Sharon Stone recalls paying Leonardo DiCaprio from her salary when studio refused to cast him

Sharon Stone has revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio wouldn't have been the star of "The Quick and the Dead" if it wasn't for her.

In her new memoir "The Beauty of Living Twice," Stone recalled the casting process of the 1995 movie which she co-produced, reports Insider. The actress, who played a mysterious gunslinger named Ellen in the American revisionist Western film movie, was already a star back then. However, Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the ruthless town leader Herod in the movie, was comparatively lesser known despite bagging an Oscar nomination.

The "Basic Instinct" star was amazed by DiCaprio's audition for the role, as she writes: "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."

However, her co-producers TriStar pictures refused to cast DiCaprio, while telling Stone: "Why an unknown, Sharon, why are you always shooting yourself in the foot?'" The studio told her she would have to pay the actor from her own salary if she wanted him so much, and that's what she did.

Apart from DiCaprio, Stone put her foot down in the selection of the movie's director as well. The Oscar-winner recalls that she had to fight to hire Sam Raimi as the director because the studio believed him to be a "D-movie director" due to his past projects such as "The Evil Dead" and "Army of Darkness" both of which were low-budget, experimental horrors. The studio finally hired Raimi after Stone told them the director "would work nearly for free as an enticement."

Stone has shared a number of anecdotes from her career in her recently-released memoir, including that she was advised to sleep with a co-star in a movie to improve their chemistry, and that an unnamed director would constantly demand that she sit on his lap when he was giving instructions. She also revealed that she was tricked into not wearing underwear for the infamous cross-legged scene in her breakout movie "Basic Instinct," where her character, Catharine Tramell, exposes herself while being interrogated by detectives about the murder of her ex-boyfriend.