It’s a clear spring morning in Los Angeles when Sharon Stone pops up on my computer screen. Dressed in jeans and a loose white T-shirt declaring “Dear Stress, Let’s Break Up,” she’s just as dazzling as the first time I saw her as Ginger MyKenna in Martin Scorsese’s Casino (and instantly fell in love). In just a few weeks, she’ll be at the Cannes Film Festival for the world premiere of her next project, Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord. But today, it’s just us (even if we’re miles away from each other).
She takes me—or her laptop, with me on the screen—on a tour through her home. We stop by her studio, a vast room where the actress has revived the hobby of her youth, painting. Now she’s a critically acclaimed abstract artist. She’s also a mother, stroke survivor (in 2001, she had a massive hemorrhage and a seven-year recovery battle), and so much more.
Sharon Stone: You're wrong, I'm just as neurotic and in just as much trouble as everyone else! People often only see the retouched version of you in photos. But I'm not as fantastically perfect as people imagine! I'm not exceptional. I have dark circles under my eyes like everyone else. I've just had to be very disciplined all these years, and I still am; it's like an OCD thing. Except for this winter, when we had four months here in Los Angeles with appalling weather, and I did nothing. The sun finally came out, though, and with it, my gym sessions and my usual routine.
I exercise for an hour and a half, five days a week, in my swimming pool. I do aquagym routines underwater, with two-and-a-half-kilo weights on each ankle and then on each arm. It's important to do these exercises below the surface level, to be completely in the water. When I've finished my aquatic exercise, I sit on the pool steps and pedal with my legs.
I come from a fairly modest background, so I like simple food. I drink milk, eat fruit and vegetables, and things like that. I eat healthy to be healthy. My ancestry is French, so I do love that cuisine. I have an unforgettable memory of a dinner at the Grand Palais where the chef prepared a magnificent Tournedos Rossini with mashed potatoes, just like my grandmother used to make—I love it! When I think of that dish, all I want to do is return to France!
On a film set, between takes, I do all those old-school gym workouts like sit-ups, lunges, push-ups, just stay moving, and trying to build muscle. You know all those moves that Jane Fonda taught us a hundred years ago, that still work!
She's a huge inspiration to me, always has been. She’s had a complicated life and never felt sorry for herself. Instead, she’s chosen to commit herself to doing wonderful things for others. She always fought for what she believed in and continues to do so today. She's a beautiful, strong person. I admire, love, and respect her enormously.
I don't separate the body from the mind. For example, I like to read Buddhist texts. I also do what I call physical meditations while working out. When I do things like dancing, I put on music, all different types, because it changes according to my mood, according to the moment. I do a mixture of yoga, breathwork, and choreography, and so all this together allows me to simultaneously meditate, breathe, and move.
Obviously, nobody likes to look tired. It's okay to take care of yourself, to stay in shape. It's okay not to want your neck to look like the seven rings of Saturn. Everyone does what they want, whatever makes them personally happy. It's okay to redo a little something to freshen up. Some people redo their whole body. But I don't think the best compliment to seek is someone telling you at a certain age, "You look 30!” In the end, what's important is to pursue our own happiness. When we start to erase ourselves, it's time to ask ourselves the following questions: "Why am I at war with myself? Is it something I can surgically fix, or is it something I need to intimately question myself about?”
Yes, it took a long time to recover. It also took a long time to be let back in. Once you've lost your career, unless you're a man, it's not easy to make a comeback. You're not invited to many things anymore. It's more "screw you” than "great, come back!” How many women do you know who have made a comeback? Comebacks don't seem to be for women.
No, I've always painted, I just decided to live my life to the full as an artist, to make films, to paint, to write. My first book was published during COVID, and I'm currently writing a second, which I've almost finished. In my generation, we were always told to stay in line. We weren't supposed to stray from it. It was as if we were forbidden to have both a brain and a vagina. Eventually, I realized that when I was on my own, I really needed to work as an artist. I don't prefer making films to painting; what I prefer is working, whether that’s on a set or in my studio with my brushes, but working!
I remember very well: at that moment, I felt alive! Happy to be alive and happy to be back at the Cannes Film Festival. I'd survived my stroke and couldn't have imagined a few months earlier that I'd still be here. At this moment, I thought to myself: “I'm alive.” But not only alive, but I'm back on the red carpet. I'm back among all these people. I can't believe this is happening to me. I can't believe I made it, that I'm alive and back. I'm so happy at this very moment when this picture was taken. I was so grateful to have come all this way. It was an incredible moment. It's very powerful to realize that I'm a survivor.
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