By MICHELE MANELIS
Hollywood's quintessential femme fatale, Sharon Stone, has reacquainted herself with her bad-girl persona in her role as an ageing model and nemesis of Halle Berry in Catwoman.
Stone's performances in recent years have been few and far between (with the exception of the little-seen thriller, Cold Creek Manor), with
her personal life taking priority.
In fact, her offscreen life has been a lot more interesting than her choice of movies, particularly in the past five years. She married and divorced Phil Bronstein, editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, she became a mother to adopted son, Roan, now 4. And, she survived a subarachnoid haemorrhage, a bleeding on the brain.
Eating pasta salad while lounging on a sofa at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, Stone, at 46, remains undeniably beautiful. However, because of her advancing years, this Academy-award nominated actress and Hollywood sex symbol is finding the pickings frighteningly slim.
"Nobody wants me!" she says, faux dramatically. In person, Stone is nothing if not entertaining. Composing herself, she continues. "I don't get much work because I'm an old bag. I have the 'I'm 40' disease and not everybody in town thinks I can be a leading lady any more," says the woman who once famously declared, "If you have a vagina and an attitude, that's a deadly combination".
"When I turned 40, I was so happily running around going, 'I'm 40!' because I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. Everybody thought they'd misheard me. They thought I'd said, 'I have leprosy!'
"But I've noticed in the last couple of years there's been a mood shift. Now it's possible to be a grown-up woman and still be sexy. Frankly, I think that happened when Viagra became a popular and acceptable part of people's lives."
And the administering of Botox probably helped, too? She pauses. "Yes, I suspect so."
She leans forward. "I also think that Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher's relationship has been a huge aphrodisiac. That has been a terrific influence because I've been single now for about a year and no one over the age of 38 has asked me out on a date; 22-year-olds have asked me on dates!" she smiles. "It's an intriguing thing."
Stone is not currently in a serious relationship, however, she adds: "These days I'd rather spend time actually having sex rather than the idea of having sex."
Born in Pennsylvania, she began her career, like many actresses, as a model.
"I was a really bad model. It was that period of time where you had to be really skinny, do a lot of coke, be really tall and go to Studio 54," she recalls.
"But I still wanted to eat a lot. I'm kind of big naturally so I was not really a great model. I did a lot of what's called beauty modelling, which is face and hair and hands, teeth, jewellery, stuff like that. I was better at that," she says.
Stone's first celluloid appearance came as a fleeting moment as the blonde goddess glimpsed by Woody Allen in Stardust Memories. Before her career rose to the dizzying heights of fame playing Basic Instinct's ice-picking villain, Catherine Tramell, she garnered attention as Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife in Total Recall.
Although her power in Hollywood after Basic Instinct became legendary, her choices were not smart (despite her alleged membership of Mensa). They include Sliver, Intersection, The Quick and The Dead, for which she hand-picked Russell Crowe, although apparently the rough-and-tumble actor didn't get along with the glamorous diva.
She followed with a string of mediocre-at-best movies: Sphere, The Specialist, Simpatico, and The Muse. But one standout performance which confused the Hollywood community and discerning movie-goers alike was her Oscar-nominated turn in Casino, for iconic director Martin Scorsese in which she starred opposite Robert De Niro. And speaking of overdue critical acclaim, she garnered an Emmy nomination for her recent appearance on The Practice.
Wrinkle-free with an elfin-like haircut, her speech pattern is slightly disconcerting. Her pauses between sentences can be so elongated that one assumes she has finished that particular thought (and believe me, you don't want to interrupt Ms Stone), and she raises the volume on certain words for no apparent reason.
Having escaped near-death, she looks a picture of health, and, naturally, her life-altering experience has changed her perspective.
"I used to have goals that had a lot of ideas attached to them. Now I just want to be in my day, be thoughtful, be good and be a good person."
Her rehabilitation process didn't come easily. "When I came home from the hospital I was devastated with my recovery at first. I just couldn't get out of bed and Roan was so little. He came in my room and pushed the fireplace tools over. It was a sign that it was time for me to get out of the bed. I thought, 'Oh my God, he really wants me to get out. He's making this huge statement so I had better try and get up'."
Like any parent, even movie star divas learn to put another human being's needs before their own.
"Being a mother is a very humbling experience and I'm really grateful for that. I like the way my feet feel on the ground because of it. I can't imagine life without him. He's such a huge and present and powerful part of my life. All the other things are so far behind they don't really matter."
One career move that she does take personally is the proposed on-again, off-again Basic Instinct sequel which has been a legal battle for several years. It was only the night before this interview that she received word from her lawyers that the producers had settled.
"It's been a really bizarre journey to put this movie together. It's on, it's off, it's on, it's off, and now it's on again.
"And through all of it, I'm like, 'Doesn't anybody want to pay $12 to see me naked?"' she laughs, and takes a look down the front of her dress.
"Hey, everybody. It's still okay in there!"
This afternoon Stone hasn't displayed any of her alleged difficult reputation. She's charming, effortlessly glamorous and being in her presence feels somehow what it might be like to sit with Norma Desmond (the delusional faded movie star from Sunset Boulevard).
She epitomises true, heavyweight, old Hollywood charisma. But unlike Desmond, Stone knows exactly who she is.
"I had that period when I was consumed with the glamour bullshit and thought it was all fantastic," she smiles.
"I thought I was amazing. But now, I'm over me."
LOWDOWN
WHO: Sharon Stone, famous for playing sexy, strong-willed women
BORN: March 10, 1958, Meadville, Pennsylvania
KEY ROLES: Sphere (1998), Casino (1995), Sliver (1993), Basic Instinct (1992), Total Recall (1990)
TRIVIA: Is allergic to caffeine
STARRING: Catwoman opens on September 16
By MICHELE MANELIS
Hollywood's quintessential femme fatale, Sharon Stone, has reacquainted herself with her bad-girl persona in her role as an ageing model and nemesis of Halle Berry in Catwoman.
Stone's performances in recent years have been few and far between (with the exception of the little-seen thriller, Cold Creek Manor), with
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.