Jonah Hill was so desperate to work on The Wolf of Wall Street that he lobbied Leonardo DiCaprio for the role, accepted the minimum wage – then ended up with bronchitis for snorting fake cocaine.

The star of Superbad, 21 Jump Street and Moneyball is up for best supporting actor at the Oscars for playing fraudster Donnie Azoff in Martin Scorsese's movie about notorious financial scammer Jordan Belfort.

Taking fake drugs until he got sick, earning pittance ... Jonah Hill was determined to be in The Wolf of Wall Street.

He worked for $US60,000 ($68,000) on a shoot lasting almost seven months, wearing fake teeth and adopting a lisp.

"They gave me the lowest amount of money possible," Hill said on the Howard Stern Show. "That was their offer.