Sharon Stone was a '90s icon thanks to her roles in "Total Recall," "Basic Instinct,"
and the Oscar-nominated "Casino." Since then, she's managed to keep her career going strong
while more or less staying out of the spotlight. Let's take a look at what she's been up to.
A quick glance at Sharon Stone's IMDb page proves that she's consistently stayed busy
throughout her career. There has yet to be another big, career-defining moment like that
of her most infamous role in "Basic Instinct," but that doesn't mean she's been sitting around
knitting blankets for 20 years. The intervening decades since "Casino" have, interestingly,
seen Stone focus more on tough, difficult female characters in smaller indie movies.
She's also been taking aim at her sexpot persona.
The year 2013 alone saw her playing a repressed mother in "Lovelace"
and a woman paying for sex out of desperation and loneliness in Woody Allen's "Fading Gigolo."
In a 2014 interview with The Independent, Stone waxed lyrical about her choice to play such roles,
deadpanning that she feels the concept of shame was, quote, "invented by a man." Whether this
was in reference to "Basic Instinct," and the ensuing controversy, is open to interpretation.
Regardless, Stone is certainly unafraid of toying with the public's long-held idea of who she is.
Back in 2001, Stone's life changed forever after she suffered a massive brain hemorrhage.
As she detailed in an emotionally revealing op-ed in The Hollywood Reporter, Stone bled in her brain
for nine days straight. After spending a week in the ICU, noting the survival rate for what
she went through, quote, "is very low," Stone had to learn how to walk, talk, and read again.
She spent the next two years trying to piece back together who she was, a process Stone now credits
with making her unafraid of the aging process because she knows, quote, "what the alternative
is." The actress described it as a "humbling journey" that has forced her to work at everything
in her life a bit harder as a result. She's made a habit of eating healthily, working out four
or five days a week, and abstaining from alcohol. But she hasn't lost her sense of humor, admitting:
"People don't want to see a fat Sharon Stone, do they? I know my brand!"
After this difficult recovery period, Stone admits she found herself pushed to the back of the line.
A guest spot on "Law & Order: SVU" led to difficulties with remembering her lines,
but Stone pushed through and has found significant success on TV as a result.
Although she'd already appeared on the likes of "The Practice" and "Roseanne"
over the years, it's only now that she's found a real home for herself on television.
In particular, Stone headed up the TNT show "Agent X," playing none other than
the President of the United States. She also proudly executive-produced the show. Next up on
her roster was the intriguing "Mosaic," in which she played popular children's author Olivia Lake.
She also found time to narrate children's TV show "Harold and the Purple Crayon"
throughout its 13-episode run, a nod perhaps to her status as a quietly content single parent.
Arguably, Sharon Stone's biggest personal achievement over the past decades was her
decision to become a mother. Stone adopted her three children Quinn, Laird, and Roan in 2000,
2005, and 2006, respectively. She's kept them mostly out of the limelight,
but in 2017 they presented her with a Mother of the Year Award at the
Associates for Breast and Prostate Cancer Studies Mother's Day Luncheon in L.A.
In her acceptance speech, Stone admitted that motherhood, quote,
"didn't come easily" to her. Regardless, the experience has always been rewarding for her.
Stone told People upon initially adopting Laird:
"I have more love, help, friendship and kindness than at any other time in my life."
Although she's mostly kept them out of the spotlight over the years,
Stone did post a fun snap sharing her 59th birthday with her kids to Twitter.
Roan also broke with tradition and accompanied her to the 2018 Golden Globes.
Those who have only seen Sharon Stone's name popping up in relation to that "Basic Instinct"
moment will be surprised to learn she's actually quite the activist. A loud and proud proponent of
women's rights, Stone has discussed everything from the gender pay gap to the #MeToo movement.
Back in 2015, Stone spoke out at a fashion event hosted by her sister Kelly about how,
quote, "no one wanted to pay me" after "Basic Instinct." Stone recalled sitting at
her kitchen table with her manager, crying with frustration. And, even though she took a stand
by refusing to work for free, Stone still got paid significantly less than her male co-stars.
The struggle to survive in a male-dominated industry is something Stone discussed again
in an interview with AARP, accompanied by fellow actresses Jane Fonda and Alfre Woodard.
The three women discussed aging and the pressure to continue to be desirable in Hollywood.
She also spoke to Luxury London about just how much strength it takes to survive in
the business as a woman and how her strong characters represent that eternal fight.
Not content with simply being a voice for marginalized women, Stone has been an activist
for other causes as well. Since 1995, she's been the Global Campaign Chair of amfAR — the American
Foundation for AIDS research. She initially only signed on for a three-year stint, but in 1998,
she renewed her term until a safe and effective AIDS vaccine could be found.
Her impressive career as chair has been more than exemplary over the years. Nothing she
does is small, and from spreading awareness to fundraising, she's more than made her mark.
In August 2000, she hosted an auction at the starry Venice Film Festival that raised over
half a million dollars. She even won the Peace Summit Award in 2013 for her work.
Speaking of auctions, Stone seems to have a bit of a knack for utilizing them to their greatest
potential. One of her most impressive moments as an activist and humanitarian
came in 2015 when she held an impromptu auction to raise much-needed funds for Africa.
As a guest of honor at the Pilosio Building Peace Award in Milan, Stone could have just smiled for
the cameras and kept it simple. Instead, she took the opportunity, in front of a crowd of the most
powerful and wealthy construction industry CEOs in the world, to raise both money and awareness.
