Sharon Stone Ensured Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe Were Cast in the Quick and the Dead by Paying Their Salaries

Leonardo DiCaprio says he’s thankful for Sharon Stone’s generosity and calls her a “huge champion of cinema.”

Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead

 Sharon Stone personally paid Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe’s salaries for The Quick and the Dead , showing her support and belief in their talent.
 DiCaprio expressed his gratitude towards Stone for her generosity and credited her as a champion of cinema who gives other actors opportunities.
 Stone’s intuition about DiCaprio, Crowe, and director Sam Raimi proved spot on, as all three have gone on to achieve great success in Hollywood.

Sharon Stone felt her ideal co-stars for the 1995 revisionist western The Quick and the Dead were Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. When TriStar hesitated to cast them, she took matters into her own hands: she paid their salaries. In a recent conversation with E! News, while promoting Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, DiCaprio recalled Stone’s kind gesture, noting how thankful he was for her generosity:
“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.”
The Academy Award-winning actor went on to praise Stone, calling her amazing, before adding:
“She said, ‘These are the two actors [DiCaprio and Crowe] 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.”
The Casino actress had seen DiCaprio in Lasse Hallström’s 1993 drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, where his portrayal of an intellectually disabled teen named Arnie earned the then-19-year-old DiCaprio an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Despite that incredible achievement, the studio questioned Stone as to why she would want to cast an unknown actor in the film.

Stone wrote about the incident in her 2021 memoir The Beauty of Living Twice (via 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.”

Sharon Stone Bet on Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, and Sam Raimi (and Won)

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Quick and the DeadSony Pictures Releasing 

As a producer for The Quick and the Dead, Stone also pushed for Crowe’s participation in the film after seeing him in the Australian film Romper Stomper (which tells the story of a neo-Nazi group in Melbourne) and for Raimi to helm the film. Raimi’s previous films (most notably the Evil Dead franchise films) were considered D-list movies by the studio and prompted hesitancy.

While The Quick and the Dead received mixed reviews, Stone’s intuition about DiCaprio, Crowe, and Raimi proved spot on. DiCaprio has become one of the most revered actors in Hollywood, earning an Academy Award for The Revenant, and delivering powerful, and critically acclaimed, performances in films like Titanic, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and The Wolf of Wall Street. He currently stars in Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which is expected to be a major awards season contender.

Following his role in The Quick and the Dead, Crowe earned praise for his roles in films like L.A. Confidential, The Insider, Gladiator (which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor), A Beautiful Mind, 3:10 to Yuma, Cinderella Man, and American Gangster.

Raimi, best known for his work in horror and his Super-Man trilogy, is one of the most successful directors of our time, with his films grossing over $4 billion at the global box office. His most recent directorial effort, the MCU’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, grossed a total of $955.8 million worldwide.

Related Posts

Keanu Reeves Surprises Alexandra Grant with a Stunning $254K Supercar – A Gesture of Love That Will Leave You Speechless!

Keanu Reeves, the beloved and humble actor known for his roles in iconic films such as The Matrix and John Wick, has always captivated the hearts of…

DAVID MUIR REACHES PEAK STYLE WHILE REPORTING ON WILDFIRES?!

Wildfire Broadcast: When News Meets Fashion It all began at a wildfire scene in California, where David Muir appeared to deliver live coverage of one of the…

David Muir heads to Texas to report on floods, but the world is only fixated on… his superhero biceps!

When ABC News anchor David Muir arrived in Central Texas to report on the catastrophic floods that claimed over 120 lives and left communities reeling, viewers expected…

David Muir’s Emotional TV Moment Sparks Speculation: Did He Reveal a Personal Truth?

On a recent broadcast of ABC’s World News Tonight, anchor David Muir, a trusted face in American journalism, delivered a moment that left viewers and the studio…

Karoline Leavitt Shocks The View with On-Air Clash, Allegedly Ousts Whoopi Goldberg Amid Explosive Trump Affair Accusations.

In a jaw-dropping moment that has sent shockwaves through daytime television, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt allegedly orchestrated the dramatic ousting of Whoopi Goldberg from The…

Karoline Leavitt’s Savage Takedown of Gold-Digger Trolls: “Double the Money, Zero Shame!”

In the swirling vortex of political drama and social media snark, few figures have faced as much public scrutiny as Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House Press…