Advertisement
Talk about a plot twist! Sharon Stone dropped a bombshell in her new memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice. She paid Leonardo DiCaprio’s salary out of her pocket to make sure he got cast in The Quick and the Dead—and the studio didn’t have it. Leo almost didn’t land the role that helped kick off his career because the studio thought he was too unknown. But Stone wasn’t about to let that slide.
So here’s the scoop: DiCaprio nailed his audition, and Stone was sold. She even recalls how Leo crushed a scene where he begged his “father” to love him as he died. “He was the only one who came in and cried,” she said. But TriStar Pictures didn’t see it the same way. They were all like, “Why an unknown, Sharon? Why are you shooting yourself in the foot?” They weren’t having it. And that’s when Stone decided to pull a power move: “If you want him, you can pay him out of your salary,” the studio told her. And guess what? She did. Straight-up made sure Leo got the role, no matter what.
But it didn’t stop there. Stone also had to fight for the director—Sam Raimi, behind The Evil Dead and Army of Darkness. The studio said, “He’s a B-movie director, Sharon, c’mon.” Stone wasn’t backing down. She convinced them that Raimi would work “nearly for free,” and he was on board. It was about making things happen when no one else believed in it.
Advertisement
