It's been 28 years since "The Fast and the Dead" hit theaters, but this year Sharon Stone may finally get some real bang for her buck by securing Leonardo DiCaprio's starring role as "The Kid" Herod. While promoting his latest film , Killers of the Flower Moon , DiCaprio admitted the move was long overdue. He confessed that he was still "grateful for the salary she paid" when they filmed the Western together in 1995.
DiCaprio and his "Killers of the Flower Moon" co-star Lily Gladstone are speaking to E! The news came together when reporter Keltie Knight told them Stone had raved about their film in a recent interview. "All she did was talk about the movie," Knight said. She then mentioned how Stone batted for DiCaprio in the '90s and asked if he sent him a thank-you gift.
Gratitude, yes. Actual gifts? Maybe not.
"I've thanked her many times," he said. “I don’t know if I gave her an actual thank you gift, but I can’t express how grateful I am to her.”
DiCaprio went on to provide more context on the situation, which Stone described in her 2021 memoir The Beauty of Two Lives . "She was amazing. She did that to me and Russell Crowe at the time," DiCaprio said of Stone giving up part of her salary to pay him.
How Leo Becomes a Child
Without Stone, DiCaprio wouldn't have been cast as "The Kid." She explained this in her memoir, writing (per Insider) that he "was the only one who passed the audition"; however, TriStar Pictures felt she was "shooting herself in the face" by casting an unknown actor foot".
"The studio said if I wanted him so bad, I could pay him out of my own salary," she said. "So I did."
As DiCaprio told E!, Stone met him in 1993's What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Crowe in 1992's Romper Stomper , which helped her pitch them. She also fought hard to hire Sam Raimi as director after she told the studio he was "working for next to nothing," according to her memoir. Ultimately, The Fast and the Dead wasn't a huge box office success, but it did help put DiCaprio and Crowe on the road to becoming household names.
"It's incredible," DiCaprio told E ! "She's been a huge supporter of the film industry and giving opportunities to other actors. So I'm very grateful."
pay it forward
Now that DiCaprio is a big star in his own right, he's able to lend his support to other actors and projects. Gladstone said in interviews that she wanted to make a film about Mildred Bailey, a jazz singer who grew up on the Coeur d'Alene reservation and became known as " Swing Queen”. DiCaprio is clearly cheering her on for her efforts.
"It's a biopic that I loved and that he wanted to see," Gladstone said, adding that he was "very inspiring."
