Actress Sharon Stone gets emotional when asked what she would like to say to her younger self.
Actress, humanitarian, author, producer and now painter Sharon Stone has made this year’s BBC 100 Women list. With this list, “BBC” has been honoring 100 influential and strong women around the world every year since 2013. This year, in addition to Sharon Stone, the French unofficial national heroine Gisèle Pelicot and the British singer Raye are also on the list.
“You will do it”
In an interview with BBC, Sharon Stone talks about politics, painting and Hollywood. But when the interviewer asks her what she would like to say to her younger self, there is a long pause on the 66-year-old’s side. She raises her hand, covering her face, before answering shakily, “You’ll be fine.”
“I’ve wanted to know so many times,” tears shimmering in her eyes, she nods, confirming herself before continuing, “when I was lying on the floor and couldn’t call an ambulance, when I came home from the hospital and in the ‘People Magazine’ read that I wouldn’t know for 30 days whether I would live or die.” Stone is referring to a stroke of fate that struck her 23 years ago. At that time she almost lost her life due to a brain hemorrhage. An artery ruptured, leading to brain bleeding and a stroke. At that time she was given just under 1 percent chance of survival. Stone had to learn basic things like walking or speaking all over again. “You don’t know it, but you will do it”: As if trying to reach her younger self through the space-time continuum, she repeats her words in a firm voice, “I would put it on the inside of my eyelids Get a tattoo.”
From “Basic Instinct” to the Peace Summit Award
Stone rose to fame in 1992 when she starred in the film Basic Instincts. The erotic thriller made her one of the biggest sex symbols of the 90s. This image stuck with the American actress for a long time. But Stone knows how to use this fame and her consolidated image. “I’m really proud that I used this idea that was invented in that movie – that I’m really sexy – to fight diseases where people were punished for their sexuality because I was punished for mine,” she says. The actress collected immense donations for research into sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and AIDS. For her philanthropic efforts, Stone was presented with the Peace Summit Award in 2013.
Sharon Stone the painter
The “Basic Instinct” actress no longer focuses on acting, but rather devotes herself to painting. She discovered this during the Covid pandemic and works in a studio in Los Angeles. Her work is characterized by her boldness in painting on a large scale. She was inspired by her aunt, who painted on the walls of her house, and also by the fact that she “simply couldn’t see well enough to paint small anymore.” Sharon Stone never plans her works, which have an impressionistic vein, in advance, for example through sketches. She says she never imagines what the final work will look like. “I’m just so deep into the picture,” she says. “It’s so captivating. It’s just wonderful.”