Sharon Stone says she was dropped by Hollywood after suffering a stroke and near-fatal brain hemorrhage in 2001.
Doctors told her at the time that the “nine-day cerebral haemorrhage” gave her only a “one percent chance” of surviving.
And despite beating the odds, the actress claims she struggled to find work for 20 years after recovering.
“I’ve been recovering for seven years and I haven’t had a job since,” Stone said at THR’s Raising Our Voices luncheon on Thursday.
“When it first happened I didn’t want to tell anyone because you know if something goes wrong you’re out.
“Something went wrong with me — I’ve been out for 20 years. I haven’t had any jobs. I was a really big movie star at one point in my life,” Stone explained.
Sharon Stone says she was dropped by Hollywood after suffering a stroke and near-fatal brain hemorrhage in 2001
Stone, 65, recalled times in her career when she had to stand up for herself and be her own advocate.
“I’ve broken a lot of glass ceilings on top of my head,” Stone said, suggesting it negatively impacted her career.
“I want to tell you it hurt. It hurt to get paid. It hurt to fight the studio heads. It hurt to set boundaries – boundaries about who could come into my caravan and what they could ask for; boundaries about not wanting to sign my contract in my makeup trailer the day I started a show,” she preached.
Stone added, “It hurt to say that like any company, I had the option to have my attorney read my contract and I didn’t have to start the show by signing my unread contract in the making.” uptrailer.’
With diversity as one of the central themes of the event, Stone spoke about the importance of self-determination.
‘Diversity can mean more than one thing. Diversity can be an injury, diversity can be the color of your skin, diversity can mean standing up for yourself,” Stone said.
“If you’re diverse, you have to demand a place in this industry.”
The mother of three has been her own lawyer at times, which has “caused me a lot of trouble in the business.”
After describing her work with the World Health Organization and the United Nations to help underrepresented voices be heard, Stone encouraged people to take their place in the industry.
“I’ve recovered for seven years and I haven’t had a job since,” Stone said at THR’s Raising Our Voices luncheon on Thursday.
“Something went wrong with me — I’ve been out for 20 years. I haven’t had any jobs. I was a really big movie star at one point in my life,” Stone explained; seen in Casino (1995) with Robert De Niro
“When it first happened I didn’t want to tell anyone because you know if something goes wrong with you you’re out,” she told the crowd; Stone in Cold Creek Manor (2003)
Her own advocate: Stone, 65, then recalled times in her career when she had to stand up for herself and be her own advocate; seen in Mosaic (2017)
“It’s important to me that your diversity isn’t wiped out by this anti-woke bulls**t idea in our country,” the Basic Instinct star explained.
“This democratic experiment means a lot. It means a lot. Pushing a controlled government society to extremes – whatever you want to call it, whatever people want to call it – is also an experiment. It doesn’t mean it’s happening. It means it’s an experiment to see if you’re going to eat it. Do you eat controlled government? Are you eating a controlled studio system? What are you going to eat – or will you get up and be counted?”
After a successful career as a model, Stone eventually reached the heights of Hollywood as a leading actress in such films as Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992), The Quick And The Dead (1995), Casino (1995), which resulted in a Oscar nomination for Best Actress, Sphere (1998) and the critically acclaimed HBO series Mosaic.
She is the proud mother of three children – Roan, 23, Laird, 18, and Quinn, 16, whom she adopted after several miscarriages due to an autoimmune disease and endometriosis.