In her new memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, actress Sharon Stone opened up about sexism, misogyny and the inappropriate experiences she endured earlier in her Hollywood career.
Vanity Fairfeatured an excerpt from the book in which the Basic Instinct actress told how a producer suggested she have sex with her male co-star to encourage on-screen chemistry.
The 63-year-old actress wrote:
"I had actor approval in my contract. No one cared. They cast who they wanted. To my dismay, sometimes. To the detriment of the picture, sometimes."
She recalled how an unnamed male producer "explained to me why I should f'k my co-star so that we could have onscreen chemistry."
"Why, in his day, he made love to Ava Gardner onscreen and it was so sensational! Now just the creepy thought of him in the same room with Ava Gardner gave me pause."
"Then I realized that she also had to put up with him and pretend that he was in any way interesting."
She said she thought to herself:
"'You guys insisted on this actor when he couldn't get one whole scene out in the test…Now you think if I f'k him, he will become a fine actor?' Nobody's that good in bed."
She continued:
"I felt they could have just hired a costar with talent, someone who could deliver a scene and remember his lines. It was my job to act and I said no."
"This was not a popular response. I was considered difficult."
The Oscar nominee added this was not the first time a male studio executive asked her to get physically intimate with a co-star.
She mentioned having other producers on other films visiting her trailer on set and asking:
"So, are you going to f'k him, or aren't you? … You know it would go better if you did."
Stone said:
"Sex, not just sexuality onscreen, has long been expected in my business."
"Many people ask me what it was like in my days of being a superstar. It was like this. Play ball or get off the field, girl."
Stone also noted in her memoir how she was paid "something considered respectable—still a whole lot less than men, but more than women had been paid in the past," which consequently led to criticism men were intimidated by her as a result of her reputation as having the "biggest balls in Hollywood."
"Can you imagine what it was like to be the only woman on a set, to be the only naked woman, with maybe one or two other women standing near? The costumer and the script gal?" she wrote of her frequent times being alone on set with hundreds of people on a predominantly male production team.
She added, "and now I am the intimidating one."
Stone also touched on the infamous leg-crossing scene in 1992's Basic Instinct when she was tricked into filming the scene without undergarments after being assured her private parts would not be seen in the film.
However, she learned that was not the case when she screened the film for the first time in a room filled by agents and lawyers.
"That was how I saw my vagina-shot for the first time, long after I'd been told, 'We can't see anything—I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on'."
"Yes, there have been many points of view on this topic, but since I'm the one with the vagina in question, let me say: The other points of view are bullsh*t," she wrote.
"Now, here is the issue. It didn't matter anymore. It was me and my parts up there. I had decisions to make."
With more women in positions of power since her days as a rising young actress in the 80s and 90s, Stone would like to see even more progress in Hollywood.
"I believe that there is a great and good court of law for this that must be revised, reviewed, revamped, reclaimed, and reconsidered to respect the sexuality of the public as a whole."
"I know that all of these women and men who have been harassed, been raped, had their jobs held for ransom, and been sexually tormented deserve their day in court. I know that to be true."
The Beauty of Living Twice is expected for release on March 30.
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