doesn’t look good.’ Then he turns to me, and he goes, ‘Hey kid, you want to try one more [where] he hits you for real?'”
Hill found himself trapped. He didn’t want to get punched, but he also wasn’t about to say no to one of cinema’s most celebrated directors. Looking for support, he turned to DiCaprio.
“I turned to Leo… because I’m never going to say no to Martin Scorsese,” Hill said. “And Leo just—I’m looking at him like, ‘Please help’… and then he just slowly looks away in the other direction, leaving me hung out to dry basically.”
With no lifeline coming from his co-star, Hill agreed to the take. The punch landed for real.
“My big fake teeth that I wear split in half and fly out of my mouth, and I’m on the floor,” Hill recalled. “Scorsese’s like, ‘Get him new teeth and shoot his face because it’s swelling.'”
The scene may have worked for the movie, but Hill didn’t forget being left to fend for himself.
The Sushi Scene Became The Perfect Revenge
His opportunity to get even arrived later during one of the film’s sushi scenes. Hill said the sequence remains his favorite scene he has ever filmed. On paper, it seemed simple enough. The script called for Donnie to ask Jordan Belfort whether he was going to eat the last piece of yellowtail before Donnie ate it himself. Hill decided to make a slight adjustment.
“I just said, ‘Take that last piece of yellowtail,'” he revealed.
That one change shifted the responsibility to DiCaprio. Under normal circumstances, the alteration might have resulted in a single extra bite. But Scorsese’s meticulous approach meant the scene was filmed repeatedly throughout the night. Hill stuck with the modified line during every take. As a result, DiCaprio had to keep eating.
And eating.
And eating.
“We did takes all night, and so he had to eat, like, 80 pieces of raw yellowtail,” Hill said.
By the end of filming, the joke had gone much further than a simple prank. According to Hill, DiCaprio became physically sick from consuming so much fish during the extended shoot.
“And by the end of the night, he was on the floor throwing up in a trash bin, and everyone was so concerned,” Hill recalled.
Not everyone felt sorry for him, though. Hill admitted that only two people seemed amused by the situation.
“The only two people on the floor laughing were myself and Martin Scorsese.”
Why The Story Still Stands Out
Stories about difficult shoots often focus on elaborate stunts, demanding directors, or actors pushing themselves for a role. What makes this anecdote memorable is how it grew from a very personal moment between co-stars.
Hill’s revenge wasn’t loud or dramatic. It came through a single improvised line that forced DiCaprio into an increasingly uncomfortable situation over the course of an entire night.
Years later, the story remains one of the most entertaining behind-the-scenes tales from ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. It begins with a real punch that left Hill swollen and missing fake teeth, and ends with DiCaprio hunched over a trash bin after reportedly eating around 80 pieces of raw fish.
For Hill, that sounds like a score settled.
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