Everyone comes from somewhere and, before Leonardo DiCaprio hit it big with Titanic, he was a struggling working actor in Hollywood. While he had early success on the sitcom Growing Pains, and in small independent films like What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Basketball Diaries he was far from the movie star we know him to be today. In his journey to becoming one of the most recognizable actors of his generation, he received some help along the way. You may be surprised to hear that there's a sweet story involving Sharon Stone paying his salary on one of his earliest movies, 1995's The Quick and The Dead.
The 49-year-old leading man was promoting his latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, when he was asked about Sharon Stone, who recently said that she was a fan of his most recent Martin Scorsese collaboration. During the interview with E!, he was asked about Stone paying his salary along with Russell Crowe’s when they worked on the aforementioned movie together back in the '90s. Apparently, the studio didn't want to pay the young actors, and the Casino legend stepped in to take matters into her own hands. The Romeo + Juliet co-lead has since become a major star, but he remains appreciative of Stone's efforts:
