Dead or alive: Sharon Stone paid Leonardo DiCaprio’s salary following studio refusal

The actress made revelations in her memoirs. Particularly on Sam Raimi’s western, to be seen again this evening on C8.

In 1995 the film was released Dead or alive (The Quick and the Dead), directed by Sam Raimi and produced, among others, by Sharon Stonein which Leonardo DiCaprio plays Fee “The Kid” Herod. At that time, the actor was 21 years old and already had six films under his belt, including Gilbert Grape in 1993 (which earned him a double nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars as well as the Golden Globe Awards). Except that he almost never appeared in the casting of this western telling the story of a young woman named Ellen (Stone) who decides to participate in the competition for the best shooter in her town.

Sharon Stone indeed revealed in her memoirs, The Beauty of Living Twice, published in March 2021, having fought against the studio TriStar Pictures for two things that were close to his heart. The first: that Sam Raimi be the director. The second, which DiCaprio plays in the film. “The kid named Leonardo was the only one who handled this audition“, writes the actress in her book. “For me, he was the only one who managed to cry, begging his father to love him as he died in the scene.” Problem, TriStar was not at all convinced by this choice: “Why a stranger, Sharon, why do you shoot yourself in the foot all the time? The studio said if I wanted it that much I would just have to pay for it out of my own paycheck. That’s what I did.”

Sharon Stone also reveals that she had to insist that Sam Raimi be hired because the studio felt he was a second-rate director because of his previous films (evil Dead And Army of Darkness). The studio agreed to hire him only after Stone told them he would work “for almost nothing”.

Dead or alive: Sam Raimi’s blind test, in 1995