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Leonardo DiCaprio Forced To Testify In ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’ Libel Lawsuit

By Shaunee Flowers
Published on: 10:09 PST, Jun 19, 2016

Leonardo DiCaprio has been ordered by a New York City judge to testify in The Wolf of Wall Street libel lawsuit. After actively avoiding a deposition in the case brought by Andrew Greene and offering several alternates in his place, DiCaprio is being forced to take the stand. Greene contends that the 2013 film’s portrayal of him cost him a lot of money and even ended his relationship.

Attorneys for DiCaprio did their best to keep the actor out of the messy libel lawsuit filed by Greene against Paramount Pictures. They argued that Leonardo won’t have any extra knowledge about the development of the film and would actually be less helpful than others involved with the writing of the screenplay. They argued that Martin Scorcese and the screenplay writer Terence Winter had already testified

Andrew Greene’s lawyers made a better argument, though, stating that Leonardo was a co-producer on the film. He was also present for many meetings where The Wolf of Wall Street was discussed. There were even meetings between DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese that Greene’s side felt was relevant to their case against the film.

According to CNN, Andrew Greene wants $25 million in damages for the hit that his reputation took after The Wolf of Wall Street raked in millions at the box office. Greene contends that the film defamed him, costing him $15 million as he watched his career tank as an executive of the stock brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont. He also says that his fiance left him after his unfair portrayal in the film.

Andrew Greene says that the character Nicky “Rugrat” Koskoff played by P.J. Byrne unfairly portrayed him and his role as Jordan Belfort’s best friend and business partner. The Wolf of Wall Street is the film adaptation of a memoir by the same name that Belfort penned. Greene says that the film was wrong to portray him as a “criminal, a drug user, and a degenerate.”Jordan Belfort served 22 months for securities fraud and said that his memoir definitely didn’t exaggerate his life and experiences while riding high as a powerful Wall Street executive. According to the Guardian, Belfort says that his drug use and debauchery was “even worse” in real life and that The Wolf of Wall Street film wasn’t nearly as explicit as it could have been.

“The drug use and the stuff with the hookers and the sales assistants and the sex in the office … that stuff is really, really accurate,” Belfort told The Hollywood Reporter. “In some respects, my life was even worse than that. Although I’d say I did more quaaludes than cocaine.”

Greene’s lawyers, Aaron Goldsmith and Stephanie Ovadia, have previously tried to get Leonardo DiCaprio to come in for a deposition about the “Rugrat” conversations that occurred while putting together the screenplay. DiCaprio’s attorney argued that he was too busy to be bothered since he likely wouldn’t have more information than Scorcese or Winter. They also claimed that DiCaprio wasn’t even involved in the development of the Nicky Koskoff character or any exaggeration or not that may have occurred when filming The Wolf of Wall Street.

New York Eastern District Magistrate Judge Steven Locke sided with Andrew Greene on June 16 and ordered Leonardo DiCaprio to appear in court in person for a deposition. The judge commented that DiCaprio travels back and forth between Los Angeles and New York City often enough that he should be able to make the trip despite his busy schedule.

[Photo by Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images]

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