Leonardo DiCaprio revealed that it was Sharon Stone who went out of her way to pay his acting salary in 1995 when the studio refused to cast him in a movie. The actor revealed in a conversation with E! News that he has thanked the actor ‘many times’ for going out of her way to make him part of Sam Raimi’s Western drama The Quick and the Dead. (Also read: Leonardo DiCaprio, girlfriend Vittoria Ceretti spend time with actor’s mother in Milan. See pics)
Leonardo on Sharon giving her a chance
During the conversation with E! News, Leonardo said, “She said, ‘These are the two actors I want to work with. It’s incredible. She’s been a huge champion of cinema and giving other actors opportunities, so I’m very thankful. I’ve thanked her many times. I don’t know if I sent her an actual, physical thank-you gift, but I cannot thank her enough.”
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In her memoir The Beauty of Living Twice, Sharon Stone had revealed about the same incident, as reported by Insider. “This kid named Leonardo DiCaprio was the only one who nailed the audition. 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… The studio said if I wanted him so much, I could pay him out of my own salary. So I did,” she wrote.
The Quick and the Dead released a year before Leonardo DiCaprio’s career took a massive turn with James Cameron’s Titanic. The actor was seen last in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, that also stars Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone. It released in cinemas on October 20.
An excerpt from the Hindustan Times review of the film read, “Leonardo sheds all his vanity, something that he brandished in The Wolf of Wall Street, to play a disoriented yet morally redeemable guy. His eyes reflect deep sorrow and pure frustration when he’s asked to pick a side by his uncle William Hale (Robert) between him and Ernest’s wife Mollie (Lily Gladstone). He hits the sweet spot between reverence and vengeance when he tells William, ‘My life is all regret.’”