Excerpts from an interview with Gene Hackman
from Studio (France), May 2000

Q: While the filming of The Quick and The Dead, you´ve been working with
Leonardo DiCaprio. How did you make out his transformation to a star?

Gene Hackman: Sharon Stone had relinquished a part of her salary in order to
get him among the cast. I didn´t know DiCaprio´s work; I just had seen a part of
his movie with Robert De Niro, This Boy´s Life, and I had heard about Gilbert Grape.
Interesting. On the set, I was liking him very much, on a human level; he was a very
cool and sensitive kid. On the other hand, he didn´t know his lines, he seemed not
to care about them, and I was not paying much attention to him. Up to the day when
we shot this scene where he simulated his own death, this fantastic moment when
he suddenly realizes he´s gonna die. At this moment, I have been thinking: "Wow,
this kid can really act." He´s a marvellous actor. Success has nothing to do with it.
He owns THE real talent.



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