Jonah Hill, the comedic genius behind Superbad and 21 Jump Street, found himself in the hospital with bronchitis after a health mishap on The Wolf of Wall Street set. The culprit? There is too much fake cocaine. Playing Donnie Azoff—loosely based on real-life stockbroker Daniel Porush—came with a fair share of drug-induced antics. Hill didn’t do any actual drugs, of course, but his substitute was a rather intense alternative: vitamin D powder.
The film, directed by Martin Scorsese, is packed with unrestrained debauchery, and Hill’s character is almost always high. Hill and co-star Leonardo DiCaprio spent seven months on set to keep things authentic, mimicking characters constantly hitting the “gear.” That meant Hill was shoveling lines of powder daily, but he didn’t know that even something as “harmless” as vitamin powder could do severe damage. By the end, he had bronchitis—and not just a mild case. It was bad enough to send him to the hospital.
In a 2016 chat on Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons, Hill broke down just how bad it got: “I did so much fake cocaine in Wolf of Wall Street, I got bronchitis for three weeks. I had to be hospitalized.” Turns out, fake or not, snorting anything every day for seven months isn’t strictly advisable. “It’s vitamin powder,” Hill added, “but it doesn’t matter because if you ingest that much matter into your lungs, you will get very sick.”
So, why vitamin powder? Scorsese’s set had to look authentic without breaking the law. But the commitment came with an odd benefit: Hill got a lot of vitamin D. “I’ve never had more vitamin D in my entire life; I could have lifted a car over my f****** head,” he joked.
Playing a drug-fueled character while staying sober posed a unique challenge. Hill shared that he psyched himself for scenes by creating a high-energy playlist that made him feel “jittery and chaotic.” Add in buckets of coffee and Red Bull, and he could give the illusion of a character whose life was fueled by narcotics—without the actual drugs.
But the commitment didn’t end with his health. Financially, Hill was all in for this Scorsese gig, even if his paycheck wasn’t nearly as stacked as his co-stars’. In a 2014 interview on The Howard Stern Show, he revealed that he accepted “the lowest amount of money possible” to get the role. When Stern pressed, Hill confirmed it was around $60,000—a standard SAG minimum for a nearly seven-month shoot. For Hill, working with Scorsese and his dream team was priceless. “I would have done anything in the world,” Hill admitted. “I would do it again in a second.”
That dedication may have cost him a hospital stay and countless vitamin powder-induced sniffles. Still, Hill got precisely what he wanted: a role in one of Hollywood’s most iconic movies. And with stories like this, The Wolf of Wall Street will remain unforgettable—for Hill and audiences alike.
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