Sharon Stone at the Red Sea International Film Festival 2022: «Fame destroyed my life»

The moment Sharon Stone knew her life would change forever was after the premiere of basic instinct, the film by Paul Verhoeven that from then on would mark his career for better or for worse. “That movie made me into a star. Once I got out of that projection I was a different person: from that moment on I had to have a bodyguard and be careful not to be recognized for fear of being surrounded by people. This was my baptism to fame: fast and intense,” Stone said in an interview-river during a private meeting at the Red Sea International Film Festival, the basic film festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, organized by Jomana Alrashid and Mohammed Al Turki and now in its second edition. “For about a month, people surrounded me everywhere I went, even stopped in the car at the traffic light,” continued Sharon Stone, explaining that, in the early years of the boom, she developed a principle of agoraphobia that she learned to manage over time. «Nobody is ready to be famous, nobody understands what it feels like when the crowd shouts your name», said the actress explaining that, at first, making her way in an industry like Hollywood, where men have always been paid more than women, was one of the most difficult and painful things in her life.

The risk of becoming famous thanks to a fascinating character like the psychologist Catherine Tramell, the absolute protagonist of basic instinct, was that, from that moment on, many saw Sharon Stone as an extension of the woman she lent her face on the screen: «For many I had to be like my character: I had to be vulgar, I had to kill people and show my vagina at the supermarket. It was a big trauma in my life. At one point I lost custody of my baby because the judge was convinced I was making erotic films,” Stone said. «Fame destroyed my personal life and my rights, it destroyed the way people thought of me as a human being», he reiterated, bringing to mind one episode in particular. “When I was nominated for a Golden Globe and they said my name, people in the room laughed at me. The same people who, 20 years later, would have applauded me for my fight for women’s rights,” said Sharon Stone, currently a spokeswoman for theamfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. A role that, Stone said, she hasn’t worked on for more than eight years. “I was called by the studios to be told that if I said the word condom, all funding would be withdrawn. I was threatened, and the more it happened, the more I thought I should stick to the cause.”

Along with the fight against AIDS, the other theme that has always ignited Sharon Stone has been the battle for women’s rights. “God did not create anyone to serve someone else. Women are not here to serve men, just as men are not here to serve women. If we don’t serve equally, we are disrespecting our creator. We are here to serve the common good. We are here to serve humanity, not cruelty, disrespect and rudeness», were the words of Sharon Stone, greeted by thunderous applause at the VOX Cinema of the Red Sea International Film Festival. «I have lived and worked in many countries of the world. I have seen the best of life and the worst of life. Even in the worst war zone I’ve tried to see the best, and that’s when we’re not afraid to be our best selves.” During the interview, however, Stone also spoke of his intimate relationship with spirituality, referring in particular to what happened in 2001, when a stroke was about to tear her from this Earth since she had only 1% likelihood of survival. “It was a miracle. I feel spirits, particularly when I paint, an activity I rediscovered during Covid. For some, seeing me talking to myself may mean I’m crazy, but it’s something I feel inside of me and it’s good for my heart.”