Sharon Stone is a current ambassador for the World Health Organization on loneliness and mental health, and she has two prominent art shows exhibiting her paintings. That is how we’ve come to be blessed with the recent spate of interviews from the goddess that is Ms. Stone, because she has been promoting the sh-t out of these projects. Case in point: she stayed up late in LA Wednesday night to appear on Good Morning Britain for their Thursday morning show. Among many topics covered (more on that later), the conversation touched on Sharon’s near-fatal stroke in 2001, and the effects the long recovery period had on her acting career:
Stone, who says her life is drastically different since her brain hemorrhage, spoke about why she quit Hollywood.
Speaking to hosts Kate Garraway and Ed Balls on the U.K.’s Good Morning Britain, she shared:
“My real first step of recovery was about seven years and that’s a long time to lose your momentum.
“In seven years, you’re no longer the flavor of the time, you no longer have box office heat, the same people you were working with are no longer in power anymore.
“Everything changes and people don’t really care about that person anymore. It’s like going back to your old job seven years later, you don’t just walk back into your job and think nothing’s changed.
“I was sort of hurt that the world moved on without me.” However, the Basic Instinct icon said she’s learning to accept that and “kind of” moved on.
She also told the hosts about her “invisible disability” and how it affects how she is now. “It was really one of those miracle moments. I’m a different person, I have an invisible disability, you know, people don’t know that.
“People can help you when they see you are walking with crutches but when you are having a bit of a problem with brain function, people don’t see that.”
Over the past few years, the mom of three has stepped back from Hollywood to focus her attention on her art, which has been featured in galleries across the country.
Last month, she showcased a collection of paintings she did in a gallery show at Gallery 181 in San Francisco and shared two of the pieces on Instagram. She has referred to art as therapeutic and a way to escape from her struggles.
Before the haters pipe up with, “Of course the world moved on without her, how self-centered,” I want to point out that if you watch the clip (as opposed to only reading the transcript) she’s laughing at herself when she says this. She knows it’s a ridiculous thought, but at the same time it’s so emotionally honest. The re-entry to working in Hollywood, a place already allergic to “older” women, must have been stark. Both GMB hosts asked Sharon about changes in the industry since Me Too, but it was Ed Balls who lobbed a question that Sharon called foul on right away. (Did I get that sportsball lingo right?)
Ed Balls said: “Sharon you are campaigning to improve mental health and support for people with the World Health Organization. Been a huge change because of the MeToo movement. The conviction of Harvey Weinstein. A different place, I hope, the film industry in Los Angeles compared to when you were there.”
He then asked: “When you look back at those early points in your career, the fact that Hollywood producer Robert Evans advised you to have sex with your fellow lead William Baldwin in the ‘93 movie Sliver to improve his performance. How do you feel today about what producers said to you back then?”
She responded: “First of all, you’re setting me up with the ‘did you beat your wife yet’ comment so first of all I’m not going to validate the statement that you just made as if it was true. So we’re not going to do that to start with.
“So I’d like to restart with a new question somewhere else.”
First of all, Ed Balls pronounced Harvey’s last name as “Vine-Stine.” Second, of course Sharon shut him down with ease and grace. She didn’t try to shame him, either. She was just like, “This is what you did with that statement, I won’t engage with that, let’s pick up somewhere else.” And thirdly, I am a child and cannot get over this guy’s name. He went into broadcasting and kept the name Balls! That takes, well, BALLS. But our Sharon can’t be intimidated by Balls.
Photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
Broadcasting AND politics! It’s wild!
Not sure if anyone had mentioned Ed Balls day which is celebrated in the UK every April.
The amount of asinine, leading and bad faith questions that gets asked on these shows. Good for Sharon on calling it out and shutting it down.
I’m so confused by her response. What does the wife comment mean?
I researched a little bit, and it seems to mean any type of question putting words into someone elses mouth / preemptively accusing someone of something, and then demanding that they explain themselves to you as if they did it.
“So how often did you rob a bank?” and then you are triggered to defend yourself , but it never happened.
“the rhetorical trick of asking a question that cannot be answered without admitting a presupposition that may be false,”
It’s come to represent the classic “gotcha” question. The actual question is, “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” Well, there’s no way to correctly and honestly respond to that simple (yes or no) question. If you say “yes” it implies that you were beating her but have now stopped. However, God help you if say “no” meaning you haven’t stopped beating your wife. There’s no way to answer properly, and that’s what she’s saying.
Ed Balls is a former Labour politician so there was no way he could change his name after becoming the UK’s version of Joe Scarborough minus the cheating on his wife on TV. Sharon handled the question the right way she basically refused to become a DM headline. And I got what she meant when she said the world moved on. She thought she had made it and that the spotlight was going to remain on her for the rest of her career.
I wish more celebrities stopped these questions just like Sharon did.
The compulsion to answer is strong, which is why they do it.
But it can & should be shut down. She did a great job.
Some “journalist” asked Pedro Pascal, while he was getting into his car no less, why queer representation on Last of Us was so important.
He said: you already know the answer to that. And if you don’t, you should.
They shut right up. It was awesome.
Happy belated Ed Balls Day to those who celebrate.
Madame Stone! Such a pro and a boss!
“First of all…we’re not going to do that to start with.”
I love it and I’m going to use it tomorrow at work 🙂