Stone managed to gain enough pledges just from this one moment of spontaneity to build
a whopping 28 schools in Africa. According to Stone, the idea was spurred on from her meeting
a businessman earlier who pledged to build two schools in exchange for a picture with her.
With a busy acting career, three children, and a massive humanitarian commitment to contend with,
it's amazing Sharon Stone finds time to breathe, let alone do anything else.
And yet, in an interview with The Independent, she admitted to yet another
creative pursuit: songwriting. Albeit, naturally, with a humanitarian twist.
Stone revealed that the first song she ever had published was in aid of Hurricane Katrina, as
part of the fundraising album "Come Together Now." Interestingly enough, her song was actually the
title track. Besides this, she's released songs in other parts of the world as well. She revealed:
"I had a song come out in Argentina last
year about a terrific writer and poet who was murdered in his car."
Even further afield, Stone released a song in Sweden called "Let's Kiss."
Sharon Stone has had brushes with luxury brands before,
launching a special line of personally-designed vanity cases for Louis Vuitton back in 2000.
Sales of the cases reportedly generated more than $3 million for amFAR.
However, in 2016, she became even more entrenched in the fashion world.
As detailed in an eye-catching spread and in-depth interview with Luxury London,
Stone starred in Austrian label Airfield's S/S 2016 campaign.
Clad in a variety of stunning looks, Stone is the picture of assured confidence.
She spends much of the interview discussing her seemingly everlasting appeal, noting:
"Sexiness comes from deep inside. It's the feeling of being present,
having fun and liking yourself enough."
As the interviewer noted, she actually began her career as a model before moving forward with
acting. So, it goes without saying that the campaign surely came easily to her.
And it most likely won't be the last for a woman who doesn't let age get in the way.
After years spent working away quietly in the background, Sharon Stone stormed back
into the Hollywood maelstrom in the most take-notice way she could. Taking aim at
her own man-eater personality, she turned up in "The Disaster Artist."
Almost upstaging James Franco himself in the sweet, true-life take on Tommy Wiseau
and Greg Sestero's ultimate good-bad movie "The Room," Stone appears as a bloodthirsty,
platinum blonde talent agent. Called into the room by a subordinate who's visibly terrified of her,
Stone turns her sights on Dave Franco's naively enthusiastic Greg,
grabs him in her claws, and tells him simply:
"You seeing anybody else?"
"Uh, no, no, I wasn't…"
"You're mine."
It's a funny, Hollywood-skewering moment in a movie full of them.
It also reaffirms Stone's standing as an icon,
even if many people will struggle to think of what they've last seen her in.
Catherine Tramell is one of the most iconic villains in movie history,
so it stands to reason that when super-producer and "American Horror Story" creator Ryan Murphy
was searching for someone to go toe to toe with Nurse Ratched herself in "Ratched," — a prequel
series to the beloved 70s classic "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" — he went straight to
Sharon Stone. As Town & Country magazine noted, the role of Lenore Osgood — a, quote, "strange,
fabulously wealthy villain" with a pet monkey — was actually written with the actress in mind.
Stone freely admits that nobody was really hiring her between the ages of 40 and 60,
and that even nowadays people still largely associate her with her role in "Basic Instinct."
Regardless, she's confident there's a path forward for her. When it came to "Ratched," the
job felt as though it fit into that plan. Still, it's frustrating, with the actress admitting:
"Even now people say to me, 'You'd have to really disappear into a character.'
And I'm like, 'Did you see 'Lovelace?' That was me.'"
You'd be hard pressed to find somebody with more Hollywood stories to tell,
and a stronger inclination to share them, than Sharon Stone.
With the 2021 release of her memoir, "The Beauty of Living Twice,"
she opened up about her extraordinary life and career with the trademark wit fans have
come to adore. Speaking to CBC, she admitted "Sharon Stone" is actually a persona, quipping:
"I have like a little section of my closet that has the Sharon Stone clothes in it."
Although there are many different, and very personal, reasons to write a memoir,
Stone knew exactly why she wanted to do it. The actress explained, before covering each aspect of
her life, she had to reintroduce herself and make it clear exactly who she is. She said:
"So many people in my life have told the story of who I am and decided who I am for me and told so
many things that had nothing to do with me and more to do with the characters I've played. It
just was really helpful for me to take back my own identity and to get clear about my own identity."
"Basic Instinct" was a huge moment in Sharon Stone's career, but the movie's most infamous
sequence still haunts her. In an excerpt from Stone's memoir, the iconic starlet argued:
"It's about more than just a peek up my skirt, people."
As far as Stone is concerned, she shouldn't have been turned into a punchline after appearing in
a movie everybody was championing. Especially since, according to her,
it wasn't her choice to do the scene that way. Stone discovered she'd gone full frontal
only after the movie was completed and she sat watching it in a room filled with men.
The young actress, who pushed herself to the breaking point to be cast, had been reassured
nothing could be seen despite the fact she was specifically asked to remove her underwear. The
reason she was asked to do so was because it was allegedly messing with the lighting.
"Right"
By the time Stone realized what had happened, it was too late. She doesn't regret starring in the
film, but she has something to say to everyone who still obsesses over her infamous scene:
"Since I'm the one with the vagina in question, let me say:
The other points of view are bulls---."
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