It speaks to the enduring curiosity of Martin Scorsese‘s much discussed 4-hour rough cut, that once again rumors of a “director’s cut” on DVD have floated. But the director has long maintained he doesn’t do that sort of thing, and the version you saw in theaters is the one he wanted you to see, though Scorsese did say last month that deleted scenes could surface. And could one of them be an alternate ending? According to Cristin Milioti, there was a conclusion that was different to the one you saw of Jordan Belfort weaving his manipulative magic as a motivational speaker.
Speaking with Vulture, the actress—who plays Leonardo DiCaprio‘s first wife in the film—revealed she had shot more material that didn’t make the final cut, and which provided a different focus to the finale of the movie. “Well, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this—there used to be a different ending. I shot a lot of the stuff in the very beginning and I remember the ending had something to do with me coming back. Like, you never saw me, but it was about making it right for that character,” she explained. “And I’m only feeling weird saying that because I think that’s what happened and now I’m like, “Wait, did I just imagine a scene where they were going to indict me and he was like, ‘No, I can’t wrong her twice.'” That script went through so many changes that I don’t remember.”
Bringing Teresa back into the film so late in the game likely would’ve been slightly disorienting and changed the shape of the movie to some to degree, so it’s a bit easy to see why Scorsese ultimately decided to keep the story centered on Jordan and his precipitous fall. But it does make us wonder who else, and what else, was left on the cutting room floor.
