Jordan Belford Discusses Serving Time with Tommy Chong

The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, sat down with the Hollywood Reporter to discuss serving time with Tommy Chong.

When I arrived at Taft, they lost my paperwork, so I spent five days in solitary. It was brutal, absolutely brutal. But it was minimum security, and after solitary it was like a boys' club -- and who's my bunkmate? Tommy Chong from Cheech & Chong. I couldn't believe it.
He was in the process of writing his book. We used to tell each other stories at night, and I had him rolling hysterically on the floor. The third night he goes, "You've got to write a book." So I started writing, and I knew it was bad. It was terrible. I was about to call it quits and then I went into the prison library and stumbled upon The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, and I was like, "That's how I want to write!"
When you're in jail, you have a lot of time to think about your mistakes. It was completely mellow. I played tennis three hours a day, and I'd write for maybe 12. I wrote about 130 pages, but I tore them up. I just didn't think they were good enough.