We Now Know Why People Don't Want To Work With Sharon Stone
In the 1990s, actor Sharon Stone was one of Hollywood's top leading ladies. From her debut in Total Recall to her iconic role in Basic Instinct, Stone was a star of the silver screen. But when the 2000s came along, Stone's fame looked like it was fading, a period that was made worse by a brain hemorrhage and stroke she sustained in 2001 at the age of 43. Once afraid she would not see 50, the Pennsylvania native is now happy to have passed age 60 and still sees more of her career ahead of her.
Yet, there are reasons that some in Hollywood do not want to work with the Golden Globe-winning star. Stone has faced accusations of slowing down film productions and behaving like a diva on the set. She has also encountered many of the hurdles that have derailed or ended other actors' careers in the cutthroat entertainment industry. Curious to know more? Find out what has some thinking it's not worth working with Stone.
Sharon Stone's 'Basic Instinct 2' lawsuit explained
Directors and co-stars have claimed that Sharon Stone exhibited diva behavior behind the scenes, causing work delays. Just one example? In 2001, Stone filed a $100 million lawsuit against Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar, the producers of Basic Instinct 2, for allegedly failing to pay her the $14 million salary she claimed she was promised whether or not the movie got made, according to Entertainment Weekly. Basic Instinct 2 was a highly anticipated sequel to the 1992 hit co-starring Michael Douglas that turned Stone into a star.
In the lawsuit, Stone claimed she was in shape and rejected other movie offers so that she could be fully committed to the movie. The producers and then-director John McTiernan countered her claim, arguing that there was not a $14 million contract and that Stone rejected actor Benjamin Bratt as their choice as her co-star.
"She thought he wasn't a good enough actor," McTiernan said in his deposition, The Los Angeles Times reported. "She said that he looked too young and consequently it might make her look old." McTiernan also claimed that Stone said she was too old to play the sexy role a decade after she previously appeared on screen as the ice pick killer.
The producers settled the lawsuit out of court in 2004, and the film was released in 2006. Critics panned the movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes, with Roger Ebert saying it "is not good in any rational or defensible way, but not bad in irrational and indefensible ways."
A director accused Sharon Stone of having a big ego
Sharon Stone's alleged diva behavior has also surfaced abroad. Case in point: When Stone starred as an American actor-turned-book publisher in the 2014 Italian film, Un Ragazzo d'Oro (The Golden Boy), the film's director, Pupi Avati, and cast had not-so-kind words to say about her.
Avati claimed to The Hollywood Reporter that getting Stone to join the low-budget Italian film required reaching out to her and her management team multiple times and reserving a "luxurious suite" for her stay while shooting. Her time started with "no one" recognizing the Hollywood actor, to being stalked by "more than 200 paparazzi" when she arrived at the suite, as the director described. "There her ego definitively inflated. It is the classic pattern with these American actresses who are slightly declining," Avati said.
Avati explained Stone was at her worst on the final day of shooting. When she was required to kiss her co-star Riccardo Scamarcio, Stone noticed the plethora of photographers and a TV cameraman near the set. Avati claimed the actor disappeared, and her manager in Los Angeles demanded that the press leave the area. With the media gone, Stone finished her work.
Co-star Cristiana Capotondi also supposedly witnessed Stone's diva behavior, saying that "to witness the Hollywood diva-ism clashing up against the craftsmanship of the Avati brothers was an unforgettable experience." Despite what happened, Avati said he would like to work with Stone again. Stone's manager denied she acted in the ways Avati and Capotondi alleged.
Sharon Stone says Hollywood is 'not a forgiving environment'
In a 2018 interview with CBS's Sunday Morning, Sharon Stone said that after her 2001 stroke at 43, Hollywood considered her to broken. She said, "I'm sure I seemed peculiar coming through this all these years, and I didn't want to tell everyone what was happening. Because, you know, it seems this is not a forgiving environment."
"The well that I'm now bringing back to work is not a well I never had before," she added. "I'm so grateful to have this."
Stone kept the details of her stroke to herself for a long time, first describing her recovery to The Daily Mirror in 2018. During her recovery, Stone endured a string of losses in her professional and personal life.
"I had lost my marriage, lost custody of my child, lost my place in line in the business, lost all my money because I was paying so many different things," she detailed. "[I was] scraping by. I know what it's like to go through a situation where you are the top, top, top of your field, to [be] absolutely wiped out. A lot of it was simply because no one could look at me and simply understand that I was having a brain hemorrhage," she said at a Women's Brain Health Initiative panel in Beverly Hills in 2017.
Of course, we're happy to see Stone has recovered from this difficult time.
Sharon Stone opened up about ageism in Hollywood
Unfortunately, Stone also faced roadblocks in her career as she aged. The actor admitted to Vogue Germany in April 2020 that she didn't accept her body when she was in her 40s. Actors and other men in the entertainment industry were not kind either. "Mel Gibson, who is three years older than me, thought I was too old to play by his side," she claimed.
Nevertheless, in her 60s, Stone has landed roles intended for younger actors. Stone starred in the 2018 romantic comedy All I Wish, snagging a part that was originally meant for a 25-year-old, according to Vanity Fair. Stone was first asked to play the lead's mother, but she insisted on having the protagonist be an older woman, as the character's actions are also relatable to those who are 50 and up.
The film's director, Susan Walter, echoed Stone's feeling and reworked the film to give it an older voice. "Show people in their fifties doing amazing things, [Stone] said, and audiences will subconsciously take that on. Just by seeing Sharon on-screen doing these things, feeling these feelings, falling in love, being who she is, audiences will feel that way too," Walter told Vanity Fair.
Although Stone has faced challenges in the industry, it sounds like her successes outweigh the road bumps.