Leonardo DiCaprio Shares How He Thanked Sharon Stone for Paying His Salary
In an exclusive interview with E! News, Leonardo DiCaprio explained why he’s indebted to Sharon Stone after she paid his salary on the 1995 movie The Quick and the Dead.
Once upon a time in Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio needed a titanic favor.
Luckily, Sharon Stone stepped in with an interception, as she revealed in her 2021 memoir that she actually paid his salary on the 1995 Western film The Quick and the Dead because the studio didn’t want to hire the then up-and-coming actor. Needless to say, her basic instinct was spot on.
And even three decades later, DiCaprio knows he’s forever indebted to the Casino star, telling E! News on the Nov. 16 episode how he’s thanked Stone for her generosity over the years.
“I’ve thanked her many times,” the Wolf of Wall Street star exclusively told E! News chief correspondent Keltie Knight. “I don’t know if I sent her an actual, physical thank you gift, but I cannot thank her enough.”
Describing Stone as “amazing,” DiCaprio went on to note that she “did that with myself and Russell Crowe at the time.”
As he explained, Stone saw his work in the 1993 movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, as well as Crowe’s appearance in the 1992 film Romper Stomper, and wanted them both on board.
“She said, ‘These are the two actors I want to work with,'” he recalled. “It’s incredible. She’s been a huge champion of cinema and giving other actors opportunities, so I’m very thankful.”
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images / Cindy Ord/VF23/Getty Images for Vanity FairBack in 2021, Stone wrote in The Beauty of Living Twice that she—as producer and star of The Quick and the Dead—bet it all on hiring DiCaprio.
“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,” she wrote, per Insider. “The studio said if I wanted him so much, I could pay him out of my own salary. So I did.”
LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty ImagesThese days, DiCaprio has an Oscar under his belt and just appeared in the latest Martin Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon. Costarring Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons, the movie is based on the 1920s murders of Osage Nation members after oil was discovered on their land in Oklahoma.
Killers of the Flower Moon is now in theaters.
To see more of DiCaprio’s milestone moments, read on for photos of him at the Oscars.
Barry King/WireImageThe actor made his first appearance at the Academy Awards in 1994. That year, DiCaprio was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
Frank Micelotta/Getty ImagesDiCaprio brought his girlfriend at the time, Gisele Bündchen, as his date to the 2005 Oscars. The actor was up for the Best Actor award for his work in The Aviator.
Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesAt the 2007 Oscars, DiCaprio was once again nominated for Best Actor. This time, he received a nod for his role in Blood Diamond.
