Margot Robbie thought she’d be arrested for brutal act on Leonardo DiCaprio during The Wolf of Wall Street audition

Margot Robbie has recalled thinking she was 'going to get arrested' after she pulled a brutal stunt on Leonardo DiCaprio, while auditioning for her role in The Wolf of Wall Street.

The Barbie star opened up about the now-iconic role in an interview on the Talking Pictures podcast, where she reflected back on her earliest days playing Naomi Lapaglia, the second wife of DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort.

Robbie was just 22-years-old at the time and during the audition she found herself faced with a tough decision: impress her friends by kissing Leonardo DiCaprio himself, or take a more controversial route.

The moment came while she and DiCaprio were reading a scene in which their characters were supposed to kiss, with DiCaprio's character saying: "Come over here and kiss me."

Robbie recalled: "In my head I was like, ‘I could totally kiss Leonardo DiCaprio. That would be awesome'. I can’t wait to tell all of my friends this.

"And then I was like… nah."

Deciding to put her own spin on the scene, Robbie did just about the furthest thing from kissing DiCaprio.

"[I] just walloped him in the face," the actor recalled.

Having caught her co-workers off guard, Robbie remembered how the move was met with 'dead silence for what felt like an eternity but was probably three seconds'.

Margot Robbie was just 22 in The Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount Pictures)

DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese did end up 'laughing so hard' at the situation, but that didn't stop Robbie from dwelling on her decision.

She remembered panicking later, saying: "I was like, ‘You’re going to get arrested, I’m pretty sure that’s assault, battery'. Not only will you never work again, but actually you will go to jail for this, you idiot. And also, why did you have to do it so hard? You could have done it lighter."

Thankfully, Robbie didn't end up getting arrested for the stunt, and successfully went on to portray Naomi in the movie which earned $406.9 million at the worldwide box office.

DiCaprio played Jordan Belfort in the 2013 movie (Paramount Pictures)

The movie helped propel Robbie into the spotlight, and she has since starred in huge Hollywood movies like Suicide Squad, Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood and, of course, Barbie.

In 2022, Robbie admitted that her initial rise to fame caught her off guard as she told Vanity Fair: "Something was happening in those early stages, and it was all pretty awful, and I remember saying to my mom, ‘I don’t think I want to do this'.

"And she just looked at me, completely straight-faced, and was like, ‘Darling, I think it’s too late not to.’ That’s when I realized the only way was forward."

Robbie explained she was ultimately able to get to grips with her success, and is now able to navigate it more comfortably.