Real 'Wolf of Wall Street' on Making of Movie

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ET's Nancy O'Dell sat down with Jordan Belfort, the real-life stockbroker portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, getting him to open up about how the movie got made and DiCaprio's Oscar nomination.

"It's hard to wrap my head around it," Belfort said about DiCaprio's nomination.

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Just to do the movie, DiCaprio had to survive a bidding war with Brad Pitt. For Belfort, the Hollywood attention seemed surreal at the time, since he was just being released from prison and trying to put back together the pieces of his life.

"It still took five or six years to get made, but ultimately it did get made," said Belfort.

DiCaprio and Belfort spent months working together to get the character right.

"His mannerisms and the energy he was able to create is my sort of energy," said Belfort. "He worked really hard."

Belfort even demonstrated all the phases of a Quaaludes high for DiCaprio on camera.

O'Dell was pleasantly surprised to find Belfort, now 51, to be in a mind frame worlds away from the twentysomething version of himself portrayed in the film.

"I guess I can say I'm proud that I was able to turn my life around," said Belfort.