Leonardo DiCaprio can’t thank Sharon Stone enough for paying his salary on Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead.
Leonardo DiCaprio has become one of our best actors, but thirty years ago, he didn’t know who got his salary paid by Sharon Stone after the studio refused to hire her.
Leonardo DiCaprio had auditioned for the role of The Kid in Sam Raimi The Quick and the Dead, and when the studio turned him down, Sharon Stone was convinced he was perfect for the role. When the studio countered that she should pay herself if she really wanted it…she did, and it’s a choice DiCaprio is still grateful for all these years later . “I thanked her many times,” DiCaprio told E! News. “I don’t know if I sent her a physical, physical thank you gift, but I can’t thank her enough… She said, ‘Here are the two actors [DiCaprio & Russell Crowe] I want to work with him. It is unbelievable. She has been a great champion in cinema and giving opportunities to other actors, so I am very grateful.“
Sharon Stone revealed how she paid Leonardo DiCaprio’s salary in her 2021 memoir, The beauty of living twice (via Insider). “The only one who auditioned was this kid named Leonardo DiCaprio,” Stone wrote. “In my opinion: he was the only one who came in and cried, begging his father to love him as he died in the scene.“However, TriStar Pictures did not like DiCaprio. “‘Why don’t you know, Sharon, why are you always shooting yourself in the foot?’” Stone said of the studio’s response. “The studio said that if I wanted it so much, I could pay it out of my own salary. So I did.“
A month after The Quick and the Dead it started burning, What eats Gilbert grape released in theaters, a film that earned Leonardo DiCaprio an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. I thought TriStar Pictures was suddenly very thankfully Stone went to bat for DiCaprio.
The Quick and the Dead Sharon Stone stars as The Lady, a firefighter who takes part in a deadly shooting competition in Redemption, a border town under the control of ruthless outlaw John Herold. In addition to Stone and DiCaprio, the film also featured Russell Crowe, Gene Hackman, Lance Henriksen, Keith David, and more.
