Earlier this week, actress Olivia Wilde spoke with Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show, revealing that she was considered too old to play the role of Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife in the 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street. To put this absurdity in perspective, Wilde just turned 32 and Leo is 41.
“The funniest thing I heard recently was, I had heard for a part that I was too sophisticated,” Wilde explained to Stern. “I thought, ‘Oh, that sounds nice. I like that feedback. I didn’t get the part but I’m a very sophisticated person.'”
Nice compliment, right? That’s what Wilde thought. Unfortunately, “sophisticated” is the friendly word for old in the Hollywood sphere, as the actress would later figure out.
As you may already know, the role went to 25-year-old Aussie babe Margot Robbie instead. Of course, there are no hard feelings. Wilde praised Robbie’s performance on Stern’s show and again on Twitter.
And my interview went on to say that Margot Robbie crushed that role like a sexy ninja and I LOVED her in it.
— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) March 16, 2016
Fortunately, the director of the film, Martin Scorsese, recognized Wilde’s talent and cast her in his television series, Vinyl, which is currently in its first season on HBO. For Wilde, the whole thing was kismet.
My point about not being cast in “Wolf o W-Street” was that we have to trust the process because I ended up with my dream job on “Vinyl”.
— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) March 16, 2016
You know what they say—everything happens for a reason.